Tri 5 Lower Dash Extension

[hotrod1]

Lets see what you guys did for a lower dash extension. Pics Please. I am sure that there are some very cool ideas out there, and I would like to see them.

[ChuckDriver]

Here's a few I saved over the years.

[Speedbumpauto]

What I did. Wanted the glove box and couldn't figure out how to get it to open/close with something under it that looked right.

[hotrod1]

These are all great! We need more please!!!

[_Ogre]

look in my build

edit: forget it. you only want tri5 dashes
tri5 is a car design, 3 years of the same basic car
55-59 cabs are all the same, you could always use five5

[mgchevyparts]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

look in my build

edit: forget it. you only want tri5 dashes
tri5 is a car design, 3 years of the same basic car
55-59 cabs are all the same, you could always use five5

Exactly, the term Tri5 applies to 55 56 57 Chevy cars not trucks. Truck platform was 55 56 57 58 59
No big deal but just one of those little mis-used things that bugs me

[Dan in Pasadena]

Ford guys have a cow when somrone refers to the Tri five Chevys as "shoeboxes". They claim exclusive right to use that term on what? '49-50 Fords.

Personally, I'm not a Ford guy though I like certain Fords. So screw 'em!

[Dan in Pasadena]

Anyone know if someone is producing these dash extensions, or are they all custom made?

[hotrod1]

If tri five just refers to cars, then I am mistaken. I was told that it refers to 55, 56, and 57. I would like to see 55, 56, 57. 58. and 59 trucks.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

look in my build

Again

[hotrod1]

Ogre

Your looks great just like the rest of your truck. I imagine that you spent a lot of time building everything out of fiberglass. From a aesthetics perspective, it was worth it.

[_Ogre]

Unless your an extraordinary metal worker, fiberglass is a lot easier to form. Hard to post pics from my tablet, look at how the ends of the fascia curve to the dash. Easy to do with cardboard and mailing tube

[Old Crow]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Ford guys have a cow when somrone refers to the Tri five Chevys as "shoeboxes". They claim exclusive right to use that term on what? '49-50 Fords.

Personally, I'm not a Ford guy though I like certain Fords. So screw 'em!

Those Ford guys are weird indeed. They got all upset when I called my '61 F-100 a "step side". Sorry, I grew up when all those '50's trucks were called step sides, regardless of brand.
Besides, that thing of the side of the truck between the cab and the rear fender sure looks more like a step than a "flare" to me.

[ChuckDriver]

From an earlier model.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Reviving an ancient thread.

Any one now making under dash valances? Either commercially or custom making them for others?

[mr48chev]

I haven't seen anything that I took notice of.

Out in one of the sheds I have an under dash panel from a Ford Maverick of unknown year and unknown trim level. I think the car was on a piece of property that the guy I was working for at the time bought and I stripped some parts off some of the vehicles there before I called my friend who has a wrecking yard and has a hulk hauler license to come get all of the vehicles before my boss had a guy bury them with a bulldozer. It saved my boss from paying the guy a few hundred dollars to dig a hole and push them in it and cover them up. There was a pretty solid international travelall in the mix and my buddy probably made enough profit off it let alone the scrap value of everything else he hauled out of there.

I'll see if I can dig that panel out of the shed and see if it is still worth looking at as that was over 25 years ago but the idea was to put it in my 48.

[Dan in Pasadena]

I think of this valance every once in awhile. I HATE that I have to consider making a form or "buck" to fiberglass. I haven't used fiberglass since high school and I wasn't any good at it then!

BUT, we didn't have YouTube videos to show us how to do it then either.

Right now I'm thinking thin plywood, maybe 1/4" for the long straight center portion and then either cardboard to follow the curve of each end of the dash or maybe a thinner plywood. The top; where it attaches to the bottom of the dash has to be set at a right ante to the valance face because I'm sure 90* wouldn't be quite right. And a narrow bottom flange to give the whole thing some rigidity.

I don't know what is used for a release agent these days. Back then we used anything we had like motor oil or even vaseline - and that probably contributed to the crappy outcomes, ha ha.

[mr48chev]

What about carving one out of foam and glassing the foam as you would a surfboard but only on three sides and then removing the foam?

[leegreen]

If you use foam for a mold you will have to use epoxy resin, which is 4 or 5 times the price. Polyester resin will eat the mold. if you seal the mold up well, maybe by shrink wrapping it it might work, but the polyester is good at finding seams and attacking the underlying foam.

I often use cardboard for a mold, masking tape with packing tape on top works pretty good, the fiberglass and packing tape peel apart more or less.

I made a fiberglass glove box for my '52 that is a lot larger than the factory. Started with this mold for bottom, reworked it for the top, stuck the two halves together and done. But this did not need to be pretty. can't find my pictures of the finished box. I chose fiberglass here as it was easier to make a carboard model to fit inside the space available than it would have been to shape and fit a metal box.

A suggestion for fiberglass....use the bottom edge of the same year truck to lay up a part, pull it off when hardened but still 'green' and flexible. finish it, then install it set back below the existing metal dash, like the ones in post 2 but with a curve to match dash.

I also made the small under dash panel for switches out of metal, this was just formed on a stake dolly with patches welded on the ends to fill them in.


I'd probably go metal under the dash for a full width piece, easier to get a nice straight panel than all the sanding and filling a fiberglass part would take. The one chuckdriver showed in post 14 sets the bar pretty high!

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

What about carving one out of foam and glassing the foam as you would a surfboard but only on three sides and then removing the foam?

That might work except I've never carved a surfboard (or anything else) and have no idea where I'd buy surfboard foam anyway. Still it's an idea.

As I am typing this I realize I have a couple large pieces of styrofoam that came in the packaging for the generator I just bought nd I haven't broken it up for the trash yet. I PROBABLY could salvage that to use if I cut it very carefully, assemble it into a long piece the size of a valance. I know it basically disolves with certain kinds of solvents/chemicals so I'd have to cover it or coat it with something the resin and glass couldn't get through. Ideas?

[Dan in Pasadena]

leegreen - After I wrote post #20 THEN I see you warned about polyester vs. epoxy resin - not that I know the difference nor where to buy either. I'd likely order it from Amazon though I know Home Depot carries some basic fiberglass supplies.

As for the comment about making a long pice out of metal, I plan to use a thin plywood for the long straight piece - IF I don't use the styrofoam I'm nation in post #20 above - and MAYBE I can "back score it" so it will bend to follow the curve of the dashboard on the ends. But if that doesn't work I would likely use cardboard and wrap that in masking tape like your glove box example.

What's the purpose for covering the masking tape with packing tape? I assume you mean the clear type that is usually 2" wide? Is it just to keep the resin from penetrating the masking tape?

I expect this project to be a bit of a fustercluck because I haven't messed with fiberglass in basically forever. But it should work if I don't totally mess. I still have the ugly basic little black plastic vent housings that came with the Vintage Air AC unit. I just don't like them.

[leegreen]

if you use just masking tape it will end up part of the fiberglass, on the inside of your project, sticky side out, maybe not a big deal. It does make getting part and mold apart harder.
packing tape, the stuff you get at an office store, pulls off the fiberglass cleanly for the most part. There may be some mingling of adhesive and resin along the edges of the tape.

Both are just a makeshift way of getting this done. But for a quick one off part that you are going to spend time sanding anyway.....it gets the job done. Keep in mind that if you carve a male blank for the dash piece the taped surface is going to be on the inside of your finished product and you are going to be sanding/finishing the other side.

As mr48chev said, lots of videos out there of people that know what they are doing making nice stuff.

If woodworking is more your pleasure go for it, just seal it up on all sides so it does not get wet and shed the finish. A nice quality piece of wood varnished might look pretty classy

[leegreen]

hmm, woodgrained dash:

[Dan in Pasadena]

Most definitely a "NO!" on a wood grain dash.

Thanks for the info on the tape use.