hey guys,
Its still in the design phase.
The dash kept changing because the touch screen size kept changing and the dash cluster as well.

I've just bought a bicycle to ride to work so the car is officially off the road till its finished.

By some miracle I found a vortec motor over here for under $4000 ($600 inc. shippin to be exact) so I am now settled on the cluster and ecu etc.
I'm going to do a 0411PCM set up, get it running on my 350tpi, then put in a beefy motor later.
I'm putting an ex-internet cafe 15" touchscreen panel, along with the dualcore incar-pc, and building the dash around that.
I'll take some pics next weekend for you guys and post them up as we go.
The final decision is to use the existing dash pad to keep it looking stock from outside, and then mount that on metal frame.
The frame will pretty much be a rectangle box welded together, then bolted to the firewall, with bracing going to the centre console.

Then I'll screw/bolt the touch panel, instrument clusters etc to the frame, and when its all how i want it, a simple piece of black perspex will be cut, beveled and place over the top of the ugly bits, so it will be a simple but very effective design.
The aftermarket air con and in car pc will be mounted into it also, but the incar pc will be mounted at the very back center, and the aircon will be partially in the engine bay. As the room is not needed on a RHD car, I'll get a small box welded onto the firewall to house 1/3 to 2/3rds of the box in there to free up more space in the dash.

It all begins from next weekend now so stay tuned.

 

Hey Guys,
Well I finally got the car waterproof after god knows how long, and started on the dash mods.
We welded up a simple frame from 5mm flatbar, might be a bit of overkill, but I wanted it to be very sturdy and hold everything i want in there.
We just made up a box for the dash, and then a frame for the touch screen, and welded those 2 together. Next bit is to weld the DIN cradle to the bottom of the screen frame, and weld a bar across for the gauge cluster to attach to.
Once I've worked out where everything is going, I'll take it to a fabrication shop some where and get them to make up a front cover out of perspex or something and cut the holes for the screen and gauges etc properly.
Then I'll have everything exactly where i want it, and a face plate that can easily come off to access everything.

The hardest part now will just be rewiring everything. Thanks to the brilliant design for the third-gen's gauges, I'll have to rewire all of that and solder onto the plastic circuit board, and at the same time I'm putting a holden '03 VY commodore fuse box in to upgrade the 25 year old wiring, and hopefully eliminate a few pesky shorts and failing circuits.

But it's finally moving forward.
I've got pics but the basterds at work blocked photobucket, so I'll upload them when i get home.

 

Ran across a deal and I'm thinkin of pickin up a completed dash.. any updates?

 

Yeah actually, just started again this week and have pretty much finished the frame.

It's been through many trials, strating with the commodore dash and then moving away from that and trying to make a complete dash, and I've now gone full circle and ended up with a hybrid of sorts.

The Commodore dash was my first choice because it had the curves and looks of a more modern dash, and seem to fit pretty well except for the sides, but the 15" touchscreen monitor which is the main reason for the dash mod wouldn't fit.

I made the other frame up and after toying with the idea of fibreglassing all the panels up, I decided it was just going to be way too much work to get it looking good.

So I chopped off the passenger and driver frame leaving just the monitor frame, and then took the commodore dash which I still had, and chopped that in half.

Then just welded and bent up a new frame for each half to attach onto the centrepiece. It's all been welded up now and ready to trial fit and install the mounting brackets.

I'll be doing that on the weekend. Once it's in the car the only 2 remaining things is the wiring which should be relatively easy but time consuming, and having a fibreglass fascia made up to cover the monitor surround and dash top. But I've taken some pics and I'll try to take some of it in the car this weekend.

 

Any progress, I have been watching and taking note of your issues.

I've still got my dash in the shed just working on the undercarriage at the moment.
All the good stuff....striped and repainted, rolled guards, new sound deadener, Fuel lines, filter, pump and relocating the filler.

 

+1

 

That looks awesome! Too bad the steering wheel is on the wrong side lol

 

Hey Guys,

Yeah it's been a while, but I've still been working on it, got side tracked with rewiring most of the dash and cabin electrics, and replaced the fuse panel with a new commodore panel to get rid of the electric gremlins i was dealing with.

The sad news is the commodore dash is a miss... at least with a 15" touch-screen in the middle, when i went to put it all in, the dash was a few inches longer than it should be to right in order to line up with the steering shaft, and too much gap on the left.

Alas, I've moved on to MKIII or 4 or whichever I'm up to now.

The frame has had some extra bits welded on, and bolts up nicely to the firewall and mounting plates.

My next and only hurdle now is covering the frame.

I've tried my hand at fibreglassing, but looking more towards getting some plexiglass cut and put on top, chuck it in one of the work ovens and let gravity mould it for me, then cover it with soft foam and cover with black vinyl to finish it off.

But that's the tricky bit, I'm also looking at just giving it to a professional to get the asthetics looking at a level which i don't have to be ashamed of.

I'll put some pics up of the final frame in the next day or two.