I did in fact use the original bar from the bmw. It was surprisingly simple consisting of more or less 3,5f round tubing with a small bracket attached on each side with two bolt holes in them -thats about it!
Ended up needing only to weld up one simple bracket on each side to attach the dash after -of course a lot of trimming/tweaking/cutting to make it sit right in the car. I`ll put up some pics of those later also:-)
Not so much of an update..Mostly getting out rest of the "infected"areas....
In the last pic you can see the raw bracket for the dash on the right side. It will be straightened up and fully welded while the cowl is opened up. Also some minor brackets will be fabbed to support plastic panels under the dash plus some other small stuff. I just wish the rust was long gone, so i could consentrate fully on the fun stuff instead:-)
Not so much... Been waiting for my new complete cowl panel to finish off the remaining rust.. I will post some pics of my subframe tomorrow. We finished that this week. I also got my new Flaming river column and my Touch Start Keyless Dash Ignition System from them as well. Since the Bmw dash has a keyless start system originally, i decided to try the same path myself... Oh and by the way: Flaming river?.... OUTSTANDING quality parts and customer support!!!!!!
Finally!!
A small update- my seats arrived and just had to put one in to see how it will turn out. I think it looks pretty darn good! What do you guys think?..
Seems there wont be much clearance sideways towards the center console, but i think we`ll fix that. Havent tried the back seat yet, but will soon:-)
Interesting dash mod. You've probably already figures this out but hanging the dash is the easy part. If your planning on using the remaining BMW controls (headlight switch and environmental) to pull of the clean conversion, there's usually a lot of head-scratching to do. So far, everything is looking good.
One this that I can see from the pictures that I wonder about is the height of the gauge cluster surround (i.e. the top of the dash above the cluster. when you sit in the seat, how's the visibility?
Thats an issue that has been debated heavily around the shop. Its not a problem per say, but since the dash is higher than stock in that area it will somewhat reduce visibility. I have decided to compromise and not lower the seats as much as i wanted to at first, just to compensate a little. It really isnt a big issue thouh even if it sounds like it. The dash is about 3 inches taller than stock in that area, so i think i can live with that:-)
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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