Yet another buggy build, here goes...........

[oprn]

There is an option I had not thought of! The speedo cable is long enough to do that then?
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We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[Luftwagen 2180]

Yup. The pivot point is about 8 inches behind the dash face. The dash is a large formed angle iron with the wiring mounted on the bottom and the switches and gauges mounted on the front. I used 1/8" plywood paneling for appearance on the front. It hinges off a piece of 1" square tube that is bolted in as a brace from side to side with nuts welded in the ends. The bolts go through the body and the hood. The steering column also rests on it. Really sturdy, since I use the steering wheel to haul my butt out of the seat. The speedo cable actually goes just under the tube, so the cable is a little too long when I drop the dash. In hindsight I would've left a little more of the original dash on the top to hold the speed nuts in.

[jakerot]

wow that looks neat Luft. nice work

………so planned it all out to make a hood, then decided against i, for now, as much as I would like it. It would require re doing my (hopefully) completed fuel tank to relocate the nozzle. should have made the decision to cut the hood much sooner in my build. would have saved a bunch of electrical work as well. oh well.

so decided to have a stripper party…….me, some refreshing beverages, and some strippers. spray, tub, and jug, to name a few……… used them all.

was pretty neat peeling back the layers and seeing the history of the body. what i learned:
original gel coat was metal flake green
for some reason someone at some time decided to sand most of the gel coat off the hood
next paint was a blue color all over
final color was red body / black interior
three different windshield mounting hole sets

another thing i realized. whoever cut the holes for the tail lights must have been bombed; they aren’t centered, not even close, off by like 2”. going to fill these in eventually and cut new holes. looks like this body had a few different tail light sets over its life as well

[jakerot]

time to fill in the fuel filler neck hole in the hood from a prior life. previous gas tank had filler where the fuel sender goes.

been holding on to an old fiberglass seat to use as a patch donor.

cut out a piece to fill the hole and glassed it in.

been looking at this damm hole in the hood since i started this build…….was sick of looking at it……..

now it’s gone, so sorta a sentimental moment……hated that damm hole.

[jakerot]

still working on hood fit up

made some wood blocks to go inside the dash to act as spacers. they would go between the hood and the windshield mounts so the windshield mounts didn’t have to flex as much when attaching the windshield

glassed them in lightly for now. going to reinforce the front of the hood and dash.

going to address the dashboard as well and start filling in holes and repairing damaged areas all over the hood.

the fiberglass party has begun………….. getting the body and chassis disassembled so i can work on fiberglassing areas of the body as well.

fun times

[jakerot]

more progress……

fiberglassed these wood spacers inside the dash. it’s done now but no pix yet

slit the front corners to match the chassis contour. it’s also done but no pix yet

the rear bench was warped. wanted to flatten it. should have addressed it much earlier in the build. structurally is in place just need to clean up the fiberglass work.

kept stripping the inserts and snapped a windshield bolt, so upgraded the inserts to 5/16” rod couplers, cut in half

cleaned up the corners where the windshield and dashboard meet. countersunk the bolts.

i’m almost done with the hood. will add finished pix shortly.

[jakerot]