Under dash cover

Greetings to all - Last year I finished my tub but I never got all the parts from the vendor in FL back in 93, they went out of biz, I finished it with parts from others. The one thing not clear on any manuals is the under dash cover. Ive seen pretty nice interiors from you folks at this site, some nice paneling with event a mount for a radio, etc. Any advice on how to get this paneling done? Is this available or is another custom job like engine compartment paneling? Any ideas appreciated!

Are you asking about under the dashboard type of panel treatments, or door panels or??? It must be tough to look at the pics and then a a 'hole' and figure, "Hmmmm what could go there?"

I redid my dash and added a few things, and took away someothers, not quite letter perfect, but satisfactory for these tired eyes.

My car came with a tuner and a six changer CD mounted below the dash proper...I've been thinking about making a vanity panel out of something to sort of conceal them, yet keep them accessible.

Keep lookin' at the pics on the form, you'll get inspiration

I have a CMC body, bought, like you, in 1993!! and like you, I only got about 60% of what I ordered (although more stuff came after I took them to court).

I personally haven't seen any "under dash covers" although I had thought of making one up (custom) some time in the future to make that area much cleaner. IMHO, I would get some heavy-weight postor board and make up a template to cover the entire area to fit just so, then transfer that to either a sheet of aluminum or PVC to fit in the area AND make it easily removeable, then mount the whole thing with spring loaded, quarter-turn fasteners.

As for a radio mount, the guys in Best Buys' automotive installation department have a "generic" radio mount for under the dash which might be just the thing for you........check them out! You will have to either paint it (it's black PVC) or cover it with vinyl upholstery material, but that wouldn't be hard. You will, however, have to figure out a way to securely mount it up under the dash........

For my door panels, I used an inexpensive, Home Depot paneling (1/8" - 3/32" thick, I believe). It is flexible enough to bend to the contours of the door (it's curved in two dimensions). Over that I glued (3m-90 upholstery adhesive) 3/16" thick closed-cell foam padding (which looks suspiciously like anti-static packing material for computer boards in a roll of 40" wide pink foam material, but Pergo floor padding from Home Depot would work as well) and then carefully glued the vinyl material over that (using CMC's instructions), giving a nicely padded panel. I have no exposed fasteners on the doors, as I used blind clips as are used on American car door panels.

I fought the suggestion to install kick panels and now I think I should have gone the kick panel route, if for nothing else than for lower front speakers. However, if you don't go the kick panel route, you can simply glue the carpet material right onto the inner fender walls.

Under the carpeting (everywhere) I installed Home Depot rubber shop floor padding. It comes on rolls like a carpet (like 60" wide or more), is a little over 3/8" thick, cuts very easily with a utility knife and does a nice job of padding your floor areas (and cutting down on noise). You can easily make paper templates for fitting and cutting and can then glue it down with 3M or leave it loose (I glued mine). The carpeting glues to it nicely, too, but I left mine loose and simply attached snaps at the rear of the carpet peices.

My engine compartment already had the side panels and firewall installed, so all I had to make up were the rear, upper horizontal panel and the horse shoe shaped panel around the engine (mine are sheetmetal) and those I did from paper templates.

So I guess the short answer is that they are all custom panels, but they are all reasonably easy to do if you're resourceful.

Post if you need help.............gn

I have two red door panels that could go to someone's cause. They do have speaker cut outs.

I used rubber on the sides that are screwed into the metal frame supports. This offers a non-vibrating area for the speakers that are under the dash protected from rain... I used automotive naugahide on the door panels that have dash under padding for that soft feel.

Hey there's my lost hat.........:~)

Thanks for the comments appreciated, like many other things when dealing with a project like this, custom ideas and work are necessary. Paul, I was referring to under the dash area, something to cover the wiring spaghetti and stuff under dash that is visible from low angles and from the interior.
I share the same experience as Gordon with my speedster, my vendor was Classic Auto Replicars out of Miami. I dont know if they sold CMC bodies or what, but It took a lot of angry phone calls, letters and even a plane trip to get what I could without getting to court. I got moost of it but not all. Also I got my car in regular plain blue, (I wanted a more original color) but I was lucky to get a car at all, many others published complaints in KC magazine that they lost money and did not get anything from them. Anyhow I did not get all the parts and was not sure if there was a pre-fabricated cover part for under the dash. Gordon the home depot paneling with vinyl padded paneling glued with 3M super 90 from Home Depot is the way to go. Also maybe some "Lexan Acrilyc" would work, cut with a paper made pattern, aluminum is also an option and easier to bend if necessary. Mike's non vibrating rubber is a great idea to incorporate to this fabrication, your interior looks awesome! Thanks to all who replied with these ideas...

under dash radio box can be found at a boating accessory store

I have the radio box home made,it looks and fits nice.

I made a under dash cover out of scrap cardboard and painted it with fiberglass resin .

Then I got some mid 80s GM type headliner covering in a interior matching color and sewed up a cover and gluded it on the carboard.

Neat, Simple, and very easy !!! It uses 2 twist cap fasteners to hold it in place, same as the tonneau ,I think they are called Tetnes fasteners (I may be wrong).as to which fastener is which.

I've had friends see the interior and nobody has commented about it yeat.

They eather didn't notice?

Didn't realise, it was home made?

Or didn't care?

You realy don,t see it much It blends in .

Several of the recent broadcasts of "American Hot Rod" give good insights on how custom upholstry shops make custom door and side panels from scratch for Boyd Coddington's vehicles. The process is very much as the previous posts have described. And these were for $100k show rods! Ain't common sense wonderful?