The Gear Selector Actually Works!!

I was quite happy today to find out that my plans for using the throttle quadrant as the gear selector actually worked!  This is something that had always worked in theory in my head, but until you see it work, you never quite know how it will turn out.

It actually shifts as smooth as butter with very little effort, but still enough resistance that it won’t pop out of gear.

After getting the shifter to work, I turned my attention to getting the dash properly fitted.  I needed to create a perch to set the dash bottom on so that the shifter cable could run under the dash.  The 1 x 1 tubing made the perfect material.

I notched the top of this material because there are switches that sit VERY close to the bottom of the dash.  Without the cutout there wouldn’t be enough clearance to run the switchs.

Once this perch was in place I could start and do my marking and trimming of the sides of the dash so that they would fit.  I also needed to create a lip on both sides so that I could eventually run a couple screws through each side and secure them to the side walls of the cabin.

Some good old cereal boxes and aluminum foil as a release agent did the trick.

I also needed to fix the cutout around the steering column which I had hacked up previously just to get things to fit.  The side of the dash near your right leg also needed to be extended towards the driver in order to properly install the dash panels.

After everything was mocked up I added a couple of layers of fiberglass matt and resin.  With a little bit of trimming I was happy with the fit.  It will still need some finishing work with some body filler… but for dash panel mock-up work it’ll do just fine.

Next I’ll make some mounting points on the side walls of the cabin and then fit the top of the dash.  I’ll basically end up repeating the same steps with the dash top to fill the gaps with fiberglass and trim off the excess.