Fixed the Dash Bar

Everything went well on my previous dash fitting attempt except for one small detail…. The gauges wouldn’t clear the dash bar which ties the two sides of the cage together at the front of the cabin.  Good times 😦

Over the course of the week I spent an evening fabricating a replacement bar. This morning I reinforced it by plating the seams where it was butt welded to give it a bit more strength.

The goal of the replacement bar is to give me lots of room behind the gauges and create a bar that will be likely used to tie in the the steel on the front of the cabin.  I tried to eyeball up where my track will have to go for the the front canopy wheel and leave enough room for everything to fit.  We’ll see how good my eyeballing was when we get around to that part of the project.

I also added in some more dash supports along the top which I’ll be able to use to make some dash mounting points.  Hopefully I can get all my dash mounting points finished tomorrow.

After welding in the new notched piece I cut out the problematic 2 x 2 tubing from the existing dash bar.  Everything fits beautifully now.

My air ride compressor, tank, valves and controller have also now been ordered along with a couple more gauges to fill the last two open slots on the dash.  More on that topic when all the parts arrive 🙂