Alex,
On the incompleteness of your dash..... I had the same dilemma as to what to do except it was for a GT40. With mine I installed my cage and then tried to figure out what to do. Fortunately for me I had a RHD dash. So I bought a LHD one and used the corners of the old RHD dash to experiment with. Trying to get those areas filled in is a B***h. But I used a lot of painters tape after many cuts in the old dash corners to get the right outline for the dash around the Roll cage. You could do it as well with just cardboard and tape to get the outline and then cut the dash to fit. If you make some mistakes,,, which I am sure you will, there is fiberglass to make the repairs. It will all be covered with leather anyway and won't show. The trick is to get straight lines in the front section along the inside of the cage, as you still will have to be able to get the dash out occasionally. This area is hard to get support for the additional pieces. Here is what i did to get that support.
First I cut the dash out as mentioned before and transferred it to my permanent dash. I then took an additional amount out of both pieces for the thickness of the leather.
Then I had some old right angle stock from the big box store used to support shelving. It already had some nice holes in it for the bolts I planned to use. I straightened the right angles out. In the main part of the dash I measured where the holes were and drilled a hole to match the angle stock. Then I counter sunk from the top enough for the head of the bolt that I was going to use to sit flush with the top of the dash. If the dash is thin at that point, add some fiberglass and grind the head of the bolt down to about 1/8".It may have had a little bit above the dash, but that just meant to leave a little piece of the padding out over the bolt. This bolt and nut held the straightened angle piece in but not so tight it would not move. Put some locktight blue on the thread and snug the nut down to where it will still move. This will hold the nut in place. This allows it to swing out after the dash is installed.
It will sit holding the extra piece in place and if need be can have the same option as the main dash with the nut in the dash piece instead of the bolt head. This is then screwed down to hold it in place. If you want it to look like a seam as in the dash, then just sew two lines of stitching along the edges of the two pieces and it will look like another seam instead of a joint.
Here is what it looks like from the inside and with the glass, which hides most of it.
I think you should finish off the dash, for the simple reason that you are building a nice car. You took the effort to do the dash in leather and left out the finishing touches. Leaving the exposed underside of the dash is not what you want people to see. If you didn't care how people saw it then why do the dash at all. Leave it all raw and "racey"!!
This isn't a criticism just motivation and inspiration to finish off the small details. That is what makes a real difference between a good car and a great car. Detailing is what makes one car standout over another.
Good luck with your build.
Bill
