T-Bird Project Part 15 - And Now For Something Completely Different! - Page 2

We also cut a length of 90-degree sheet metal to fit the inside of the console, just over the tops of the gauges, and welded it to the panel. This piece would serve to stiffen the console and act as a shelf under the A/C unit.

Little welds are much easier to remove than one continuous seam, so tacking is the way to go.

After a little grinding we had our basic shape.

The stiffener piece all welded in.

After welding a couple extra pieces of sheet metal to the inside mounting area of the console (to help stiffen it where the hood and choke cables are mounted) we coated the entire piece with body filler and sanded everything smooth. We wanted to be sure the finished piece was flawless, since it has to look just as good as the dash. This required several applications of filler to take out all the little dents and scratches.

It's now ready for primer.

More Metal Work

Remember the hood release? It's a T-shaped chromed handle that's stamped with the word "hood." In order for the new choke cable to look reasonably good we needed to create a similar-looking handle for it. We decided on using aluminum since we could cut and shape it easily and then polish it to a chrome-like sheen. Taking a piece of 3/8 stock aluminum, we drew a handle and cut it out on the bandsaw.

Yes, it's a wood cutting saw but aluminum doesn't dull the blade very much.

Once we had the basic shape we started filing away to create the curvature. This took about a half hour and a little patience, but the finished handle looked pretty good. Before polishing we clamped the handle into the vise and drilled a hole in the bottom. This was tapped to the same thread as we created on the end of the choke cable.

T-Bird Project Part 15 continued on page 3