The carbon fiber dash is ‘new’ for the 25th Anniversary car, it’s pretty slick looking but also not very forgiving in implementation. The original design is an aluminum dash, and you can buy it pre-cut or design your own. The benefit here is that you can wrap your dashboard with leather or other materials which can hide any ‘accidents’ during your process. Carbon fiber is what you get with this dash, it can splinter, rip, and create a ton of dust… plus the template that FFR provides is ‘iffy’ at best for layout. Not saying it’s a bad setup, it just could be better!
The CF instructions are for the 427 Roadster setup (middle one below), but I like the 427 S/C layout (on top) so of course that means I have to do a whole different layout and found some great details online to help with this. The CF dash has a drop down section similar to the AC 289 Sport which will also need more changes. The pic on the right shows FFR’s instructions to mark for the steering shaft. And of course, this is for just the bare shaft – not the Russ Thompson turn signal which expands this hole quite a bit. This caused some frustration on alignment.
Measure twice, cut/drill once
My son and I measured, marked, measured again (probably 5 times) and set the layout. Remember, this is unforgiving carbon fiber, once it’s cut, no going back!
Drilling out the main gauges with a hole saw is quick and easy. You can already see that with the RT Turn signal mounted my CEL light hole is conflicting with the dash hoop. Modifications need to happen.
Had to widen and lengthen the hole for the turn signal. I swapped the mount underneath the steering shaft mount to lower the overall height. There is a rather large gap that is presented now since the FFR template doesn’t account for the RT Turn signal. My son is a whiz at 3D printing, so he fabbed up a coverup for the gap. Turned out great!
I believe the dash is nearly in place. I may move it up a bit more to totally hide the dash hoop but at least there’s wiggle room now. The drop center portion of the dash is next. I’ll be adding the buttons for driving lights, hazards, horn, and 3 A/C controls. I’ll also have to add 1 hole for the wiper switch next to the speedo. Still deciding on whether I put the lightswitch on the dash or under the dash.
