Fabrication of repro kick panel under steering column

amg5872

amg5872

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With little knowledge and even less skill, I am planning as an experiment to see if I can fabricate a steering column kick panel for my 1973 e3. As you can see I have removed the panel from the car and removed the foam from the back of the panel. I am wondering if anyone can recommend a particular material to replace the cardboard frame, and also if anyone has ideas on how to fabricate the curve that accomodates the steering column. Basically, I am asking how the hell I do this. Unfortunately, DeQuincey has not yet posted the authoritative thread on this issue. Any ideas? Thanks.

AG
 

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My `73 coupe is metal with some kind of thick foam finished with flocking inside. Perhaps when they included circuit breakers it had to be stiffened. Our `70 2800 has what you show, pressboard material.
 
If this is the same guy, Google tells me you built the Blastolene. (As an aside, I was at Barrett-Jackson in 2010 when a Blastolene was auctioned off. That thing was phenomenal.) Something tells me I can't afford your services for my e3 panel. Do you think a newbie with no skills could make a workable repro out of aluminum?
 
amg5872 said:
Do you think a newbie with no skills could make a workable repro out of aluminum?
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No, stretching aluminum to create that hump - especially without sheetmetal tools - would be tough. If you must fabricate it, use fiberglass, perhaps using the old part to make a mold.

Why not just find a good, used panel?
 
imho, its much easier to find a very good early type (pre '74) panel than it is to find a great 74+ panel. and there are more of them. perhaps the very early were pressboard panels ... i thought the one that i sold was metal though - (Gransin what is the base of that panel?) and the good news is that there are more of the pre '74. i know the '74+ has a metal base as Chris has described of his '73. the '74+ tends to delaminate from the metal
 
Haven't been able to find a used panel and in the meantime thought it would be fun and somewhat trivial to make one. But apparently not. And the vinyl's off...
 

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That would be fantastic. I should point out again that this is for an e3. I thought it safe to post in the e9 projects section as I was initially just seeking advice on potential repro materials. Apologies if this caused any confusion, I'm hoping that parts car is an e3.

AG
 
amg5872 said:
That would be fantastic. I should point out again that this is for an e3. I thought it safe to post in the e9 projects section as I was initially just seeking advice on potential repro materials. Apologies if this caused any confusion, I'm hoping that parts car is an e3.

AG
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oooooops, i missed that one.
 
amg5872 said:
And the vinyl's off...
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Wow, that thing is pretty crude. I was picturing one piece of formed board. Instead it looks like two pieces, with the dimple created by a separate piece of folded board. I was thinking of duplicating that by using a single piece of aluminum stretched to form the dimple. But now that I see how BMW made it from cardboard, I guess you could copy their design in aluminum, making it from two pieces perhaps pop riveted together.

The foam that BMW applied over the board hid its crude construction. I suppose that foam rubber could be glued to your home made form to pad the seam between the two pieces. But I'm not sure how you'd get the outer layer of naugahyde to conform to the odd shape.
 
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