My 63 Scout 80 Build

[Tres03]

Which Auto Meter ones did you go with?

[db1115]

Originally Posted by Tres03

Which Auto Meter ones did you go with?

Arctic White

[Tres03]

Those are going to look cool. Have you put them into the guage panel yet?

[db1115]

Originally Posted by Tres03

Those are going to look cool. Have you put them into the guage panel yet?

Nope...theyre sitting in my office still boxed up. I need to paint the dash and panel before I put them in.

[Tres03]

Well what are you waiting for? I thought you would have painted it when you painted the rest of the truck. I cant wait to see yours done, it really is looking great.

[tj.brewster]

I posted a reply on binder bench, and but I'm impatient.

First of all nice truck and nice work on it. If you have any more detailed pics of the dash install that would help me a bunch. ALso who was your source for the gas cap??

Thanks

[Tres03]

Hey TJ, Here are some pictures that I hope will explain it to you a little better.

This is the back of the dash. You will have 4 holes with screws that connect the defrost to the inside of the dash. under the 4 holes there is a lip. That connects the dash to the bottom of the windshield of a scout 800. You have to cut that lip off. Here is a picture with it cut off.



Now you will have to build something to connect the dash to the truck. What I did was take 3 peices of 4' x 1.5" bar stock and weld them together to creat a mounting surface. One peice is welded to where the old scout 80 dash bolted to the truck. The next peice is welded at an angle which follows the angle of the windshield when bolted down. The next peice is weld to that piece to create a little lip for the dash to sit into.

[Tres03]

The next thing you will have to do is make a lower dash mounting bracket. I did this by using a peice of 2" x 2" square tubing that a cut in half and welded a nut onto the backside of it. This made it a u shaped bracket so the little arms of the dash could bolt down to it. You will also have to cut off the old dash mounting bracket that is welded to the truck. Cut this off as close as you can to the truck using an angle grinder and thin cutting blade. Keep this piece because you can reuse this later.





Next you will move onto the winshield part of the fun. As you know there is a tab welded onto the winshield that has a hole in it. When the bolt is in it keeps the winshield from folding. Well you cant use it like that in a 800 dash so we move it to the top. Cut the tab flush with the bottom of the windshield. Cut a new piece of 1/4" bar stock. Weld it to make this new arm. Then weld piece you cut off to the top of it. You have to weld the top piece on with the windshield in the up position. And only tack it for now. You will end up adjusting later.



Then you have to make a bracket that this will bolt to. I used a combination of 16 guage and 1/8" thick plate. The bracket not only welds to the truck but also to the channel you made earlier for the top of the dash.

The old mounting bracket for the bottom of the dash you cut off earlier can be welded to this piece to make it easy on you. That is what I did. Make the bracket to look like this. Keep in mind you need have a dash sittin on top of this bracket so you will measure a bunch. Line it up with the top arm before welding. Only tack weld because you will end of moving it around.

[Tres03]

If you have a dash pad you will need to cut a u shaped hole in it. I used a razor blade but I will have to finish it off with a dremmel to smooth it out. You will also need to drill a hole in the top of your dash on each side for the mounting bolts to go thru. This is the way I have it not but I may change it later and cut out a u shape so the arm doesn't sit on top of the dash. Also in the top picture you can see where I added a piece of metal. This is to cover a hole in the dash that you would see when the windshield is folded down.

[Tres03]

I also put in the new shock towers this weekend. I put in the same shock towers as Davis did. Oh, and I finished the dash mounting brackets for the bottom of the dash this weekend as shown in the pictures. The pictures didnt turn out so well so I will take others later. I spent most of the day sunday cleaning the work bench and garage up so I can rebuild the PS Gearbox. I will either start the rebuild on the gearbox this week or this weekend depending on time.