Cleaning out the rats nest

Since I quit my job Wednesday, I figured I might as well park the jeep in the shade & get the rats nest sorted out that's behind the dash & also be a good time to install the Summit heater I bought a couple weeks ago & patch up the various holes in the fire wall & move the instrument gauges to better locations ...

What a mess!!! The original dash plate that was behind the diamond plate looked as though it had been in a war & the plan right now is to cut most of the center out of the original & tack weld/epoxy a replacement panel over the remains of old panel...any thoughts???

 

Yea, you could do that. Or you could find some 18 ga. cut out the bad and weld in the new 18 ga. and repair the factory dash. Or just make a new factory dash out of 18 or 16 ga.

 

I'm with Howard. It's a simple swap. Why not make it right?

 

I'm in no hurry & will probably wait a while because I'd like to get some better gauges before I do it. Right now my priority was sorting out the rats nest, re-locating the fuse block, mounting the heater & figuring out how to best connect the defrost ducting...I pretty much got all that done yesterday & am gonna temporarily put the dash back on till I can find a cheap piece of sheet to recover the panel. I'm taking pics along the way, but my computer port for the SD card is boogered up...I'll find a way to post them when I'm done...today I think I'll go cruise through pick & pull & see what kind of unappreciated treasures I can find...