Coupe Speedo/Tach location and steering wheel location

[HRJ]

Based on the pictures of the coupe dash layout that I've seen, it appears that the Tach and Speedo are pretty much impossible to read and that the steering wheel is far away from the body and tilted up at angle like a bus. Do the pictures that I have seen reflect reality? If so, has anyone addressed them successfully?

When I place my order, I was thinking about asking for a non-cut dashboard and figuring out a way to get the speedo in "line of sight" front-and-center at the top (looking through the top of the steering wheel) and rely on a sequential light bar for RPM in place of a tach (something like the Shift-I unit).

As far as the steering wheel position, I'll just have to see what's involved.

What feedback do you, that already have Coupes, have?


Thanks

[Russ Thompson]

I found nothing wrong with the position of the steering wheel but you are correct about seeing the gauges. It's not hard to adapt to the gauges but getting a blank dash will help you correct that problem. I would also suggest making the dash 2 pieces with the top separate and removable so you can get to the the guts without having to pull the whole dash.

[John Dol]

Yes the gauges are hard to see. I've been working at making a different dash. Now have a spider dash that I'm modifying to fit the coupe. Hopefully I'll get my garage organized soon so I can actually get my car home.

John

[loeffler1]

Got over 4,000 s-miles on my coupe and don't have any problem seeing my speedometer or tach. However, I had lowered my column about 1" and I think that made all the difference. Sometimes when turning a right corner I lose sight of the lower numbers, but only momentarily.

[CHOTIS BILL]

Somewhere I saw a picture of where the steering wheel was rotated 180 degrees so that one spoke pointed up and the other 2 were angled down which gave a lot more visibility to the gauges.

Bill Lomenick

[jkrueger]

This is what I did to address those problems. I got a blank dash from Russ, and do take his advice about making it 2 pieces. Much easier to work on after the car is together.

[Carlos C]

FFR does not, and will not supply you a blank dash (I know, I tried). Other vendors do. I, just like John Dol, plan to go the difficult route and go with the Spyder GT dash. There is a small degree of steering wheel adjustment by using washers on the mounting points for the steering shaft.

Carlos

[CHOTIS BILL]

I had FPM Metal make a dash for me. I sent them a DXF file of what I wanted and I couldn’t be happier with it. Mine is engine turned but a would think they could make it out of standard material with or without the holes.

http://www.fpmmetals.com/

Bill Lomenick

[turbonut48]

I shifted my wheel one set of mounting holes clockwise and can see both guages easily.

The Nut