MTFCA Forum

Does anyone have a good clear photo or drawing of how this shield is to be installed? Is it supposed to screw to the front floorboard, and do the ends need to be bent? Mine is a new fun projects part, and a sheet of historical info is included but no actual instructions. Thanks in advance, Bill

Bill:

The 1911 used a 2 pce dash until very late when the 1912 one pce dash began to be used. The dash shield if made by Fun Projects is made exactly per Ford drawings and consists of a "Dash Shield" as the larger part that is totally flat and the "Dash Shield Guide" as the thinner part which has an offset around the top edge. They come as a kit with the correct screws as well. The Dash shield is mounted to the front most flat edge of the top floor board. Screws hold the shield in place there and it should end up pointing straight up parallel with the dash inside surface. The Dash Shield Guide is mounted to the bottom edge of the inside surface of the dash. The pilot holes for the screw locations were already drilled into the dash so I shall presume you have a dash NOT built exactly to Ford drawing for that part. Now if the "arc" of the bottom cutout portion of the dash is placed correctly it will NOT match either edge radius of the Dash Shield guide. The screw holes were located on the dash exactly 1/4" above the bottom arc edge of the dash. Use a pencil circle drawing COMPASS and set it to make a pencil arc on the people side of the dash such that the pencil arc winds up being parallel to the lower dash edge but 1/4" away from that edge. Place the Dash Shield Guide over the holes and see if they all wind up centered on that line made at the 1/4" dimension. If it all lines us then the center hole in the guide would be located at the exact center of the wood dash if you drop a vertical line at the center of the lower dash edge. Do NOT drill pilot holes until you are exactly sure you have that part in the correct place and are holding it there with masking tape at first to check the fit of the DASH SHIELD as it slides up under the Dash Shield Guide. If It looks like a lousy fit then your dash is a copy of a copy of a copy perhaps. Here is what I would then do if that is the case. Lay the guide on a flat surface and slip the shield under it such that the guide and shield are both laying flat on something that is flat. Tape it together with masking tape to keep both the shield and guide together as one piece. Now put the assembly on the front edge of the floor board and mark hole locations on the dash hopefully with the center hole of the guide landing somewhere along the vertical centerline of the dash. If the dash already has a final finish then put a piece of wide masking tape along a measured center distance on the dash and make your pencil line on the tape so after you confirm the hole locations you can drill through tape an into the dash. test drill your pilot hole in scrap wood to make sure you are not going to twist the dash screws off accidentally. Hope my explanation didn't lose you but a correctly made dash is very important and dashes that I have made for people come with those holes predrilled per Ford drawings so both parts are made to fit. The top floor board is probably the easiest part to make OVER again now if things don't line up. You can't make it work right or fit right if there is a huge gap between edge of top floor board and the rear flat surface of the dash. If the dash itself is not made of 5/8 solid wood core (3/4" thick total) or Baltic Birtch core with 3/4" thick total then you might want to consider remaking the dash is things are really off. Send me an email if you need to but be aware that next Wednesday I leave for 2 tours back to back and won't return until mid June.

Hope this helps.

Thank you John, many times over! What is the restorer's best friend? No, not 0000 steel wool. It is 3M delicate surface masking tape (the purple stuff) as wide as you can find it. I bought a dash from Langs and put 2 weeks into finishing it before I figured out how to do it to my satisfaction. It is firmly in place so all of this measuring and drilling must be done in situ. I realize I will probably have to remove the coil box yet again, but please don't make me take the dash out yet again!

To the other newbies, the most frustrating part of a restoration is figuring out the sequence of tasks. This is a case in point. I would have done this installation long ago had I known, but thanks be that John has seen my post and weighed in with such a complete answer. My hat is off to him and this forum, Bill

IF your 1911 Dash does not have a radius on the outer edge then the correct brass trim is not going to come out right so if you do have to take off the dash you can put the correct radius on the outer edge at the same time so that the brass trim fits correctly. Does your dash have the 20 degree choke rod hole in the dash drilled already? Not having a radiused outer edge nor the 20 degree slanted hole for the carb mixture rod are 2 details that are NOT easy to put in. The correct radius for the outer edge is not available off the shelf as a router bit. The 20 degree hole can be very difficult if you attempt to do the drilling while the dash is on the car - that is risky. Hoping you are already past this stage but if not - I have the correct factory drawing for all of the parts you are making but I cannot make copies of the drawings since I signed a copyright agreement with Henry Ford Museum a long time ago and if I make copies of things then I lose my research privileges' at the museum. That would be the end of the most fun there is for me in the hobby namely research. I have 2 cars with 1911 dashes. One is 1911 Open Runabout and the other is a 1911 Touring car.

Would this dash shield be the same as on a Torpedo roadster?

My dash has the mixture adjustment rod hole drilled already. I'll try to post a pic of how the brass trim came out. So it seems to me that the floorboard is the key to getting the metal parts in the correct orientation for mating with the dash? That is if I read your directions right, you fasten the shield to the floorboard first, install it, and then use that as a jig to position the crescent shaped guide plate. How do you get the shield in the right position on the floorboard? Simply center it? And how do I know if the floorboard is correctly made in my car? Thanks, Bill

Promised pix. This car was first restored in the 50s from an original car by an HCCA chapter president. I have revised some details based on current research, but have tried to keep the car as it was excepting for safety, hidden functional updates, and improved restoration methods. The photos show a work in progress. I did not know that the dash edge was originally rounded before the trim was applied at Ford. Would the end result appear significantly different if I had rounded it? Cheers, Bill