It’s hard to even know where to start with this project page, as the redoing the dash was part of a much larger project of completely stripping the Jeeps interior, repainting, and rewiring and installing a heater.  The first photo here shows how the Jeep came to us.

The main driver for this project was wanting to install a heater.  In order to install the heater I need to install a defroster duct.  In order to install the defroster duct I need to move some gauges.  In order to move the gauges I need to layout a complete new dash.  In order to layout the complete new dash I need to figure out where the steering wheel need to be placed in order to be straight.

Straightening the Steering
Heres a view that shows how the steering wheel sat.  It functioned fine, but was kind of embarrassing.

The column tube itself was a bit crooked in the dash bracket.  When I tried to nudge it the spot welds broke loose, so I straightened it out and re-welded the two together:

The bracket had to move left about 1.75” in order to get a straight column.  I was happy to see that, as now I can mount auxillary gauges on both sides of the speedometer:

Here’s the straightened out wheel.  While it looks a bit strange to be so much further outboard than the driver’s seat, it actually works out well.  I get elbow room on the outside, and knee/leg room on the inside.

Removing the Old Dash
After placing the steering I removed the old dash:

It was at this point I decided the entire interior needed to be dealt with - the Durabak had to go in favor of a more skin-friendly finish.  I also decided this was the time to re-wire the entire Jeep.  That project is covered in another post.

Laying Out the New Dash
With the steering wheel placement figured out, I began laying out the arrangement of gauges and switches on a new/used dash that was very unmolested.

The goals were to keep a “Jeepish” looking dash while adding auxiliary gauges, a heater control, heater vents, and a switch panel.  I decided that it would look much cleaner if the switch panel handled pretty much everything - ignition, lights, wipers etc.  After trying a number of arrangements I settled on one that seemed nicely laid out but would still allow room behind for the defrost duct, welded some old holes shut and cut some new holes:

Test-fitting
At some point this arrangement was test-fit in the Jeep with the heater installed:

It’s a pretty tight fit in the area of the switch panel and defroster duct - but workable.

New Components
I decided to go with all new gauges that were a big higher quality - so bought a set of Autometers off of eBay - including a 2” tach to fill the 4th spot in the dash.  The tach is a different style, but otherwise the gauges have white letters on a black background with an orange pointer and chrome bezel—just like the intermediate-era speedometer that came in the Jeep:

Then I did a test fit of all the dash-mounted components - heater controls and vents, steering column, gauges and switches:

Painting to Match
At this point the dash project went on hold while the rest of the Jeep interior was wire-wheeled out, prepped and painted.  I painted the dash and switch panel plate at the same time, in the ‘69 Ford Champagne Gold Metallic that the rest of the Jeep will be:

Actually - the backside of the dash got painted white, along with the underside of the cowl - both to practice with my new paint gun, use up some paint, and increase visibility behind the dash once mounted:

Installing New
Once the rest of the interior project was moved along, I installed the empty dash into the Jeep:

I had to do this vs. assembling the dash on the workbench as I couldn’t remove the rollcage - in the end the easiest way to prevent a bunch of paint scuffs was to just put it together in the Jeep.

After installing the repainted (white inside, black outside) oversize plastic glovebox I installed the door (with it’s 4.3 label stolen from an S10 Blazer - mainly to distract you from the shoddy paint job):

Then - as part of the overall rewire - came the switch panel and gauges:

I’m really happy with how the dash was looking at this point—still very obviously a Jeep dash, but clean and simple looking even with the heater vents.

Steering Back In
The last dash-specific step was to reinstall the steering shaft and wheel, and the turn signal unit.  For the steering wheel I traded out the one that came with the Jeep for the one I had restored for our old CJ5:

Wrap-up
Using the stock “bus” steering wheel and turn signal helps maintain the “original-ish” flavor of the Jeep, offsetting the more custom looking dash.  I’m trying hard to keep a healthy flavor of originality while doing some upgrades, and I think the dash rides that line very well.

I’ve yet to drive with with the straight wheel and new gauges etc—looking forward to it though!