I really, really hate rivnuts. Tonight I drilled the dash face, and the driver’s dash pod in order to mount the face to the pod. The pod needs 4 rivnuts to be installed so the face can be screwed down. This should be easy enough…except that the Marson rivnut tool stripped the mandrel used for the 10-32 rivnuts needed on the very first rivnut I tried to put in. It took forever to get the wrecked mandrel out of the rivnut (and out of the dash pod without wrecking it), and then I had to use a die on the mandrel so I could coax the rivnuts on it again. After a few hours of frustration I managed to get all of the rivnuts set and the face screwed down.  I think it turned out great!

Continuing on with dragging out the dash work…

Finished wiring up the gauges today. Everything nice and neat. Only thing left to do is get, and connect up, a weatherpack connector for easy removal of the dash. After I finished the wiring I mounted the turn signals and brights indicators.

Painted the back of the carbon fiber dash face last night and mounted the gauges today.  Looks nice!

Today I actually was able to do something for the build.  The carbon fiber dash piece that serves as the face for the gauges needs to be cut in order to install the gauges. I first masked off the entire face of the carbon fiber piece in-case the Dremel got away from me. Placed the gauges where I wanted them to be, traced the inner edge of the mounting brackets for each gauge, and then cut out the holes with a Dremel carbide cutter.

Next, I just have to paint the back of the piece with some black paint, as light can be seen through the piece between the carbon fiber weaves.

Be sure to wear goggles and a mask when cutting through the carbon fiber – its dust is very nasty.

At long last Ken (StreetRodPainter.com) started the body work on the GTM. Work started Monday, and hopefully in a few months there will be a near complete GTM sitting in the garage.