Working on my no-buck suburban, I have to be creative. Two examples are the shifter and the instrument panel. I was given an old polished aluminium steering colume, but had to come up with a floor shifter. Instead of paying 300.00 for a new one, I found a colume shifter off of a new dodge truck. It bolts to the side of the steering colume and uses a cable to the transmission. Made a bracket that bolts to the tailshaft housing, put the shifter on one side and the origional parking brake on the other. For the shift lever, I am using a polished stainless steel golf club shaft.
For the instrument panel, I was given a set of autometer gauges.( It's good to work at a street rod shop)Unfortunatly, they do not fit in the origional dash opening very well. I took the chrome rings and lenses off of the autometer gauges, trimed the plastic housings, and then heat welded the housings into one unit. I modified the origional instrument cluster by cutting out the center area that has the slots for the gauges. I made a new piece that has 5 half moon cutouts and glued that in place. Black krylon crinkle paint, and cleaning the origional glass brings it together.
Those are some of my ideas, now lets hear what some of you have done to be creative.
