jinotown

What gage and grade aluminum should I use for a dash in my race car? Its my first dash fabrication job. I am a good tig welder, but do not have high $ fabrication equipment.

RedlineMan

Hey Jin;

14ga. / .063 is a common gauge and works well. If you are looking to weld, this would be about as thin as you could go. It is also thick enough to hammerform pretty extremely without tearing. 18ga. / .040 is very easy to work if you are just bending, and will hammerform fairly extremely. If it is just a flat face plate replacement, you could go thinner.



5052 is a nice grade if you are looking to bend, hammer form, or work it somehow. 6061 is too ornery and does not like to bend or hammer form very well. It also work hardens tremendously, and will snap if you try to unbend anything.

How dat?

Alan C.

My dash is flat with no welds and I made it from a piece of 0.080" 6061 which was lying in a corner for free. That made the gauge/grade selection real easy. However, as noted the 6061 does not like to bend in the transverse direction to rolling. If you can see the slight brushed look, parallel to those lines is the rolling direction. Go 90 degrees to them and it isn't too bad. Check twice bend once.