The immediate focal point of any hot rod or custom car is the exterior, but over the years customizers have treated themselves to plenty of unique interior modifications as well. The obvious candidate for alteration is, of course, the dashboard. Hot rodders have shoehorned a number of dashes into earlier Fords, quadrupled the number of necessary gauges, and spent hours engine turning aluminum panels of various shapes and sizes.
One of the long-standing traditions for mounting gauges in early '30s Fords, however, is the Auburn dash insert. The shape and elegance of the Auburn instrument panel complements the '32 dash so well, in fact, that they are now being reproduced (slightly smaller) in aluminum. Some guys like to take it a step further and have installed an entire Auburn dashboard.
With tradition in mind, Mark Mariani was persistent enough to find an original and complete dashboard from a '31 Auburn closed car, including the original faux woodgrained dash, as well as the insert, and gauges. Mark recognized the similarity between the Ford and Auburn closed-car dashboards and asked Roy Brizio and his crew to make it fit in his '32 five-window.
While the header piece of the Auburn dashboard looks very similar to the Ford, we still had to modify it severely to fit in the smaller Ford. To begin with, we had to section the dash down the center in order to narrow it. We also had to change the sides of the dash to fit the Ford A-pillar. Once installed, though, the Auburn dash looks like it was designed for Mark's coupe and will make for a unique interior and a great conversation piece.
