Originally posted by brianrupnow
I can see from the picture of your brookville dash that you are facing the same problem as I am with the 1" square tube that ties the cowl sides together----it hangs below the 32 dash. I guess I will have to cut mine out and fab one that follows the bottom contour of the dash. It wouldn't do any good just to cut the welds and move it up, because then it would foul the instruments on the inside of the dash.

Exactly right as far as the 32 is concerned.
I ended up welding in a short piece of 1" square under the original cross-bar and then cutting the original piece away in the middle.
Not too bad a way to do it and it doesn't show.
Powdercoating it black helps as well.
The outer pieces that are visible aren't very noticable.
More so in the pic below, but when you're driving or riding or spectating from the outside when the car is parked the cross-bar is not easily seen.
A lot of guys bend these cross-bars to follow the curve of the lower dash and that is the way to do it.
At the time I had no way to make such a bend, but now I do since my friend bought a bender for his welding shop.....

The only instruments on the 32 that conflicted with the straight cross-bar were the tack and speedo cuz they're a little deeper than the rest.

Far as the 31 goes, there are no cross-bar/instrument conflicts.
Even so, I'll probably bend up a new bar and shorten up the side hangers just to make it a little neater.

Seems like a lot of this hot rod stuff is backtracking now and then, but that's ok cuz you're learning something.