Another dash to body fitment question

[Yama-Bro]

So this weekend I had some friends over and we lifted the body off the buck and put in on the chassis. The goal was to figure out the final position for the dash so I could attach the dash to the frame. When we attempted to put the dash on we discovered it really doesn't fit good at all. We had to work to get it in place by flexing the dash and the body. It was enough to make me nervous that something was going to break or bend. I read where a lot of you are making your dashes removable with the body on. That's my goal as well, however, the way mine is now, there is absolutely no way that's happening. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I have the steering column in place. Is that supposed to be removed? That would make it easier for sure, but I'm not sure how easy that will be to remove in a finished car. The rolled edge on the body roll the dash is very tight to the dash tube on the outer ends. Does that need to be trimmed for more space? That would probably help too. The other thing that didn't work as I expected was the ends of the dash. I've read how some people tuck the ends in under the body. Are you guys trimming of some of the dash when you do that? It seems like a couple inches off the end would make that fit a lot better. I assume the original design intent from FFR was to do a 90° bend at the two small notches at the end of the dash on each end and attach that to the small bracket that's right inside the hinges. It seems like there are a couple different places where it could be tucked in...in front of the hinge, behind the hinge, resting on the hinge. They all seem to change the angle of the dash slightly too. Maybe I'm just overthinking that part LOL. Anyways...any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

Frank

[edwardb]

Yes, the body roll needs to be trimmed and straightened. Same for the rear cockpit wall BTW. Yes, the dash ends need to be trimmed. Not so much on the DS as the firewall is open. But the PS for sure. They should curve and hook behind the door hinge mount.

[j.miller]

I cut 2.5 in off the end of the pass side dash(aluminum) and hand roll both sides to about the radius of a 1lb coffee can. You need to see 3/16in of square tube above the dash at both ends if not the body ends up setting on top of the dash edge...da bat.....and yes, trim those rolls back.