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Dash from 92 prelude

rickjames8

New member
I spent some time in a you-pull-it yard the other day and had a look inside a 92 Prelude. The dash was quite interesting. There was a nice center console which attached to the dash board at the heater controls. The heater controls were very compact and were one unit with the vents (space saving). Now heres the interesting part: I imagined this could be adapted to a Sterling by not using the upper part of the dash where the gauges are. Just above the heater controls, the dash curves to a flat surface. If you cut the dash just below the gauges, this area would become the top of your dashboard. You'd need to make a custom cover with vinyl to take it back to the Sterling body. Now, the area where the steering wheel was in the Prelude would make a good mounting point for a gauge pod, and the Sterling steering wheel would sit just below it. The fact that the doors come in so far, actually makes the dash quite narrow, quite possibly a good fit for the sterling.

Most factory dashes which I look at for conversions tend to be very high. This one would work cutting it off half-way up, perhaps making it the perfect height. The fact that it has compact (and stylish) heat controls is a nice bonus. However, the selector for "floor/dash/defrost" are buttons, not a slider, which means it will be more work to adapt it. The Hot/cold is a slider though.

Google pics for "92 Civic dash" and tell me what you think. I had no measuring tape with me, sorry.
 

letterman7

Honorary Admin
Prelude or Civic? Two different dashboards... but I like the Prelude. Some interesting stuff there with the wide layout of the minor instruments. I reckon anything could be made to work (Brett and Yaughn here are proving that point!) so if the panels could be had for cheap, there wouldn't be much to lose by trying!

R
 

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
I was going to comment on this but, telling the reader to surf the net for a picture to find out what your talking about didn't go over good with me. You couldn't have found a picture??

Dang! I've turned into a grumpy old fart:D

Brett
 

letterman7

Honorary Admin
:D Here you go Brett... even though one is a '94...

92 prelude.jpg

1992-honda-prelude-8.jpg
 

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
:D Here you go Brett... even though one is a '94...

View attachment 3127

View attachment 3128

I see, In '94 they put the steering wheel on the other side. Interesting*hee-hee-hee*


Thanks Rick. I just thought it was lazy and inconsiderate to ask for help and then tell you to go look for a picture of it so you would know what he's talking about. He could of done what you did and make it easier for all of us.


Ok with that all said I have seen those dashes in the yards.
I guess the first question is how much work do you want to put into it to make it fit and what are your fabrication skills??
If you think it will just slide in with minimun effort it wont.

Things to consider
1 location of the shift lever
If you have a VW base sterling the shift lever is not down the center of the tunnel.
It is offset a little to the left and don't forget to consider the distance between the shift
lever and the brake lever. It all has an effect on the build

2 Brake lever location.
I see the the Preludes lever is located on the side. Sure you can put a hole in the middle of
console and put a rubber boot around it but it wont look like it belongs there.

3 Width of the console
This was the biggest problem for me. Trying to find something narrow enough to fit
between the seats and still allow the seats to slide forward and back. If its wider than
the center tunnel you may have issues getting it to fit.

There are a few other things to consider but this will do for a start
Are you planning to use the climate control panel or are you going to put something else there??

If your planning to use the console as the base of a plug your chances of getting it to fit just went up.

Around here the yards are getting around $10 for just the console so it may be worth it to get one and see how much work would be invloved to get it to fit(like rick said).
When I was building mine I pulled a few before I finally found something that I could work with but I used it as a plug to build a one piece fiberglass console. If your going to use the console, getting all of the cuts that your going to have to make are going to be hard to blend back in so they wont be seen.

Well I'm typed out. Time to go back to work on my car

Maybe next time I go to the yards here I'll take a quick look at one(if there is one) and see how much trouble it would be to make it work(if you want me too)

Later
Brett
 

rickjames8

New member
Hey Brett-

Thanks so much for your detailed reply. The not including a picture or link was actually not out of laziness. I had done a google image search myself and found so many angles that I found each one gave a different perspective and didn't want to include just a couple. Next time I'll attach one example and hyperlink the google search for those who'd want to see more. I'm sorry if it came off the wrong way, like "go look it up'. It wasn't meant to. :)

As for my plans with that dash, well, I've just moved back to the USA and am in the middle of getting a job, a daily driver, a new house and all that. Once that is set up, I'll be shopping for a Sterling. But while on the hunt for some pieces to fix my Civic I saw that Prelude in the junkyard and thought it might be an interesting option for someone to explore if they were looking to do something different with their Sterling dash. I guess that's why I typed it as more of a "hey check this out if you're interested" post. Again, sorry if it rubbed you the wrong way. I have read your posts and know that you're very descriptive and take the time to be detailed about your progress, something you do to help/show others, so I get where you'd like others to do the same.

Sincerely,

-Rick

PS: any chance you'll be at Carlisle?
 

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
Once that is set up, I'll be shopping for a Sterling.

Once you get one you'll see how little space there is to work with. Try to get one as complete as possible unless you like a challenge. My sterling was in need of alot of help when I got it and I think I'm going on two years now jut rebuilding things. Of course if I would have kept it stock it would probably be on the road by now.

The not including a picture or link was actually not out of laziness. I had done a google image search myself and found so many angles that I found each one gave a different perspective and didn't want to include just a couple.

Sorry about going off like that. One of my bad traits. I sometimes go over board on details also.


PS: any chance you'll be at Carlisle?

I'm not much of a traveler and the car isn't ready to be on display, so this year no.

At the progress that I'm making and the additional body mods that need to be done my guess is that I have maybe another two years to go before it will be ready for display.
I'm kind of burned out on it but I'm hoping that once I get the engine running it will get me motivated again and I'll start moving forward at a faster pace

Later
Brett
 
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