Next step on the dash was to figure out a way to blend in a flat spot to mount the A/C vent right in the middle of the very curved location where the ignition switch was. To keep the flat spot flat I bolted two pieced of MDF together and turned them down just larger than the OD of the A/C vent.
After a lot of hammering, shrinking, stretching, and shaping to fit the contours of the dash... a shape started to form around the flat spot. I got started and kept going and didn't take pics of this process like I should've. This is a shape that I wasn't 100% sure how to make since it curves in two directions with a raised center, but I basically started by remembering that the only things you can do to shape metal are to shrink, stretch, and bend... so I tried to use logic and think what would happen to the metal if I stretched this spot, or shrunk that spot and it pretty much worked out into the mostly correct shape.
After most of the rough shaping was done.
Sharpening the edge of the raised area using a corner of the steel block.
Trimmed and tacked into place... noticed the hammer marks, I'll explain these later, but after tacking there was still a bit of shaping to get this to fit the contours of the dash.
This angle shows that I wasn't able to get the shape of the filler piece to match the dash contour 100%, and I kind of gave up after not being able to add more shape to the mostly finished piece. My reasoning for going ahead and tacking it in place anyway was that I could use a dolly that matched the shape of the dash and finish shaping that area of the filler piece once it was held in place... and it worked. After planishing the two panels into a blended shape I finished welding the panel in and smoothed the welds.
Half and half, this shows how far apart the initial tacks were.
Bolt head stuck in the lathe and dimpled in the center so I could scribe a circle to trim out.
And finished.
