1977 Airstream Argosy Motorhome – Cockpit Upgrade

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For my birthday this year, I asked Andrew for a new cockpit in Dreamy Boat. The old plastic dashboard is full of mud dauber nests and is brittle and crumbling. They are impossible to find. Replacing it is going to need to be custom. I would like to avoid the wood look or the lovingly DIY look. Unfortunately, I am not sure what kind of finish we can produce. With this in mind, I started by priming the ceiling with Kilz oil based primer. Happy birthday to me!

I found this somewhere on the internet and think this is what we should do. I really liked the look of it and the simplicity. The riveted smooth aluminum seems like it would be in our wheelhouse. I am hoping our execution can look something like this. I am smitten with that steering wheel. It would be amazing to get one for Dreamy.
Oil based primer making the ceiling bright and cheerful
I just did the front cockpit area for now but I plan to paint all the walls and ceiling bright white.
Cutting this with tin snips wad really hard. Luckily, Andrew has really strong hands. We cut the vent holes with a hole saw.
The vents were taken from a junkyard find
Gauges are really expensive. I would love to get new ones but will likely figure out how to modify and refresh the ones we have.
I am going to try and make my own bezels out of aluminum. I am not sure if I can make them look nice. We will see as time allows.
The original left and right windshield wipers and headlight switches are reinstalled and working. The windshield wipers work independently of each other.
I prefer the look of the silver aluminum dashboard but we had an unforeseen complication. The reflection of the silver on the windscreen cast a reflection that made it harder to see through. We painted the aluminum black to see if it would correct the glare problem. The visibility is much improved.
There are a lot of unfinished details but this is the basic concept. I think it will will be hard to not have it look homemade. This is a pretty sweet birthday gift though.
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