custom dash project

[discomikey]

On 5/19/2019 at 10:34 PM, Badger110 said:

Personally i'd keep the gearbox tunnel a seperate entity to the centre panel for ease of access in the future.

 

The gearbox tunnel can be wrapped and sound deadened to contain the road & engine noise...if you make it an entire piece, you're looking to extend that process right into the centre panel.

 

I'd agree. 

 

with the standard tunnel and an enclosed console on top you have the opportunity to use that space for a lot of sound deadening/proofing. The tunnel especially at the bellhousing end is one of the largest sources of cabin noise in a defender!

[ianmayco68]

Windscreen in so work should continue shortly on the wiper mod and dash .

[ianmayco68]

Well things didn't quite go to plan , but they never do in landy world and I've finished up a lot of the little fiddly jobs I've been putting off so it's back to the dash and center console . So first up I cleaned up the center console ,

but it had bowed slightly in the middle when I welded it so had to cut the welds on the center opening clamp a straight edge to it then tack it up , sadly will have to put a pic up tomorrow as forgot to take one before I weld it but apart from that all looks good . Next up was seeing if the vent flap idea would work , had to sand the edges slightly as they were a bit long then fitted a bit of edging rubber ,

vent flaps fitted ,

then the brackets ,

and all looks well they seem to have pulled them in nicely ,

Then on to the heater if anyone wondered what a defender heater box looks like dis-assembled then here you go ,

I'm thinking of keeping the box upgrading the fan and the resistor so it will operate on 3 or 4 speeds and uprating the heater matrix , also fitting a bypass valve so you can turn off the coolant running round the heater matrix so in the summer you can still use the blower but it will be cool air coming through , I think this and reworked pipe work will make it perform a lot better , hopefully . If anyone has any suggestions on suitable blower's and resistors it would be much appreciated .

Then did a bit on the dash , this has got me a bit puzzled on the best way to go . The center part is pretty straight forward as you don't need to take into account people and doors and other things , so rather than the " dash all in one piece and bolt it in approach " I've been thinking along the lines of making the center part then each end as separate units then making a frame that bolts/screws to the bulkhead on existing points , then fix the panels to the frame which should in theory make it easier to take panels off . Made this part to give you a bit of an idea , 

any thought's on this idea again much appreciated . Haven't forgot about the wiper mod I'm trying to find some clips and shims that secure the linkages , I've asked on the disco forum but it appears you can't buy them from Land Rover . So does anyone know what these type of clips are called ?

I've found clevis pin clips which look like them but don't throw up a lot of results , so I'm wondering if they are called by something else . Also do people think there is any benefit to fitting disco 1 steering column stalks to replace the defender ones ? It's just a thought I wanted to run by everyone , that's it for today apart from the pic of the center console adjustment , nipped out and took one as I needed one of then clip above ,

cheers Ian

 

[ianmayco68]

So bit more progress today welded the center console back up and its now square again , have contacted a trimmer I use to see if it's possible to trim it in vinyl and for a price to re-trim the front seats . Then had a play with the wiper's and I'm 90% sure they'll work just need to work out how to mount the motor  can't make up my mind wether to make a new bracket or mount it to the original dash rear plate which I'm not sure I'm going to re-fit with the new dash .

Then started forming some bits for the dash , decided to go with the frame then fix the panels to them , so bent up a curved piece for the passenger side and screwed the to the bulkhead ,

then formed a plate up to see how it looks and feels , came out like this ,

it's not a vastly different shape to the original just a little wider but there should be room for a small glove box passenger side . This is the top plate on the dash had this bent at my old place of work before left just need to trim it down and form it round the top .

And lastly cut the pieces for the outer frame part of the center part where the radio and switch's will go ,

it might be made smaller yet as the next stage will be to fit the center console then work from that up on the center dash part . Looking at the angle bits screwed to the dash in the above pic I'm now thinking weld the end plates to the frame and just make the center panels removable .

cheers Ian

[JohnnoK]

10 hours ago, ianmayco68 said:

Looking at the angle bits screwed to the dash in the above pic I'm now thinking weld the end plates to the frame and just make the center panels removable .

cheers Ian

Tempting, but I wouldn't. A pressing reason why you shouldn't have will come to light, soon after you weld them...🤔

[ianmayco68]

Well bit more done today and sorry all but I did tack the ends to the bent frame  . So roughly bent the end plates up ,

then did a test fit ,

then bent them round properly and tacked them to the angled frame both sides ,

then made the plates that go to the top and tacked them on ,

now before anyone says it the plates need trimming down and bending round at the front a small way as they're over size . Done deliberately as you can trim a bit more off easily but it's harder to add a bit on , so my thoughts are to make the dash top bolt to the sides and through the original fixings but I'm thinking of welding studs to the dash top plate and securing it with nuts from beneath , which should make it a lot easier to fit and remove than the awkward to get to screws . Then the plan is to replace the inner plate ,

this one with a piece of angle that will locate on the original fixing holes and also bolt to the side plates , additional fixing points will be added to the top and then a frame made out of light weight angle made which will bolt together then the front plates will be screwed in place , hopefully  .

[ianmayco68]

So after sorting out a few bits from yesterday afternoon I thought it was time to sort the wiper motor bracket out , so as said above instead of the black plate fitted to the bulkhead I drilled a piece of thin angle and fitted it in with screws , you can just see it in some of the photo's below . Then tacked up a bracket ,

it's not pretty but it doesn't need to be , motor should fit like this .

So reasonably happy with the set up I welded it up and drilled the mounting holes for the motor plate , then fitted the rubber anti vibration strip and bolted it all up together and it came out like this ,

then placed in the dash where it should fit ,

only problem I can see is with the heater vents to the windscreen but I think I should be able to work round it . Other option is to fit the black plate and see what clearance I've got then , one other possibility is to make the operating arm that fits on to the wiper motor longer and move the motor to the end of the dash . Tomorrow I think I need to test the motor and try and see if the linkages as they are work , the motor is off a td5 and I think I've worked the wiring out so hopefully all will be well .

[ianmayco68]

Well not a lot to report other than , made a test rig up and motor works fine , only had an old battery which was flat so charged that up and ended up with this ,

sadly I haven't got any pics or video of the next bit but secured the angle to the dash and drilled a couple of temp holes for some bolts in it fastened the mounting plate on connected up to the battery and BINGO it worked like a dream  , wipers went back and forth bloody marvelously . So called it a day as thought way forward was design a proper bracket , smaller and work out how to fix it properly , then rods might need adjusting slightly but can do that latter . I like it when things go to plan .

[Simon119]

http://www.springfixlinkages.com/en/catalog/metric-linkages/clevis-pins-clips/safety-fasteners/r3440

 

Are these the fasteners you were looking for?

[ianmayco68]

Yes they’re the ones cheers , to make life easier I did pop over to the disco forum and ask if there where part numbers for the parts but it appears it’s sold as a unit and the bits aren’t sold separately. I have found some now I’ll post the size up when I’m certain what it is, I think they’re m8 but might be 5/16., but it’s certain that the E clips aren’t any good as one popped off when it was working 

[ianmayco68]

Trying to work out a better position for the wiper motor and I’ve got a question for all you learned people, am I correct in think that the length of the rods 

like above don’t matter, it’s the length of this part below and the one on the motor that determine the sweep on the wipers?

[landroversforever]

That sounds right. Combined with the length on the motor.

I think! 

[ianmayco68]

Cheers Ross thought I was on the rite track . Also what’s people’s thoughts on the motors position? Where the original one is sited but higher like this 

Mir in the middle of the dash like so

can’t make up my mind?

[steve200TDi]

Regarding the sweep of the wipers, I used a bit of maths. I didn't touch the arm of the wiper motor and so I measured that and multiplied it by two to get the linear distance of the wiper motor.

I then worked out the arch I wanted to wipe on the windscreen. Using these two fixed parameters I could then do the Maths to work out what length arm I needed to make to weld onto the back of the wiper spindle.

Thinking about it now (I'm trying to think what I did now!!!) I may have gone down the Pythagoras route and fixed the swept arch to 90 degrees. That way you can work out the other two sides of the triangle.

If you were to draw it out 1 to 1 scale you can increase the arch angle and you just need to make you wiper arm (the one you weld on) shorter.

Hope that makes sense!

Steve

[ianmayco68]

Cheers Steve , got that bit sorted I think , I’ve used the arms from the disco frame I brought and Retroanaconda had already kindly done the maths  and they measured up fine it was just the length of the bars between the wiper arm and the motor I was asking about the whether the length mattered.

[Retroanaconda]

If you mount the motor at one end then the two bars just set the starting position of the arms (first bar) and then the relative positions of them to each other (second bar). In theory the second bar is equal to the distance between the two wiper spindle holes. The first bar is whatever length is required to reach between the position of the motor’s arm in park position and the nearside spindle in the same - obviously this length will depend on where exactly you put the motor.

If you use the centre position like a Disco then you’ll need to create exact length bars that span from the motor arm in the park position to both of the spindles in the same. Again these lengths will depend on where the motor is mounted.

So they do matter, but they don’t set the sweep. That is set by the relative lengths of the wiper and spindle arms. I did the maths but haven’t tried it yet so will be interested to know if it works!

[ianmayco68]

Cheers James that’s what I thought , I measured the disco arms and they were inline with your workings out . I have had it working and it works fine , but I hadn’t quite got the center bar at the correct length , I needed to lengthen it a bit and I wanted to move the motor farther over .

[ianmayco68]

HAHAHAHA don’t all laugh at me at once please  , reason they weren’t quite working in unison is I must have measured one of the arms and assumed they were the same but one is actually longer, what a c##k .

[ianmayco68]

Well back on this again due to the lockdown and I'm starting to feel it again , so first up change of plan I'm still doing the wiper MOD and looking at modding the heater but decided to use the original dash and alter it . My thinking being there isn't a lot of room in there anyway and maybe Land Rover got the dimensions rite , so the last thing I want is to do it all , then drive the damn thing and find out it's more uncomfortable than normal  . So the center console stays , firstly made some tabs to weld to the inside so the bear shifter and trans box lever plates can be screwed down ,

that was the second attempt as got the length wrong first time  will use self tappers to hold them down there's no weight or force on them so should be fine .Next was to strip the vinyl of the dash top and bottom and cut the center out leaving the brace across the middle .

cut the front plate too far across oooppppssss , then the end part that's separate which houses the wiper motor got some spacing plates tacked on and will eventually be welded to the other part of the dash ,

as the wiper motor will live higher up from now on , so once tacked together and I make sure it fits the top and some of the inside can be removed . Once this far I turned my attention to the section that will join the center console to the dash , first a couple of angled steel which will be riveted to the bulkhead each side of the center section  ,

then a couple of flats one drilled and tapped the other drilled and counter sunk so the bottom section can be attached to the center console , it will also screw together at the sides but can't work that out till I've made the lower section ,

this is a piece of box section with the one face removed it will be used as a cover over the two flats when together and look like it is meant to be there , hopefully .

Then lastly the upper part of the frame the bottom will be one of the flats ,

So that's about it not a lot accomplished but were getting there , would like thoughts on the heater I've been watching Brittanic restorations video on modding the heater , he alters his and draws the air from inside the truck , what's peoples thoughts on this good or bad idea ?

cheers Ian

[daveturnbull]

Do you have another car that's not a defender? Think about how the air re-circulation for the heater works on that. Re-using air from the cabin will heat up faster on cold day, but not taking in fresh air from outside means the moisture will build up quickly fogging up the windows.

In my daily driver, 99.9% of the time I have the recirc turned off. I only put it on if following something really stinky, or passing bonfire to avoid getting it all in the cabin.

In summary, I think it's a bad plan.

[ianmayco68]

The missis does, that was my thinking Dave but thought I’d run it past people, even though we live very rural and frequently follow slurry and muck carts , you get used to the smell after a bit hahahaha . Thinking about it I used to have the ricirc turned off on mine for the reasons you say .

[landroversforever]

I'm sure I'd replied to this already... but nothing on this one or your other thread! 

I think keeping it pulling from the outside is a better idea. With the heater being set up properly, well sealed and a decent stat in the engine it shouldn't have any problems warming up a 90. Mine didn't until I filled the heaterbox with sandy mud and water!

Something else you might want to look at.... I started reducing the volume of the lower dash and looking at insulating it. I had a bit of that fibrous filler floating about so I put that along the bottom on the inside of the lower dash. I was also pondering piping the heater the whole way through it instead and fully insulating it all to minimise and losses through the metal dash to the bulkhead. 

[FridgeFreezer]

Modern cars run the air-con AND the heater to dehumidify the interior air too.

I still think just ditching the stock heater and flinging an Eberspacer or Chinese copy in for £150 ish is the best bet, instant blast of properly hot air, and it can run with the engine off. Reckon you can duct one into the stock Defender heater hole quite easily.

[ianmayco68]

Yes had same thoughts , but with a coolant heater and heater matrix and blower then use a bilge blower to send it through to the cabin , could incorporate a coolant cut off valve for cold air .

[ianmayco68]

While everyone’s about, continuing with the wipers mod my thinking is, 

cut this in half ,

as I won’t need passenger side bit , going to remake vents and fit them differently,

trim this down ,

weld this together to make the bracket ,

meant to keep the disco mounting plat as it’s got the park marked on corresponding to the motor mounting holes , 

then lengthen the operating rod below ,

the rod fits between the two spindle arm’s like this,

to move it over to the end here ,

 

can anyone see any pitfalls or problems I haven’t thought of ? Before I cut the backing plate 😁 .