custom dash project

[De Ranged]

That is some cool forming work......

I can't say about the Defender dash..... they are still silly money over here so unless you win lotto you don't work on them lol but the windscreen limiting access is a common problem and what I've done in the past is replace the screws with stainless steel dome head allan screws 

[Anderzander]

This is outstanding Ian - top design and fabrication skills 👍🏻  It seems to be coming together all of a sudden too.

[ianmayco68]

Thank you all , good idea De Ranged I’ll have a look for some.

[Mo Murphy]

I'm loving the work that you're doing Ian but I suspect your Land Rover is going to weigh an extra ton by the time you're finished ! 😂 

Mo 👍

[ianmayco68]

Bit more done , windscreen vents test fitted ,

idea being that they'll meet in the middle then one hose down along the bottom of the dash to the bulkhead , I'll hopefully be able to put some side window demisters in there as well , also my Raptor binnacle and backing plate came so had a ply with the dash ,

lots of work to do there though .

cheers Ian

[ianmayco68]

Just a couple of pics , cleaned the vents up and did the fixings ,

and did the dash front which will be cut out and made removable ,

and you can just see the fill in pieces at the bottom will crack on with this this week and hopefully finish it I'm hoping to be able to put a glove box on the passenger side .

cheers Ian

[Mo Murphy]

It's the 3rd of june Ian and no pics yet 😉

Mo

[ianmayco68]

I know Mo it's disgraceful isn't it  , well I had it all planned out then a few days after that I had the call to return to work so haven't done anything on it and the weekends the last couple of weeks have been too nice not to have a beverage or three .

[landroversforever]

Hows this going Ian? Guessing your efforts are concentrated on the 110 at the mo?

[ianmayco68]

To be honest Ross motivation has been none existent of late , and I really need to get back on it , then I brought the m57 for the 110 and I already have someone who wants the 200tdi so I need to get my mojo back so plan is from this weekend I’ll be cracking on with both .

[ianmayco68]

So after getting some motivation back the work has started again was hoping to spend this weekend on it but had a phone call Friday so had to fetch the head back for the M57 engine that's going in the 110 , and now that's paid for spare cash is freed up for this so today and yesterday morning I got some done . First bit was tacked the side parts into the center part ,

then I had to make the front taller so it came level to the top of the dash ,

I've also decided to go with the original dash top rather than the one I made , at this point I realised that the frame for the opening needed to be bigger to accommodate a double din radio so it was made bigger then tacked back on .

I then started to think about how to fix it on so drilled some holes through the frame and panel with the idea of welding threaded rod into the frame so the vinyl can be wrapped round to the inside then the frame bolted to it so the vinyl won't lift , then cut the inside out ,

still need to make some sides for it . Then turned to the gap between the clocks and center panel , plan here is to buy a Landzeigler blower switch but instead of it mounting to the side of the clocks surround it will mount flat to a removable panel at the side  , for that I came up with this ,

then welded a thick piece to the panel side ,

 and a piece to the other side ,

Idea here is it will bolt to the main panel through the side so the bolts are hidden on the inside . So hopefully next weekend I can spend both days on it fully , I need to make some bits so I can bolt the front panel to the dash using the 2 holes in the front I've already drilled , thinking here solid bar drilled and tapped welded to the inner original dash and work out what's happening with the other side . I'm thinking of a glove box to hide the wiper motor , it will be small but seems a waist to just blank it off and make it un-usable , and hopefully can order the bits needed for the heater system and get that done aswell .

cheers Ian 

[landroversforever]

That’s looking good Ian  

[western]

Looks to be proceeding without to many hiccups, 

 

Please can you tell us where did you get the demister hose from in this photo & is it the same diameter as the factory demist tubes ?

 

[ianmayco68]

Thank you both , I can’t sorry Ralph I brought it off eBay when I did the 110 so 5 years or so ago and the purchase history on eBay doesn’t go that far back . I need to buy some more for the 90 so can post some details up of that when I get it in the next week or two if you’d like Ralph ?

[western]

Cheers that will be good, Think I need to replace the originals in my dash. 

[ianmayco68]

Got some more done today , spent a lot of time trying to fit a glove box in but came to the conclusion that there simply wasn't room with me moving the wiper motor pic of the room available ,

not a lot there and I need the bottom bit for heater pipes so gave up . After a think I came up with this , side for the main dash made ,

this will get tacked in tomorrow . I decided on a plain panel to cover this but I still wanted to keep the hand hole at the end , it's sort of part of a Defender if you know what mean , anyway panel measured and did a 10mm fold over at the top and it fitted up like this ,

then I made the hand hole bent bit which I haven't got any pics of me forming so onto the main bit . Cut the opening in the main panel and wedged the "socket " part in with a welding glove ,

hope you can see what I mean , then had to make an extension piece to it so it is all one piece then bent it over and tacked it in ,

and a couple with it on the bench ,

not bothered about the gaps as once it's covered you won't see the steel anyway , but they'll all be welded up securely but not fully as that will warp them . Been doing some thinking on how to attach the plates to the dash and came up with this idea ,

borrowed these from work with the idea being , drill then tap them weld them on the inside part after strengthening then using a few bolts fix it through the dash shouldn't need many and should be fairly simple . I did have the idea that I could fix a pouch , like the nets you can buy , to the front of the panel which you could store some light articles in there and it would fold flat when not in use . Hopefully will have another installment for you tomorrow .

 

[landroversforever]

That's coming along nicely! Where you wanted the glovebox... Could you have that panel open up to access the space in the dash to the right of the wiper motor? So it's not obviously but still a smallish usable space? 

Also, I really like where you're keeping the end panel of the dash with the handle!   

[Peaklander]

Hee Hee, that's the sort of project where if it was mine, it would never look good but I can tell that this will. Great stuff. Please keep the pics coming.

[ianmayco68]

Thank you both 👍 . I might be able to Ross I'll have to wait and see what space there is when I've fitted the heater gubbins in , there is a small space where the original wiper motor was but to be honest in the 110 I've never needed any more room than the cubby box I made . It house windscreen wiping stuff , glasses , dog lead and lots of other stuff but we'll see how it turns out . I'm thinking of having a go at trimming the bits myself , I did the dash bits on the 110 myself and they came out okay . Talking to the chap who did the other bits for me last time all he does is use a hairdryer to warm the vinyl and stretch it , you have to buy two way stretch vinyl though , only bit I'm worried about really is the main center console/cubby box bit but I think I can manage it .

[ianmayco68]

Not loads done today but I've come to the conclusion that if I go out and work till I've had enough rather than keep going because I want it finished I get more done , that's the theory anyway  . So after Ross's suggestion I thought I'd have a look and there is a small amount of space there but don't know if it's worth the stress of making access to it , couple of pics , first one is right under the wiper motor and that's where the heater ducting comes in ,

second one is rite under the hand grab where the old motor went , I suppose I could have moved the wiper motor to the left as far as it would go but I didn't want to make the operating rods to long incase they started bending . On to what I achieved today , mounting brackets to fix the upper dash panel to the backing plate and in true Binky tradition a carboard template was needed ,

nothing fancy it was needed to get the angle correct at the rear , so with that looking good a few measurements of the upper and lower gap to get the length ,

and with that sorted they were cut and bent up , tried for fitment , all was good , then I decided that they needed to be lighter and not solid so drilled holes in the corner of the cut outs ,

then cut away and you end up with something like this ,

a pair was made and both fitted good so they got a lick of primer ,

I had been thinking of how to fix them to the backing plate , which handily has a couple of holes in it from where the front vent levers fitted which are now redundant so that's sorted . But this through up another minor problem the holes on the drivers side are behind the small removable bit I made , this bit ,

and was planning on fitting the landzeiger heater control to , it's never easy . So the plan now is weld that to the main part and make it all one , I also had plans to not utilise the inner flaps in the heater box and instead use a coolant bypass valve from T7 Design so the heater can be turned completely off in the summer so the air will be cold . If this works the the mounting place the other side of the clocks can be used for the blower control switch , which is just theory at the minute as I need to order the blower switch kit from Holland .

[landroversforever]

I wouldn’t worry about turning the heater flow off as long as the heater box is adjusted correctly the air doesn’t pass through the matrix. 

[ianmayco68]

The idea Ross was doing away with the internal flap on the heater box and fitting the bypass valve as in the Tdci Defenders I believe , anyway on to a bit more progress . Passenger side dash panel fixings sorted ,

drilled through and fitted rivnuts so nice and easy . Just needs a bit more weld on it then covering , next up tacked the side piece in after taken the center panel out ,

then onto the surround for the center opening . Got some M5 bolts off eBay , sanded the sides down ,

so they fitted nicely to the inner of the frame ,

then welded them in ,

and it cleaned up nicely ,

fits in like so , with nuts on the rear obviously ,

this will be painted then fitted , only reason I made it removable was to make it look better after it has been trimmed . The vinyl will be glued in place wraped round to the inside the the surround fitted , it should look a lot neater . Next job was making the brackets to hold the infill panel which will be made out of 2 or 3mm Ali , wanted the brackets to have a slight kink in them but my joggler won't do steel this thick so made a bit of a tool at work for the job . Two bits of steel welded together like this ,

you need a pair , sandwich in your part pop it in the vice tighten it up and voila ,

then welded them in the frame .

That's all the visual progress for this week I then did a lot of measuring and the such so parts can be ordered , Land zeigler heater switch came , just of note to anyone having trouble with reading there website Microsoft does a free translator that works on your iphone , there's a thread somewhere I read where someone had this need to put the info up on there , should be more progress next week got some holiday booked from Thurs to next Tues day but Friday will be a none starter I think as it's another year older time and I have a date with the Hobgoblin , could get a bit messy I think  .

[ianmayco68]

Well Friday went to plan and 12 bottles of Hobgoblin later I went to bed , Saturday I thought sod it I'm on holiday and didn't do anything  but there was progress and bits ordered so here we go . First up sprayed the top frame up ,

finished the passenger side panel off and the rear returns then put some small runs on to hold it together , that then got a lick of paint ,

please bear in mind that most of the paint will look a bit shoddy due to the fact that it's being covered with vinyl , so it was at this point I decided that the panel that I'd made to fit between the binnacle and the center part wasn't rite so I made another one but this one went back like this ,

which ended up looking like this  ,

which will be held in place with 2 screws with rivnuts in the rear panel ,

looks much neater , I then proceeded to shorten the rear bracket ,

then I decided that they wouldn't work , but I had already made the drilled and tapped posts for the middle holes that will be welded to the main dash , like this ,

so thought drill and rivnut the dash top put a m5 bolt in backwards and hold the panel on with a couple of nuts like this ,

they need cutting down a bit but that should be plenty as there will be very little weight on there , than the lower dash part had the internal panel tabs welding in and a coat of primer .

So on to purchases , vinyl from AS Trim was a clearance 10m for £99 , rejected by automotive trade . This stuff is £24.99 a meter normally so a bargain and its 4 way stretch , nearly bought burgandy or some red colour but chickened out  .

will use closed cell foam on it first then the vinyl looks good quality .Next was heater stuff from T7 Design ducting this is thick stuff and they do it from 32mm up to 100mm ,

these are 45mm and 60mm next a bowden cable ,

to operate this little gizmo which is a shut off valve for the heating ,

and a dial switch for the other end ,

and lastly a egt gauge ,

so nearly finished , just got to finish the fitting of the hand brake , which only requires a hole drilling for the cable and welding and strengthening the location . Drilling the hole for the gear shifter cable then making the other center plates which can be done last , but I need to drill the locations for any knobs or switches that will be fitted to anywhere that vinyl will be used . Then everything will be primered then a dusting of black , while I'm doing that the front carpets can be fixed in placed which then means I can finish the front end . I will do a pre trimming full install just to make sure it all fits then to the fun bit of trimming which I'm doing myself so this should be fun .

[ianmayco68]

Not posted for a while as it's been cold and I've been made workshop team leader at work so been doing weekends but progress as started again as it's a bit warmer . Some of this is from christmas which is the last time I did a bit , first up big thank you to @vulcan bomberfor the vent surrounds ,

brilliant wasted no time getting them to fit ,

just need to countersink the fixing holes , we've got a small plasma cutter at work so made use of it to do the dash internal panels ,

top one with fixings for radio ,

then strengthened the main dash part a bit ,

and welded on the front fixings ,

and bottom fixing rivnuts

then drilled hole in dash for heater control ,

and started spraying it all prior to trimming  ,

more to follow tomorrow hopefully .

[landroversforever]

That’s coming together nicely