A useful swap for the early dash speaker bin.

[Dark Skies]

Behold! A replacement panel that makes practical use of the unused speaker bin set in the middle of the dash. Many's the time somewhere to stash a parking ticket, change, a pen or a demister sponge has found me wanting. Well now I've actually got around to doing something about it.


For those that might want to make up a similar panel here's how I went about it:

Take a sheet of 1.5 mm aluminium alloy and cut out an oblong 194 mm wide X 143 mm tall. Radius each corner by 13 mm (I used a 26 mm diameter washer and simply scribed around it).

Measure 63 mm down the vertical edge (the 143 mm length) and scribe a horizontal line - this is the centre-crease for folding. You can get the angle for this by placing the original grill side on to a piece of card and marking the edge with a pencil for reference.

I found the best way to fold the panel to shape was to lie it flat on a work bench with the scribed line about 2 mm off the edge (to allow for stretch) of the bench. Then I clamped a length of wood over the top, again 2 mm) off the line to hold it in place. Bending the panel was done by using another piece of wood and pushing downwards carefully until I achieved the correct angle.


At this point you're on your own as to what purpose your panel will serve. In my case I trawled a scrapyard for a suitable small-change binnacle and cut an appropriate oblong out of the panel. I also drilled a hole big enough to accomodate a rubber panel grommet that will snugly hold a handy pen. Bear in mind, though, that in order to be able to use the following panel retaining method you will need to be able to comfortably get your fingers in behind the panel with it in place in order to tighten the fasteners. Consequently a fitting must be able to be clipped in place after the panel has been locked in situ.

It's important to clean up all the edges with abrasive paper so that they don't cut the upholstery vinyl when it's applied later. Also don't forget to polish out any scribe lines too - this prevents them from becoming stress cracks through vibration.

To hold the panel in place I used a couple of 45 mm trim retainers and some plastic cup washers off the door panels available from a Saab 900 or 99. These are perfect because they clamp with a simple push fit action and will fit tightly at an angle. This means you can utilize the bottom two holes that the speaker grill lugs fit into without worrying about the angle disparity.

Whilst you're in that Saab have a good rummage around the interior for other fasteners because they have some really neat methods for securing trim that might prove useful to your project.

For the sake of cosmetic appearance I machined down the outside facing heads by clamping the fasteners in an electric drill chuck and then gently holding them against a sandpaper block. I ended up with much neater 10 mm diameter heads and then painted them with a black touch-up stick.

Two M5 holes were drilled at the bottom of the panel for the fasteners to pass through. Their centres were 13 mm up from the bottom edge and 20 mm in from their respective outside edges.


The upper part of the panel is held in place using a simple metal strap (one of those Meccano-like securing strips that come with DIN radios and electrical antenae). This fastens to the exposed length of M6 thread (with a nyloc nut) that holds the dash in place. The precise length is easily determined by offering the strip up in situ. The length is pretty flexible because you can easily bend the strip to take up any slack whilst it's screwed in place. I pop-riveted the strip onto my panel because the top will be hidden by the dash cover I designed a fair few posts back.

There's nothing to stop you, of course, from using a further two Saab trim retainers instead.

Matching viynl upholstery cloth was then glued to the facing edge (upholstery glue) with an overlap of 10 mm on the back edge (superglued for speed).

Job done.

[Dark Skies]

By the way - that light line you can see above the upholstered dash panel is untrimmed metal - better for the Sika flex to glue my dash top cover to later on and will, therefore, be invisible.

The blob of foam on the 'Meccano' strip was there to damp down vibration / rattles but was subsequently removed when I repopped the bracket with a Mk II retainer.

The gap around the panel is to allow for some under-foam for the uholstery which will 'bloat out' the edge. This pic was taken during the first trial fit before the viynl was glued in place (gaffer tape was used instead).

[Sabyre]

Nice job! I like that. I might give it a shot while doing my dash, center consol restoration.

Thanks

[Don 944 LA]

I figured that I would put a small LCD panel when I put a small PC in the P-Car. It will be OK Legally cuz it will have a GPS navigation system, therefore being legal for the driver to view.

[Dark Skies]

Originally posted by Sabyre
Nice job! I like that. I might give it a shot while doing my dash, center consol restoration.

Thanks

Glad it might prove of some use. I doubt if it takes more than an hour or so to do. Go to a scrap yard and you'll find most of the materials (including the cloth) pretty cheap I'm sure.

[Dark Skies]

Originally posted by Don 944 LA
I figured that I would put a small LCD panel when I put a small PC in the P-Car. It will be OK Legally cuz it will have a GPS navigation system, therefore being legal for the driver to view.

On a slightly less grand scale I did briefly consider putting a compass in there. Can't think when I last had to seriously use one though. Also considered a focusable map reading light (ball socket type). Gave that up because I recalled reading a much smarter tube type idea elsewhere on this forum which I want to try some time. I opted out of my initial cup holder idea because I could see the high C of G causing it to go tits up very quickly. Didn't fancy scolding my nads and getting coffee in the electrics the first time I swung into a right turn.

Having somewhere to stow a pen so I could jot down the "How's my driving?" phone number off the next rig that cuts me up and shout down the mobile: 'F R A N K L Y I T ' S C R A P !!!' and a small change bin seemed the more useful idea in the end. Handy place for sticking a windscreen demister chamois too.

[Smile]

Very nice!!!

I made mine differently. (Unfortunatly).
Mine took a lot longer and still yours looks nicer.

I covered my speaker cover with plastic folie and then I made a form out of plastic. (2 components plastic and some armour). Then I casted it with the same method again. I also casted four wodden pins, like the speaker has, for fitting)

Then I had to spend some time with plastic padding and sand paper.


When finally finished, I painted it.
Result like this. (Observe that its NOT entirely pushed down in this picture.

(During casting I casted a nice whole for the gauge.)

[bryanthompson]

Originally posted by Don 944 LA
I figured that I would put a small LCD panel when I put a small PC in the P-Car. It will be OK Legally cuz it will have a GPS navigation system, therefore being legal for the driver to view.

Check http://www.cardiscountstereos.com/ for good deals on LCDs. I saw a 7" for only $90 awhile back. You have to do some of the wiring yourself, but most of them accept an SVideo or RCA type of video feed.

If you build a PC, use a mini itx motherboard... http://mini-itx.com. Most of them have onboard sound & video (VGA, Svideo and RCA type), plus there's a pretty cheap 12v DC/DC adapter you can get as the power supply. You can get cheapish USB GPS, and build Serial port Infrared receiver so you can use a regular remote to control everything. www.mp3car.com has quite a few examples of other peoples' work.

I built one of these for my old car... but with the P-Car, i've been able to hold my own personal geekyness off and just enjoy the ride.

[Zero10]

A word of advice, standard computer hard drives do not stand up well to the abuse of the road. The best solution is to get an IDE adapter, and run a notebook hard drive, surrounded in foam. Worked perfectly for me.
It's not a bad idea to use a mini ATX board, get the smallest board you can, and build your own enclosure, depending on the power supply you buy, you can make this quite tiny. The other option is what's called a 'shuttle case' they are about 6"x6"x8", and will still house a CD drive. I still reccomend the notebook HD idea though. I actually made a fujitsu 13GB drive fail simply going over a small set of rumble strips coming up to an intersection at 30kph. They take suprisingly little abuse.

[924Sman]

Skies...Thanks for the pics! I have been wanting to place my gages in that location but wasn't brave enough to open it up to see what space was available.ummmmm I can see my lap timer there now! Sman

[Dark Skies]

Originally posted by Smile
Very nice!!!

Cheers.

I must say you put a lot more effort into it than I could have been arsed to. My garage is too cold at this time of the year to contemplate projects anything longer than two hours.

What does the gauge and switch deal with?

[Dark Skies]

Originally posted by 924Sman
Skies...Thanks for the pics! I have been wanting to place my gages in that location but wasn't brave enough to open it up to see what space was available.ummmmm I can see my lap timer there now! Sman

My pleasure. The grill just prys up (gently does it) as it's just held in with interference-fit plastic pegs.

[TCMdocs944]

Great job DarkSkies!!

We are on the same path with the metal fab...dash stuff.

FYI - just read an interesting hotrod artical on how solder, yes solder can be used to fill sheetmetal holes <1/8th inch and "weld" patch material.....

I will think of a use for this sometime...

[bryanthompson]

Originally posted by Zero10
A word of advice, standard computer hard drives do not stand up well to the abuse of the road. The best solution is to get an IDE adapter, and run a notebook hard drive, surrounded in foam. Worked perfectly for me.
It's not a bad idea to use a mini ATX board, get the smallest board you can, and build your own enclosure, depending on the power supply you buy, you can make this quite tiny. The other option is what's called a 'shuttle case' they are about 6"x6"x8", and will still house a CD drive. I still reccomend the notebook HD idea though. I actually made a fujitsu 13GB drive fail simply going over a small set of rumble strips coming up to an intersection at 30kph. They take suprisingly little abuse.

Depending on how much storage you need you can use CompactFlash cards, which don't have any moving parts. They're a bit more expensive, but it beats buying a new HDD every couple months.

With your foam enclosure, how does the hdd get rid of heat? Have you done any expirimenting with a suspended drive? I've seen people build a case from aluminum with 8 springs or so suspending the drive. I would imagine the constant swaying would do some damage, though.

[Dark Skies]

Originally posted by TCMdocs944
We are on the same path with the metal fab...dash stuff.

How's that getting along?



FYI - just read an interesting hotrod artical on how solder, yes solder can be used to fill sheetmetal holes <1/8th inch and "weld" patch material.....

I will think of a use for this sometime... [/QUOTE]

As I recall Rolls Royce and Jaguar (we're talking way back to the sixties and earlier) used to use molten lead as a filler for bodywork panels and sealing seams. It petered out as an art (except in a very few classic restoration workshops) because lead is dangerous, more expensive and less easy to manage than newer filling materials.

You don't see much of it now although it is said to have been a superior medium. What kind of solder and etching material were they using? I can definitely see the use in filling small holes instead of welding or using plastic.

[isocyn8]

This is an old post, but thought I would throw a pic of what I put in my center speaker location.

[MrTibbs]

Haven't seen this thread before, but I'm planning on doing something similar to my early dash. I want to move a power point up there so I don't punch the sat nav lead every time I change into 1st, 3rd or 5th.

I was thinking about mounting the sat nav in there, but sod's law it'll break as soon as I do that and I'll want a different make/shaped one.

Did you put power to the back of your satnav? and if so did you take a feed from the cigarette lighter?

Mike

[isocyn8]

I did put the power cord thru the back of the mount and I hard wired to the fusebox off of a switched fuse.