Project Dash Box - Quick update:

Arrived yesterday through Amazon, a 2mm thick plastic (polystyrene) sheet for use as the front (and possibly rear as well) panel of the dash top box, and a tool I should have had when I drilled the Meccano girder, a deburring tool. This WILL come in useful for tidying up the panel cut outs I do this weekend, and will save a mahoosive amount of grief by not having to use the Clarke Rotary tool to do that particular task.

Project Dash Box - another update...!

Dash air vent mounting, Meccano Girder, and alternative phone mounting method...

The Dash Air Vent Mounting bolts...

The ‘L-bolts’ a mate of mine (Thanks Dave!) threw together, using his welder, arrived today. And it was immediately apparent I may have cocked things up a bit. The holes in the vent between the vanes are smaller than the bolt shank, dammit, by about a millimetre and a half or so side-to-side: Yup, the damn vent slots are OBLONG, not bloody SQUARE. D’OH.

There’s little point in remaking the bolts in a smaller size, as the welding (I’m not a welder, but I believe it’s something to do with the flux on the welding rods) just would not hold on such a small thing (M3, maybe M4 or so, I think), so instead, I may well use my Clarke rotary tool (a Dremmel-like hand held power tool), and saw off a vent vane at each end to make room for the bolts to go into place.

This seems to be the best way forward, without entirely disassembling the dash, so it’s the way I’m going to go, unless a better way comes along before I install everything.

The Meccano Girder...

Well, the painting of the girder was almost flawless. Unfortunately, I didn’t check to see if the paint can had a trap attached. Oops. Rolled a Snake eyes. It DID have a trap. A small break-off tab that lands in front of the spray head nozzle.

Plastikote rattle cans are wonderful things, they have a lock/unlock head unit over the spray nozzle that locks the spray head off when not in use: You have to manually rotate the thing through 90 degrees, to unlock it. But before you use it for the first time, make sure you’ve taken off that tab, or you’ll wind up spraying the inside of the locking head, with the overflow dribbling down the side of the can. Glad I was wearing nitrile gloves!

Anyhow, tab removed, lock head and can top cleaned, spraying actually done now, and the girder is now drying in the sunlight of an unusually warm April afternoon. I’ll give it another coat on both sides in a couple of hours. After that, I’ll give it a coat of Plastikote clear matt lacquer (I’ll remove that damned tab before I begin THAT operation!), and that’ll be that, ready for installation.

Alternative phone mounting method...

I’ve also figured a way around the phone mount issue. I’m not going to mount the phone on the girder after all.

Instead, I’ll be installing the dash box so it’s overhanging the centre console, and I’ll then screw the mounting into the underside of the dash box instead. This will result in the box pulling the box directly (near vertically downwards, in fact) onto the girder, and not exerting undue angular rearward and downward tension on the girder, and thus the phone mount will not be imparting the resulting excessive torque on the rivnuts to be used to hold the girder in place.

So, now I have to go back to the CAD package, and work out how I’m going to alter the front panel layout, now that the I have all this extra space I’m not going to use for the radio control head, or the phone :)

Any more physical work on this project will have to wait for another weekend on the work rota.

Still, two steps forward, one back, and all that…!

Project Dashbox update...

OK, I have the Meccano 'girder' prepared for painting. However, I have encountered an unforeseen problem.

Enlargening a pair of holes in the girder (the first one I messed up: I opened out on of the holes nearest the sidewall, but the nut for the mount wouldn't fit there!

So, plan B: Open up another hole, this time in the centre line. Job done on second attempt ;)

However, on testing the fit with my phone fitted into the mount, it was very clear that a LOT of mass was involved, so much so, that I'm concerned that the rivnuts (to be installed) won't be able to handle the weight of the mounting with the phone attached, without bracing from the top - in other words, it'll pull out the rivnuts out of the dash top, unless the box is also mounted on top of the girder, providing reinforcing strength.

Oh, FUDGE, And other words.

So, I'm going to paint the girder (no reason not to), and consider my next move.

Irritating is not the word... :(

Anyhow, the photos. There are three here, showing the girder in detail in two (top and bottom shots), and the tools involved; I utterly shagged two dremmel-style wire brushes, and two sanding bands, in preparing the surface of the girder to be painted (I used my Clarke rotary tool for that).

Ye gods, that Zinc is tough stuff!

The holes in the girder were enlargened with a 6.5mm high speed steel drill bit (using my Bosch PSR-18 cordless drill), and I then de-burred the holes using a couple of grinding stones in my Clarke rotary tool.

In between every part of the job, I had to recharge the Clarke tool; that battery needs replacing, but they don't sell spare ones :( Guess that's another task for me to do... crack open the battery casing, and replace the NiCads in there with new ones... shouldn't bee too hard ;-)

Oh, and note the filter mask. ANY time you're sanding something, be it wood, plastic, or metal, you produce dust. Metallic dust is especially bad news for your lungs. So, if you're sanding - especially using power tools to sand something - wear PPE; in this case, a filter mask and goggles. You don't want that crap down your lungs, or in your eyes. Oh, and wear gloves, too, if you use power tools - even a Dremmel or similar rotary tool.

More tomorrow...