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...

Dash Box project: Musings and developments...

OK, an update on Project Dash Box...

Following a couple of really good suggestions, I’ve laid my grubby mitts on a Rivnut installation tool with assorted metric sized rivnuts. It’s a bit like a pop rivet gun, but for threaded pop rivets style nuts to accept screws and bolts. I’m awaiting delivery of a few metric Cap Head Socket Screws (hex, or Allen key sockets).

From the imagery and measurements I’ve taken of the centre console assembly, it looks as if I should be able to stick an M4, maybe an M5, rivnut in the console flat top, so as to fix the Meccano ‘girder’ in place. I’ve therefore chosen the Cap Head Socket Screws, as I can reach into the screw holes in the top of the girder, to screw the screws down into the rivnuts.

I reckon five of the rivnuts, spaced equally along the dash top plastic surface, should do the trick, with M4x10 or M5x10 screws to anchor the girder in place on the console top with a fair amount of rigidity. The instrument case that forms the dash box will then be mounted on top of the girder, and bolted to it using conventional nuts and bolts through the casing of the box. This will provide resistance to forward and rearward motion of the box at the front.

With the two L-bolts I have on the way from a friend to lock into the air vent I mentioned in a previous posting, and as well as holding down the rear of the box to the dash, the rear of the box will be anchored in place at the rear, and will prevent both lateral and forward/backward motion of the box.

Before I can get moving on this, I have to prepare a few things first.

The Meccano ‘girder’ is covered in a zinc coating, which needs to be roughed up with sandpaper to accept a couple of coats of matt black paint (this to prevent reflections in the cabin of the car).

Once that’s done, the girder will be ready. Then all I have to do is test and install (one trial rivnut smack dab central on the plastic flat top of the dash, to check for practicality), and then it’ll off to the races.

I also have to bend the girder base back slightly - there’s going to be some testing and adjustment to this, as I need the box to rest on top of the thing flat, with no gaps; one ‘leg’ will be at a right angle (and won’t be messed with) - that’ll be the leg to be mated to the dash box. The other will be bent back slightly, so as to provide the correct angle against the plastic dash top, for when the dash box is eventually mounted in place. I’ll have to use a large vice to bend that metal girder ‘leg’, as the girder is remarkably tough for a meccano part!

I also have to enlarge one of the mounting holes on the girder to accept a standard 1/4"-20 pitch thread camera mounting screw. That’s going to be fairly easy (you use an electric drill, and re-drill the hole required).

The initial aim here, is to get the basics done, in preparation for the installation of the box itself, which will be a monumental PITA of a job, but which also lays the groundwork for future upgrades to the wagon.

The box installation will require wiring runs and routing, and may require major parts of the dash to be removed for the purpose. I’m looking at doing that after the first week in June, as the first week, I’m planned to be in France for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. All of this, by the way, when I’m on leave from work for three weeks from the beginning of June (leave tends to be block allocated by the company).

In the interim between this week and the beginning of June, the girder installation will provide me a reliable mounting point to remount the Yaesu two-way control head, and my (new) mobile phone mounting assembly.

Should be interesting!