More dash...

 This weekend has been all about the dash. It had meant to be engine servicing time, but since I had everything all over the bonnet I wasn't able to actually get to the engine!

Anyhow... first was cutting the wood for the bezels;

That was fairly easy, although yet again they didn't line up with the gauges once they were in the dash. I don't exactly know how it can become misaligned, but at least this time I was able to creep up on the edge to get it in the right place. 

Now to the curve. After failing miserably at printing, I did find that the plywood would delaminate... into a load of unusable splinters! So then I went back to the basic idea, hot water and a vice;

And it actually worked quite well!! I need maybe 90 degrees of total angle, and this was the first step before I got this particular piece to around 120 degrees of curve. All I need to do is chop out the best sections and glue them to the ends of the dash.

So, back to the dashboard blank, and the main reason why I'm in this predicament. The lower radius for IVA. The wood profile I got was 20mm and is pretty rigid. Given that other builders use pool noodles and PVC piping I don't think I'll have an issue with the profile itself. What I will have issue with is gluing it to the edge (more on that later).

This is the edge glued to the bottom edge;

It feels rigid but won't survive an inspectors 'percussion test'. On to the end though. A slice of curved wood and a shorter length of profile got me here;

I need to shape the profile to suit the curve, but it went together well. I needed to glue the profile on when it was in the car, to make sure the curve matched the body.

I'm happy with the end result though;

It needs trimming either end, then painting/varnishing to seal, then the leather can go on.

Back to the percussion test. The general opinion is that the inspector will give things a bit of a thump, and this won't survive. Well, the dash would, as it's got GRP behind it. But the profile may snap off. I've also got to figure out a way of permanently fixing the dash. Even while I'm typing this I'm having some ideas!!

So, bottom edge. I reckon some bent angle iron to go from the back of the profile to the back of the GRP will work. I can bond it to the GRP and it'll become a rigid fixing for the profile. I reckon maybe three brackets of 2-3 inches wide will do the trick well. 

The sides I'm not bothered about, I'm happy that they can be decorative and they're actually reinforced already;

They wouldn't survive person impact but then the next thing the person will be hitting is the aluminium behind!

Then along the top I need some fixings. One idea is to countersink M6 screws into the wood, then use wing nuts to fix it from behind. The problem I have is that I wanted to keep things thin, so the wood is only 3.5mm thick. That wouldn't leave very much space for countersinking. 

The other option is to use visible fixings, screws in from the front that go to nuts/rivnuts in the back. But I can't do that, because I have the support brace back there. However, that same support brace will work for me this time. All I need to do is drill one size smaller then use a tap to create small threaded sections for the dash. It's not thick material (I wouldn't want to hang a seatbelt off it!), but given that I could use 6-8 fixings evenly spaced along the top it wouldn't need to be thick material. 

So that's the next steps;

1. Print the bezels in ABS and fix glass to them.
2. Trim the two ends.
3. Shape the lower profile where it meets the curved plywood
4. Create brackets for the lower edge.
5. Drill and tap holes for the upper edge.
6. Cover the dash.

Oh, I forgot point 5.5. I still need some warning lights, not many but they need to sit above the steering wheel so that they're visible and not tested for protrusions. I need to double check the regs to make sure I have the right number and colour of lights, as well as a method of labelling them. 

Oh, for covering I'm not doing anything clever, just spray adhesive and one layer of leather. I will need to fold over the top and side edge, but the bottom edge just wraps round the profile. It's more about 'where' to do that, I need a large clean area where I can spray adhesive. My office is a large clean area but not suitable for adhesive, whereas the garage is good for adhesive but not so clean. 

Productive weekend? Meh, I spent a lot of it waiting for glue to dry. Still, I have made a decent amount of progress on the dash, maybe one or two weekdays (at least for the printing) should have it finished.

Dash

 The bezels are working well, I needed to do some tweaking but I've got some working designs for them. I still need to do the double bezel for the smaller ones but other than that I just have to print them out in ABS and maybe refinish the face to make it look nice.

However the two ends have been more trouble. I got the right curve reasonably easily, second attempt and it was accurate. But trying to print a curve wide enough just fails, the closest I got was 80% there before the print detached. ABS would detach even quicker, so that's not an option. So I need some other material that is curved to the right level, can be held at that curve and is thick enough to match the wood. 

I do have plenty of plywood, I am wondering whether I could get it to delaminate, allow it to bend then glue it back together with a curve. Soaking it in water would be the first thing to try, I'll give that a go tonight.

Otherwise it's back to trying to find suitably thin wood to laminate. I do still have the veneer I used for another project, that might work but I need a suitable clamp. Of course, I do have the failed 3D prints that might be enough. 

I really don't need much, it is just decorative either side. But I want to persevere with it so I don't end up with just a flat dash. 

Gauge bezels part 2

 I'm calling it part 2 as I think I had an initial run with this, I just can't remember where it was. In any case, now that I have the wood face I can start planning the bezels.

My first attempt a while back was a 'P' shape, with a straight outer face and a lip on the inside for the glass;

This looked ok although it was very bulky, far more material than I needed. But it was based on the required radius. The problem is that while it had the inner lip for the glass, it didn't have any means of mounting to the panel.

Attempt two was a 'T' profile, with a lip on the inside for the glass and on the outside for panel mounting. This one was also a lot flatter, the idea was that if I got it under the 3mm limit I could have it blunted rather than having to meet a radius;

This was printed and it worked quite well, the only issue was the accuracy of my board cutting as it didn't fit.

Then I thought about an angle bezel. Here is a random picture off the internet;

It's clear to see that the front edge is wider than the rear edge, and this would work well for me. So I altered the previous one to have an angle to it, as well as shrink it down to fit in the hole;

It's only a slight angle but I think it could work. Then I realised two issues;

1. I need to enlarge the wood cut out rather than shrink the bezel, otherwise I won't be able to see enough of the gauge.
2. If I leave it angled like this, I can't get the glass in!!

So it's back to option 2, a straight edge. I do need to make it bigger though, and then trim the wood to suit. Then what I'll do is create an inner angled part that will give the expected profile to the gauge, the wider angle for visibility, and serve as a retainer for the glass. 

I'll update this as I go to make sure I have a record and to serve as a reminder for myself on what I had planned. My memory is like a... you know, those orange coloured fish things... so I'm having to write everything down. I'm also limited on print time, I have the printer in the office with me and it can be noisy for conference calls. And lastly I'm currently test printing in PLA as it's easier, but once I have the final design I'll need to reprint in ABS so it doesn't just melt in the dash. 

(later that day)

I created an angled bezel... and got it completely wrong. Too sharp an angle and way too small, it would have worked fine for the smaller gauges but no good for the larger ones. A quick redesign and I have the two halves the correct angle and size. This is how it looks on the gauges;

My only concern now is the overlap. Between the speed and rev counter I think it's good, but between the rev counter and the smaller gauge pair I think there's a conflict. Not much I can do about it now though, I'll print the smaller pair as one unit then see what needs to be done. At worst I'll need to print the bezel face as one piece for all three gauges. 

It's a remarkably tight fit between the two halves though, which is good. It'll keep the glass pinned but I'll still run a bead of glue in the gap to seal them. 

dash gauges continued

 It was a decently productive weekend even with the hot weather. Normally the garage is cool on the verge of being too cold, but the hot sticky weather didn't make working conditions overly pleasant.

Anyway, first step, a box for the gauges;

The tabs on the two sides were split to go round the metal bar underneath the dash. The lower tab was drilled to screw it into rivnuts under the dash, the upper tabs got rubber pads glued on so they sat against the underneath of the bodywork and provided some stability.

Once that was built up I could mark the relevant locations for cutting;

Then a first cut;

Looks like even my usually accurate measuring wasn't good enough here, so I had to trim back with an offset;

You can see the original blue lines under the actual cutouts. After that the masking tape came off to reveal the final effect;

I'm happy with the speedo and rev counter, but the smaller gauges don't really work for me. They're not in the right place and they're too close together. I think I'm going to merge the two, and create a 'pill shaped' frame that links them together. I also need to make it slightly higher as they're also misaligned!

On to the fascia. I've been back and forth on this more times than I can remember. I did want to just have the small rounded edge, the rules being that if it's padded then it can be a smaller edge. But after a bit of research it turns out that 'padded' means that the inspector should not be able to get to a hard surface. Overall this meant something like yoga mat or similar thick material. Given that it would have to be across the entire surface and add at least half an inch, it just wasn't going to be possible. 

So once again I've flipped back to the 19mm radius requirement. I've got hold of some 21mm quarter profile as well as 3.5mm ply. I'll build the dash up from those, then cover with leather.

First step, mask off the area;

I want it to be 10mm down from the top, it needs to extend below the lower edge, and I want it to have a partial curve on either end. 

The first cut didn't go too well;

I did it to include the curve, but that plywood is not going to bend at all. Sort of expected but still disappointing. I cut lengths of either end then it went on quite nicely;

For reference I then cut out the gauge holes, remembering to move the smaller gauges up a bit;

Of course I need to trim back the body a bit but I think combining the two will work well. 

The next jobs are;

1. 3D print some bezels, as well as the cylinders to meet the gauges. And I also need to apply the glass to those. 
2. I will also 3D print the end curves to make it look like how I want. I did think about bending wood, perhaps some aluminium, but I think a plastic print will be easiest as it's just a single curve. 
3. The bottom edge needs the quarter profile glued to it.
4. The whole thing needs covering. Ooh, that reminds me, I need to make the holes bigger otherwise I won't be able to wrap the leather round. It's about 2mm thick so I need the holes about 2mm bigger.

The other thing I need to do is sort of the depth. Measuring from the surface of the wood to the dial face shows the speedo is 22mm deep, the rev counter is 24 and the smaller dials are 26mm. Which means the whole thing is twisted. I can see the gap here;

I can't tell whether it's the bodywork that isn't straight, the bracing which isn't straight or the gauge box that isn't straight. The solution is the same though, I need to add a bracket to pull the bodywork on to the gauges. Even clamping it up I still have 22mm on the speedo, 23mm on the rev counter and 24mm on the small gauges, but at least it's not as noticeable. I'll need to do that before I do anything major with the fascia though, otherwise I risk other issues. 

The fascia then needs to be attached to the body. I was going to just glue it, but then I thought maybe velcro would be good for maintenance? But then I remembered speaker grilles, and the pins they use. They're not expensive, just rubber pins that press fit. I reckon around 8-10 fixings across the full length will work fine. Glue them to the wood, drill and fit the receivers in the body, job done. I don't see it being an IVA issue because many production cars have similar 'press fit' parts. Velcro on the other hand would be very questionable, particularly as the manual specifically excludes double sided tape. 

Post holiday progress - dash gauges

 The other job I have ongoing is the dash gauges. With the current positioning on the back board they don't fit in the dash, it's simply too tall for the smaller gauges;

The gauges are that far apart because of the extra tabs that I don't need. So first job was to trim those bits off;

Now that they're gone it's clear that the two smaller gauges can be tightened up. In addition the circuit board on the temp gauge was sticking out the bottom. This hosts a couple of resistors which I moved;

With those moved I could trim the board;

Then the two small gauges can be brought in tighter;

This gains me about an inch on the bottom. As a last step I drilled holes for the illumination;

Two bulbs each for the larger gauges, and one each for the smaller ones. The two in between the speedo and rev counter were a bit tight but it looks ok. And here's the finished article;

The gap from the bulbs to the plastic lens is good and should work well;

Now that things are tightened up and ready to go, I need to make the box. It'll be a strip of aluminium bent at the right locations on the corners. It needs to come up on the sides to bolt to the steel crossbar hidden underneath the dash. A couple of bolts will be fine for that, it'll be tight against the body on the dash and on the top. Then a short wiring loom for the rev counter, oil pressure and temp gauges (speedo has no electronics), a connector on the end then that's a self contained unit done. 

Oh, and talking of the dash... I got a length of tube that covers the bottom radius of the dash for the IVA... and it looks awful! It's a really big radius to deal with when it's a hard surface, and I don't think I can get away with it. So once again I'm leaning towards a soft panel for the dash, reusing some of the pleather that will make up the seats. I might take a photo of the dash as it is and do some practices with photoshop. I also need to figure out what is meant by 'soft', I don't want it too thick (5mm max sort of thing), but I want to make sure I cover the requirements. Hopefully if I can use some very thin yoga mat type material then I'll be good. Once that's decided I can work with a much smaller radius on the bottom. 

Post holiday progress - wheel guards

 Things got cut short after my last post, holiday prep took over and then it was a week off in an AirBnB. It was a nice holiday, but each evening I felt like I ought to be in the garage!

Anyway, the Sunday after we got back I jumped straight into the garage to get the wheel guards sorted. After the last attempt I decided a smaller guard was required. Also while on hols I was thinking of material, having to use fibreglass vs other options. To get fibreglass to work I would have had to create a mould. That mould would be duplicated both sides and would take a while to process, along with having a poor finish at the end that I would have to fix. 

I was doing fibreglass because I thought the thickness would play a part. But thickness is only relevant at the edge, where the IVA rears its ugly head again. A bit of clip on trim would suffice to make it 'pedestrian friendly', and that would probably apply to fibreglass as well as metal. 

In any case, a new mould was made, this one at a 10 degree downward angle rather than the 45 degrees the previous one ended up with. This required a raised end template but the process was still the same;

This is the front end at about 40 degrees, so past the required angle. This gives me enough space to do a round edge. It's similar at the back, past the required 50 degrees and 150mm. 

After that I cut some aluminium to size;

I'm a lot happier with this, it's much smaller and more in keeping with the whole design of the car. It's still bigger than the racing Healey I'm using as inspiration, but that can't be helped.

With the wrapping off I can see what it's going to be like;

With the black edge trim I think it'll look really good. The only thing I do need to decide is whether to use some black piping on the inside edge, at the moment it's so tight on the seam that it looks like the bodywork rests on top of it rather than the guard being attached to the side!

With one side now complete it was a simple case of flattening it out, inverting it and cutting a new one for the other side. That works almost immediately, with only a minor amount of fettling to be done where the bodywork isn't quite a mirror image.

The last job was to leave a mark on the body where the panel sits;

Taking comparable pictures side by side shows that I'm pretty much on target with a matching pair, again there's slight differences because of the bodywork not being a perfect mirror image but I can work round them. I took all measurements from the wing seam, so even if they're in slightly different places the overall look will match left and right. 

Now that I'm back to a movable car I can get on with other jobs. The rear guards can wait, I'll follow the same process but I need to turn the car round as there's zero room at the back. That'll be fun, a U turn on the drive, with a car with only hand tight suspension and steering!