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Some fun progress on the dash this week.

I'm doing a 'floating' dash panel since 1. I've got space between the dash and wheel, 2. I want to preserve the cross car structure I added behind the dash rather than cutting it up to shove gauges through, and 3. I think it will look cool with a layered effect rather than the typical flat panel. The whole thing will sit about 1" away from the dash surface.

I need a computer screen for megasquirt info and thought about just using it for gauges as well but I like the look of real gauges and I want to be able to at least use the car if the computer doesn't start. I built an on board PC for the display and megasquirt tuning with a smart powersupply that sleeps with ign off and then shuts the 5V rail down to save the battery. Boot time is under 10s with ign on, seems to work really well on the bench so far. When not used for tuning the screen will display gear state and other engine parameters not covered by the real gauges. There are some cool options for great looking megasquirt 'dashboards' that will boot up automatically that fit well in the 7" display.

Cardboard mockup for ergo:



Cardboard template with gauges and switch/monitor panel.

I used frontpanelexpress.com to design and build the switch panel and screen mounting. This is another awesome online machining company, would use them again in a heartbeat.

The Speedhut gauges are only 1" thick which allows this whole thing to work. I'll machine some aluminum tubes to cover the back of the gauges and appear to support the floating panel. I think it will be a cool effect.

The blue painters tape is covering more carbon, that's the standard dash panel.



Dash in carbon:



On the car:



Alex

That's pretty cool Alex!

Well done.

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Trochu Motor League

That does look cool, sorta like Star Wars... But Bubba said, "If he gots time to look at the TV and play with all them switches, then he ain't drivin' fast enough."


JDK

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JD, father of Quinn, Son of a... Build Log
Quinn the Slotus:Ford 302 Powered, Mallock-Inspired, Tube Frame, Hillclimb Special
"Gonzo and friends: Last night must have been quite a night. Camelot moments, mechanical marvels, Rustoleum launches, flying squirrels, fru-fru tea cuppers, V8 envy, Ensure catch cans -- and it wasn't even a full moon." -- SeattleTom

Going to be lots of detail stuff for a while as I finish each piece. Fun but a different pace and thought process.

I got the hood and scuttle done and ready for paint. That meant building a prop rod (holy crap there are a lot of details on a car), some panel alignments, a little bondo and a lot of sanding. They'll sit now until spring when I can get enough ventilation to make a good paint booth without worrying about the heater airflow in the garage. I'd love to have them done-done but there's plenty to do before I need them painted.

I finished all the stand-offs for the gages and switches for the 'floating' dash panel. These were fun. Cosmetic machining with no real tolerances to speak of. I then clear powdercoated the machined pieces. Matches the gauge bezel finish nearly perfectly.





Today was a huge stupid victory! I have been counting on sandblasting and powdercoating the throttle bodies which means I need to replace all the sealed needle bearings. Given that plan I haven't been at all careful with dust or chips in there so they really do need to be replaced now regardless of paint finish or sandblasting. However, I didn't realize they were nearly impossible to get out! they only have a clearance hole for the throttle shaft, not the bearing OD so there's no way to get a punch on the back side. I ruined both of them on my one disposable test part and was onto trying the first one that actually needed to be used without any success on practice runs, yikes.

I whittled out a small(really small, 8mm), expandable puller for a slide hammer. It grabs the back side of the needle cage after I pull out the backside seal with a dental pick and hopefully pulls the bearing out by the outer face. Sucks being an hour into a tool thinking it was very likely to fail. Pretty happy with how well it worked given how impossible it seemed using more normal methods on the first part. I even tried drilling on that first one but the races are super hard, wasn't going to leave the aluminum in nice shape at all.





So, next up is sandblasting and powdercoating the TB's, pressing in new bearings, re-assembling, and storing them for later. Same with polishing the intakes and finishing the valve cover. Then header, then more body parts. Once it's a bare frame and everything is finished on a shelf we go in reverse order, I guess. This is pretty fun, not a ton of hard thinking.

Alex

That dash is gorgeous!

Thanks! I figured I'll be looking at it a lot (someday) so might as well make it interesting.

frontpanelexpress.com was really great to use. Now I'm thinking of all sorts of stuff around the house that needs a custom electrical or plumbing panel.

Alex

Tell me about those tiny headlights. Do they mount in a pod or the glass housing?

Search "2.5 inch projector beam headlight" and you'll get a bunch of choices. They're all nearly the same geometry copied by a number of Chinese manufacturers. I could never find the root product that they all copied which is usaly much nicer so I went with the best reviewed Chinese part I could find. As usual, that link is dead now after just a few months but here's a very similar example:

https://www.amazon.com/Nilight-Projecto ... B00B21R0TA

They're what Stalker specified. As with any product that's been heavily knocked off by Chinese companies you can get them from any number of websites with vastly varying quality. The lights I got seem of reasonable quality, all metal parts, etc. No idea how they work yet, of course!

Alex

I have one of those kits. They are designed to be installed inside a housing that will keep them clean and dry. The chrome bit just blocks light and is very flimsy plastic with slots around the opening to shine through. They are modeled after hella lights that are very expensive but sealed for stand-alone use.

The bulbs are H1 type because that is the only thing that will fit the space available after the neck is clamped into the opening of a H4 bulb hole in a standard headlight bucket.

I wrote about them recently with pics in the topic on legal led lights.

You can find the hell sealed servo lights at www.rallylights.com. Great stuff but pricey.

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12

Here ya go:

https://www.rallylights.com/90bh-hella- ... dlamp.html

_________________
Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12

Thank you. That may be just the ticket if I can figure out a housing to make them stand alone. May buy the cheap ones and if I can make the housing work go with the high/low set up. I drive on the right side of the road so does that mean I need I need left side traffic option?

Right hand drive or DOT since we drive o the right side of the road. The difference in all those is the shape of the bottom edge of the metal blocker door. It will hang down more so on the left side on DOT to prevent blinding oncoming traffic while still lighting up should signs.

To make a case, I'd bolt on a backing flange that sticks out two inches all around, temporarily hot glue a mdf wafer to the front of the chrome plastic piece that is slightly bigger in od, cover the whole thing in plastic wrap, then lay 3 or 4 layers of fiberglass weave over the front and out to the edge of the flange. Make the lens from the 1/4 inch thick acrylic storm window plastic or buy some on ebay or from mcmastercarr. Layup another half cover for the back.

_________________
Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12

OK, felt bad about not taking any pictures of the finishing process. Getting pretty tired of coating aluminum panels so I stopped to snap a couple pics. It was helpful to realize that this is why it seems slow right now. There are a ton of parts that in my mind were 'done' but now need a pretty good chunk of time to be actually done.

Here's a couple typical 'done' aluminum panels. The problem is that each of the marked holes needs a rivnut or some other thing installed, cut, or drilled because I couldn't get the tool in place when they were in-situ. Then they need to be de-burred, plastic peeled off, acetoned, sandblasted and coated.



Here's after the prep and sandblasting, that looks like a paint loving surface!

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And after the 'Harley Davidson' texture black

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Here's a whole part (trunk floor, left side):



So, lots of this. I can do about 3 oven loads in a morning or afternoon of work and then I'm tired of it. Probably 6 more to go when more powder arrives. I'm then waiting on the weather to warm up just a bit to paint some of the bigger parts that don't fit in the oven. Overall the powder coating is way faster than painting because it's one coat and 'dry' 10 min after you coat it.

I think the bonus is that if I stay strict about finishing every part completely as it comes off the car the re-assembly will be fast and fun.

Side projects are header welding, radiator finish welding, and eventually frame finish welding.

Alex

What does REV UP DOWN control?

It's a sequential trans so that turns on and off the fuel cut upshifts and auto blipped downshifts. Off means you have to manually lift throttle on the upshifts and blip the throttle on downshifts. No clutch needed either way.

I haven't actually written the auto blip algorithm yet so the physical down toggle switch is a bit presumptuous However, it's not rocket science so should be functional eventually.

Alex