Dash mods

[DuncanS]

I always disliked the T3 dash. All of it. why couldn't they get the part on the PS level at least so stuff wouldn't roll off? And the gauge cluster? Clunky and odd. The T3 has a quasi military component to it, squared off, but with sloping body work and I wouldn't have minded something more utilitarian looking such as the early Land Rovers. For my '87 I had an entire teak dash with special cuddies for tapes and all kinds of stuff. Then, one night in New Haven, Connecticut, right in front of the police station, someone decided they needed my dead Blaupunkt more than I did. It was a splitting maul removal and the only part I could salvage was the level part with a grab handle on the PS. I have had several T3s since then and they all had this area ripped out and the teak "hatch" installed. For the latest, Orly, I fashioned a cup holder which is perfect, but now the instrument cluster looked even worse.

I grew up around classic Rolls and Jags and always admired the interior of carefull wood work.

Maybe because my parents bought a '41 Ford Woodie and this was the interior of my youth. They kept it for 12 years so I saw a lot of the varnished birch and maple and lusted after some of the British cars with their rich wood interior.

So since I had the teak dash part, it was time to work on the PS door which was a mess and I wrote a topic on it called Passengwer window fixes and mods. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=719262&highlight=

A quick aside here. Always took the bottom hinged map? box out as they didn't work for me and passengers liked to put their feet on the crash tube. So this space, which has more volume than removed box, is far easier to look though for stuff as nothing can get buried 8" down at the bottom.

So after a bunch of work, this is what I wound up with.

The speaker was moved to the new glove box/map stowage area and doesn't show.

And what I've been driving around with for a couple of years now.

Next on the list was the steering wheel. i have two. A Summer wheel and an Winter wheel which is heated. See topic https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=645911&highlight=

Obviously the Summer wheel needed to be wood.

Duncan

[danfromsyr]

the wood isn't user friendly if in a major accident.
not only will it splinter and explode. it will crack and impale as well.

I believe VW left the dash sloped because people would fill the top of the dash with 'clutter' but that really doesn't hold up since every other VW has a clutter capacity of a small dumpster..


I don't disagree that the wood work and your wild ideas look nice..

I may go with a wood strip by the knee panel of the lower dash.
_________________

[Merian]

... people would fill the top of the dash with 'clutter' that would fly off in a hard maneuver and maybe kill you
_________________
....

[DuncanS]

I posted and will keep updating this topic as some have expressed interest and wanted to see what a fellow Vanagon nut was up to.

Driving a VW bus/van inherently is not a good idea if you are worried about safety. It's often said that in the event of a crash, you, as the driver, are the first on the scene of an accident. What about all the wood cabinets in a heavy Westy in the event of a crash? Where will they wind up?

All this said, I love my car and do not plan to crash it. I drive carefully and defensively. If I worried about my safety, I'd drive the biggest Volvo or walk. I'm also a sailor and people on the water drown.

I guess for me, enjoying life and all the pleasures it can bring are more important that worrying about an unlikely disaster. Each person has to make their own decisions.

Duncan

[Wildthings]

I walked away from a 40 mph to 40 mph head on fifty years ago, thanks to added three point seat belts and an energy absorbing bumper of my own design and my brother took a head on about ten years ago, leaving the texting and driving teen on her first solo drive dead, so I don't find "unlikely" to properly define the chances of being in an accident.

[Crankey]

I was just watching a utube touring a VW car show,.there was a notch back with a dash that was screwed on, like they had a 2nd dash and overlayed it onto the dash in the car and screwed on really nice with fancy screws in a nice layout. I assume so they could cut out the dash underneath to gain access with less drama and back pain.

Seemed like a good idea so I bought a 2nd dash in case I wanted to have a go.
I was thinking to cut open the dash from the cluster surround across to the heater vent on the passenger side, and from the front pad forward to the bump up above the speaker.

If the dash had a giant opening that big would it help doing some work in there ? Tidy up wire bundles maybe ? Seems like it would be useful. Not like you could r&r your heater box but maybe easier to pull the whole dash without accidentally pulling wires off things or inspecting for pulled wire after a putting things together ?
Aside from a tidy row of 8-32 button head allen screws it could look pretty much stock.

Pretty much like DunkenS in concept but using normal dash section instead of teak wood..

[DuncanS]

You can certainly do that and wind up with about what I have. There aren't a ton of wires under there, but access to wiper motor and other stuff will really help. You can also install an oiling tube like I did to oil the front bearing of the blower motor. When I bought the car, the blower motor was frozen but I was able to cut two pieces of plastic out of the heater control box and access the motor. I then wiggled the squirrel cage rotor back and forth and freed it up. Put the plastic pieces back with a hot glue gun, then the oiling tube and all is right with the world.

To gain more access, you have to pull the radio. This gets to more wires. I have two pieces of thin plywood fitted with carpet over for my map/glove storage box, but can easily rip that out as there are no fastenings if I need to get to stuff underneath.

So back to my mods.

On the way to my boat in Connecticut--a 200 mile drive--I decided that the time had come to get rid of the instrument cluster. i had slapped some fake wood grain contact paper over the top removable housing and it was terrible. i knew the only real solution was to rebuild with teak.

So when I arrived at the yard, I pulled the cover and ground the two corners off the top of the cluster housing and took the center part down about a 1/4" too. I was able to still have all my switches intact, but obviously the cover no longer fitted. I had a thin sheet of plastic which I gorilla taped at the corners to pull it to shape. A hole was needed for the brake reservoir vent. then I covered the whole thing with the contact paper. I loved the less lumpy cluster sight lines forward and resolved to start work on a mockup of a real conversion when i got home inspire of the top project still needing work before the serious camping begins.

The cover removed and the cluster corners about to be taken off.

Christopher from T3 posted a pic of these classic instruments and I immediately hooked.

However, megawampum as the instruments themselves are not cheap and then you need conversion modules to get the speedo and tach to indicate correct amounts along with additional modules for the gauges. But in any case, I thought to myself, "why do I need a speedo or a tach for driving? I have GPS peaking out of the right side of the second photo for speed and I know when to shift by sound. So now for a visual mockup.

This after I decided I at least needed headlights at some point so ought to do that now. And while I was at it, I added the coolant level warning light and the oil pressure one as well as the high beam indicator.

My son is a genius with Photo Shop and he made me a couple of rings with the 4 circles for the speedo and tach, but trying to do something for the gauges will be much tougher.

I have a clock I took out of one of my older T3s which didn't have the tach and installed it in the air handling distribution cover in front of the shifter. Also seen in the second photo. By the way, please don't infer any political slant with the photos.
Up in New Hampshire, where we are the first primary, we get buttons and stickers from people who often don't get to the next stage. Some of us collect paraphernalia from failed campaigns as they might get recovered and be used for something at a later date--or maybe used to get a spirited conversation going. Anyhoo, why not use the gauges on the clock and worry about graphics for them later?

I removed the gauges from the original cluster and put a couple of new wires held to the old gauge bolt holes with brass machine screws and nuts to feed power from the common ground of the old gauges to the new clock ones as well as the temp warning light. These grounds go to a voltage stabilizer buried in the foil thingy before actually going to a ground, so that was where I had to send the wire. For the positive feed to the gauges, I clipped off the original feeds from the 14 pin connector, so now I have everything except for RPMs. Hazard and rear defroster had lengthened leads from a different project, so for now they live under the teak dash hatch. Not often used so accessible until the final version happens---if it ever does. Had a spare cover salvaged for my dead Flash silver and moved the clock higher up so I can see fuel and temp easier as well as the time.

Total Spaghetti Citty City, but new connectors are on their way and it will get all cleaned up and buttoned back together.

A number of years ago I wanted to spruce up my dingy aluminum masts and did a faux spruce paint job so they would look like wood, since the boat is a classic and harkens back to the era of wooden spars. When I sold her this spring, the surveyor, who went over the boat with a fine tooth comb looking for problems, was fooled and wrote up his report saying the spruce spars are in good condition and well varnished. First time I ever tried it and a huge success. Even from 6" away they look like spruce.

So since have done the "teak" steering wheel and will now do all the blue exposed metal around the doors and windshield. Thats the crappy contact paper stuck on to try to get some idea of what it might be like. No real help on that score, but it shows that having the blue go away will be nice. Will put a base coat on in the next few days.

Duncan

[DuncanS]

Another coat of varnish on the instrument face tomorrow and will get all the foil wires ready for the connectors. I need ten for the instruments and 7 for the clock. I've gotten bored with cutting and resplicing wires when I need to service items, so from now on all electrical stuff will get the best connectors I can buy. The cheap ones can fail.

Switches...........

Kinna partial to lever style rotary ones as in the ignition switch in this photo. Wow! Note how narrow this interior is. Can't be any wider than a bug.

Here are a few, but they need to be shiny. But you get the idea. Will search and see what turns up.

Duncan

[DuncanS]

Some progress.

Stained and varnished the piece of !/4" ply with teak stain and tossed some photo copies on.

Doesn't show too well, but the center cluster is:

https://shop.classicinstruments.com/vt31slf They make a number of different configurations, but slapped this on just to check the vizuls.

Note in the first photo how I have curved the entire top of the cluster face and brought it much lower than stock. Really like the forward viz. Made a small hole in the 1/8" plastic which I used as the cover. The brake fluid vent sticks up through it. It's stuck in place with a couple of dabs of hot melt. Also ground off the top of the cup holder to follow the curve and assist in an easy transition from the flat dash to the curved cluster face.

Unfortunately the clock didn't make it. My son is an airplane guy and he talks about "hanger rash" which are the dings a plane collects over the years when the wing strikes the door jamb going out or someone wheels a dolly too close to the fuse. In any event, the clock suffered some "dash rash". The 30 year old plastic hands suffered and couldn't be put back together. So ordered a continuous silent sweep quartz item and will use that with a D cell so I don't have to keep replacing the battery. Also mounted the clock at 90º as I couldn't really see the gauges very well in the first try. Only cut out the dial to show just the fuel, but have since done the temp as well.

After driving a bit, I decided I didn't like the location of the gauges after all. They need to be up where you don't have to take your eyes so far off the road to check on them. Also the in-out thermometer and battery read-outs couldn't be read. The battery is a 5 digit item and which shows thousandths of a volt? It kept jumping around on the last digit and was annoying. I'll keep that below the clock as it isn't something that needs driving attention, but move the thermometer read-out some where up near the cluster. It's digital with red and blue numbers so will sit apart from the dials. Will also have a switch so I can turn it off at night as the colors will be distracting. They show in the first photo.

The first change, but not right.

Then tried this, but too ovall The problem is the guts of the gauges won't allow the arcs to get any closer and if I put the pivot of the needles together, then it's even taller.

So started to chop the gauge to see what could be done--I have extras.

Got them about 3/16ths closer, but still not good enough. There is a chip in the temp gauge and it would need to be relocated. So cut off some of the space and that's what's in this photo.

Better. To do this would take some serious delicate work. Not sure I even like it with the frowning arcs.

The current guess. Mount three gauges the same size across the panel. The center one would be the clock which doesn't stick out very far in the back and allow it to be in front of the brake master cylinder.

Would take some kit bashing of the gauges, but not much. I'll need to strip the faces of the panel and redo it for the mock-up. That will have to wait a bit.

How to finish the top of the cluster? Considered faux teak paint over the fiberglass or actual curved teak, but neither sounds quite right. Glare and so on. Got a couple of samples of suede in honey type colors which is what will go over the final fiberglass cover. Instead of hot glue, the fiberglass will attach with velcro.

Our basement flooded in the heavy cold front rain storm last night. Plan to leave for the boat in Connecticut on Friday at Oh Dark Hundred so have to get some sleep before the cleanup starts. May have lost the hot water heater and furnace. 4th time in the past 8 years. House was built in 1840 and no sign it ever happened in the past. And still have some car work before I leave for the 600 mile round trip. Thus the crazy work will have to wait until I get back.

And I still don't have a leak proof top!!! What an adventure. Wouldn't miss it for the world.

Duncan

[DuncanS]

Silent on this for quite a while, but stuff has been happening.

Had the mockup in and out a thousand times being super careful with the foil.

Also figured I was over thinking the center gauges and so finally settled on:

The blob on the top was an effort to see how terrible a lump for the brake fluid reservoir cap might be. It was terrible.

And the foil carefully spread out to see what is going on there.

A fella would quickly go blind trying to trace the current paths, but some I needed to do. Bentley helped with the 14 pin connector which allowed me to at least find what the feeds were. I clipped off both the fuel sender wire and the water temp sender upstream of the 14 pin and took extensions directly to the gauges. Ultimately, I cobbed up three three pin connectors to provide for stuff I didn't want to go to the foil. As it was I soldered a few wires directly to the foil circuits and didn't have a problem with it.

Luckily, this popped up which is going to help immensely.

[DuncanS]

First couple of photos and copy tell about all you need to know about my warped mind. I tell people I suffer from CMD, an incurable and progressive disease. Cumplusive Modification Disorder.


Haven't posted in a while although there has been work on the project somewhat steadily with some side related projects as well.

Cooking along with everything working and then stuff started going south. The tach stopped working and I made the probably rash assumption is was the foil. So pulled the trigger and made a gillion drawings of which this is a sample, but not anywhere near the final version.

Since there are 5 leads to the oil pressure module, but only one which needs to go to the cluster, I decided to have the module live "off campus". Since there are now four additional LEDs for annunciation, I wanted to keep the number of leads in the connector to a minimum. Thus the module was removed from the speedo and a house made for it. My new Led's are for right and left turn signal as I wanted ones which would show which turn was happening. Maybe dumb, but it always bugged me there was only the one indicator. And because I'm a sailor, the left is red and the right green. The hand brake has a blinking LED as does the inverter so these don't get forgotten. Since the light switch is mounted on the cluster board, the pin connection for the instrument lighting is not needed. Nor is the clock. I was able to have an old light switch plug and socket and a separate 12 pin Deutsch connecter do the job.

Here is the finished wiring from the back which replaced the foil. I do NOT recommend doing this. Far better to buy a foil replacement and use the OG socket. Just ignore the features you don't need and use a Deutsch connector for any extras you might have. A ton of hours and too easy to get confused and make mistakes.

Lots of problems. The LED leads are tiny and fragile and getting them to work took a bunch of retries. Because of the lacing, replacing an LED isn't a 2 second job. AND the tach still doesn't work. The next step is to check both ground, plus 12v lead and the feed from the coil before I delve any deeper. I also have another duplicate headlight switch and will change out the current 0-1 switch seen on the left side of the cluster pic which currently opperates the rear hatch window defroster. With a relay, I can get the 0-1-1,2 switch to convert to 0-1-2 and it also has a dash light switch so I can get three functions in one knob. the hazard warring switch is way too complicated an item and so the OG sits hot melt glued to the dash under the teak lid. If gets rarely used so not a biggie to be out of the way.

Lots of work still to do on this mock-up before I move on to the final teak version. Tach and speedo will get slightly larger in diameter and the wood a bit taller which will reduce the hump for the brake fill/switch smaller. Then making a fiberglass lid for it all and getting the leather on. The car is fine and drivable now so this will get picked on over the winter months.

When looking at the nice wood cluster, the wood just had to keep going so with 5 or 6 passes with epoxy fairing, the joints in the tin around the door frame were filled and soothed--a spelling mistake which actually sounds right. It was both smoothed and soothed. Then a coat of primer and the yellow undercoat and lastly the graining. 5 coats of varnish over it all to give it a nice look.

A shot of the temporary--well it was at least 8 weeks while the paint was happening--closure for rain and wind. I really liked the missing vent window post, but.......... Obviously eliminating that would have been serious work for not much gain.

One of the things I discovered with the wood interior cars was all the chrome window trim treatment which is so much nicer than rubber. But I settled for just this to get rid of some of the black at least. Chrome seems to be less visible as it reflects multi colors and with the mirror component doesn't stand out as much a paint.

The rope door handle and paint are mockups to see what might ultimately happen to this door panel. Since the rope has to connect behind the tin, how do you adjust it for the right length when putting the panel on? A cleat seemed it might work--and it did. Pull the panel in close, adjust the rope and hand it in.

Leather and wood for the final.

And number the last. Since I've done a fair amount of wooden boat building, I couldn't just let the faux wood paint get ugly in the corners. So it got some scarf treatments.

Then the carpenter doing this "woodwork", said to me; "You know, Duncan, some will think all the carpentry work you put into this will think it's just fake wood with paint. I think you should show a through mortice with wedges to show them it's real." And so the door jamb.

Stay well and get that perfect Christmas present for the SO.

Duncan

[Crankey]

That's incredible !!

[DuncanS]