Replacing lower dash

Tbaumer

Technical Excellence Contributor
Since I'm not putting speakers in the dash & the PO cut holes for Webasto controls, I had a choice to either patch & cover the existing dash or put in new.
Either way, the dash had to be removed so I could sort the wiring. It's the first time for me with everything I do on this, so the order of disassembly was a learning experience. I did manage to remove the center trim panel without breaking it (What a PITA that was!).

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Tbaumer

Technical Excellence Contributor
Ordered aftermarket replacements (more on that coming up). They have the metal knocked out for the controls, but left the covers uncut. I removed the heater flappers, hose rubbers & cable from the old dash & installed in the new (after treating the metal & replacing the foam on the flappers).

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Tbaumer

Technical Excellence Contributor
Enlarged the heater opening in the bulkhead & new dash. New foam on the heater flapper, cleaned out the debris in the bottom of the heater box & added sound deadener to the bulkhead.

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Tbaumer

Technical Excellence Contributor
It wasn't easy to locate the screw holes in the new dash & I had to move a few from the predrilled holes hidden under the covering to hit the bulkhead mounting locations. If the heater hoses to the defrosters were an inch longer they wouldn't try to come apart so easy! Added some foam sealer tape around each end to ensure they stay together. Managed to get the center trim back in W/O breaking it :).

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Tbaumer

Technical Excellence Contributor
I'm waiting to cut in the switches. The original center set was - rear window washer/wiper, clock, power outlet/lighter. Original wiper motor panel set was - what I think is: a two way clock/dome light switch, hazards, rear window defroster (that isn't connected right now). Looking at options for controls. I gouged the edge of the wiper motor cover with the tip of my screwdriver :sick: - nothing to be done about it now, but seal it.
Here's how it turned out.

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Tbaumer

Technical Excellence Contributor
looks great, nice work. where did you source that lower dash?

I found it being sold by Dporter110 on Dsource. He ordered them from Turkey & used a couple in his own builds. He was great about full disclosure on the non-genuine dash being a little off & made it clear they are not for the $100,000.00 build. The thread asking price was dropped to $900.00 for the set. The issues I ran into were: the top edge was a little too wide to fit the plastic trim over it until I removed the hold clips (covering is glued in place) & I had to pull the covering back & trim the corner sheet metal, the cut metal openings for the heater vents aren't centered on the pad indentation (I should've cut the cover small first, but the vents still covered the hole - whew!), the spot welded brackets that hold the heater flapper bar were off (a bit of bending to move the flappers over the opening & trimmed one end of the springs), I had to drill a few new holes in the dash pad to line up with my bulkhead locations (fortunately, I checked for the dash holes with a needle through the covering first), the defrost tube hole was off the hole in the plastic tray insert (I trimmed the plastic tray - it is covered by the center panel). The imperfections are not noticeable when fully installed. Having said all that & having worked on this 110 since 2016, I feel like every one of these hand built puzzles are a bit off in so many ways.
 

Tbaumer

Technical Excellence Contributor
I had to connect the hazard switch to get my turn signals to work, so the wiper motor cover switches are cut in. Again, slightly off, but not noticeably bad unless you are a Defender perfectionist. I don't want to sound like I'm bashing the product - it is admittedly a less expensive knock-off that is close enough to make work, as you can see from the pics.

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