Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:23:53 -0600
Reply-To: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: Re: Dash Cluster Substitute + Reproduce It ?
In-Reply-To: <CAHTkEu+gpzQq3GA5JF_m88JgXydpHjKjRZeqD4p2Lw9XUxGGzQ@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
I've owned a couple of Cessna 195's. Big 5 passenger hummers, tail
dragger types, built between 1947 and 1954. Highwing, cantilever
design, no wing struts. Big dad-gum 7 cylinder radial engine that near
blocked all visibility while sitting with it's tail on the ground.
Instrument panel was a bear. Spanned from one side of the airplane to
the other - all one piece. Difficult to work on the insturments. I
replaced both with flat aluminum stock. Made new instrument cutouts
using a template to allow modernization with new and more smaller
instruments, better lighting, etc. When the insturments switches etc
went back in, longer wires, hoses etc were used. There was some weight
there in that panel, even with new smaller instruments. I mounted the
panel with about 8 or 10 (don't rember exact count now) rubber shock
absorbers- rubber center with threaded brass shafts bonded to each end -
from a certain Sears vibratory sander, Worked great. This arrangement
allowed me to pull the panels and with extra long wires etc, I could lay
the panel across the control yoke to work, using the yoke as a kind of
table. Worked great. Had that '54 bird outfitted with King avionics -
latest stuff. Awsome. And panel work was so easy. But alas, I fell on
hard times and had to give her up. Sold it to a Texan out in the plateau
country.
Building a really good inst. panel for the v-gon would be awesome. Can
be done.
BTW - the plastic in my V-gons is 23 years old. The instrument panel
covers are stil very good, but the panels themselves - that which holds
he instruments is burned out. Lost its oils has become very brittle and
fractured over time. These are injection molded pieces and would be hard
to duplicate in original form. Not impossible, but it would take a lot
of time, money and effort to get it done.
John
John Rodgers
Clayartist and Moldmaker
88'GL VW Bus Driver
Chelsea, AL
Http://www.moldhaus.com
On 11/21/2011 12:39 PM, Don Hanson wrote:
> You can "make" anything, given the desire and the $... Putting together
> an excellent dash is not difficult at all....if you concentrate on
> functionality. The dash in a vanagon....it is more accessible and
> functionally simple than most vehicles....but they are pretty fragile in
> places and they are a bit frustrating sometimes.
>
> What makes for difficulties and for fragile constructs is the premise that
> it has to be "slick" if it's made for a production vehicle at the factory.
> It has to be cheap, yet slick and 'stupid-proof' so the makers don't get
> sued when little Billy or Janie get left in the vehicle while Mommy runs
> into the store and little Billy sticks a coathanger into a hot wire or
> pinches his wittell fingies on an exposed nut or bolt.
>
> If you made a dash unit, I'd make it like a racecar. Forget about
> 'slick' and concentrate on function. Leave the screws right out front so
> you could get it off and on with ease, repeatedly. Have some easy access
> to all the instruments and wires. Put it right in front of the driver and
> then....then and only then, start to worry about how it might look......
>
> Lexan makes a really nice instrument face and it's simple to work with
> handtools. Aluminum, carbon fiber sheet stock...those, too make for a
> simple 'face' to mount the switches and instruments. A couple of big
> fasteners to release the whole cluster from what ever it mounts into, so
> you can put it in your lap and see what is what so you can work on the
> wires and connections.....I like them like that.... We built some really
> nice ones for the instruments in custom yachts using really dark Lexan for
> the panel face...
>
> Don Hanson
>
> On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 9:35 AM, Alistair Bell<albell@shaw.ca> wrote:
>
>> Frank G did a nice job Neil, I hope he chimes in. Meanwhile pics and text
>> of his work here on this page in my blog
>>
>>
>> http://shufti.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/vanagon-frank-g-s-instrument-cluster-mod/
>>
>>
>> alistair
>>
>>
>> On 2011-11-21, at 9:11 AM, neil n wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all.
>>>
>>> On thesamba.com there's a thread on adapting a Fox cluster to the
>> Vanagon.
>>> I can't find the thread right now, but it should be there. The thread
>>> content was aimed, in part, toward the Suby crew, but IIRC, the swap is
>>> applicable to any Vanagon.
>>>
>>> What would it take to reproduce a new cluster housing? Is it even $
>>> feasible to do this? Thoughts towards this?
>>>
>
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