Track Car Dash

[Lowercase 56]

hi guys,

 

been putting some thought into my dash lately as its already in bits. and im planning to gut it, smooth it and have it flocked.

 

i would like to do away with a lot of the stuff on it as i have no radio, and dont need/use the vents facing me etc.

 

what i do need however is the nice bit of real estate currently taken up by the heater controls/center vents/ashtray and clock.

 

i need to mount my water and oil temp guages somewhere i can easily keep an eye on them as well as a few other switches.

 

 

so, the main question is:

 

is it possible to remove the heater control unit and just have a switch that will blow what passes for hot air onto the windscreen? if so.. how?

 

 

cheers guys.

[Anthony 1,000]

Just remove the panel and set the position of the arms on the heater box into the appropriate position to aim at the screen.

 

You'll potentially need to do something about the fan as without the panel you'll lose the ability to control the speed, but should be easy enough to do something to either fix it on part speed or have a simple on-off switch on the dash.

[Lowercase 56]

thats exactly what i was thinking, set the fan to hot, and ON and remove/ block/aim the ducting to face the screen.

 

its just the switch to turn that blower on or off that is the main brain teaser for me.

Edited August 1, 2012 by DaSneakyGit

[Anthony 1,000]

If you just want a simple on-off switch, junk the standard wiring, resistor etc, and feed a direct 12v to the fan via a relay, and use an on-off toggle switch on the dash to switch the relay (and thus the fan). Straight forward enough to do and easy enough to adapt the existing wiring.

[Baz 421]

Why don't you leave the fan controls and just mount the gauges where the vents that you don't want are?

 

I never understand half-stripped track cars, IMO it's all or nothing, but then i really don't see the point in removing the heater at all for a few kg saving, it's well worth having!

[Lowercase 56]

heaters staying, but the blowers are poop so no love lost in loosing them.

 

i thought about the vent area for the guages but its too crampt and the top of the guage falls on the curve

 

also, whats half stripped about it? theres no door cards, no carpet, no sound deadening, only 1 seat. half the dash, no radio. no floor mats

Edited August 2, 2012 by DaSneakyGit

[Lowercase 56]

gone through 3 replacement heater matrix's and none fit, so feck that, heater systems coming out!

[Daz_C 8 1 Cars]

I have done away with all the original gauges (apart from the speedo) and fitted after market ones in place of the originals. Much easier to view than having to look over to make sure you still have oil pressure whilst screaming through a long left hander etc

[MiniGibbo 142]

You don't need a heater for a track car anyway.. Only time it'll be a pain in cold winter mornings for the first five miles if you don't trailer it.

[rallyeash 155]

Do what I did and get a heated front windscreen, I've just got the top section of dash so lost the glove box and lower panels then got it flocked

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

You don't need a heater for a track car anyway.. Only time it'll be a pain in cold winter mornings for the first five miles if you don't trailer it.

 

It's an absolute pain in the wet/damp/cold having no heater, once you get damp clothes or any condensation inside the windows constantly mist up.

I wouldn't recommend it at all unless you only use the car in the dry and it's garaged the rest of the time.

I have 2 12v blowers in mine, they just about clear the screen but they're not a patch on a proper heater.