Mid-Eastern France: There and Back Again

[5-90]

Have any notes left lying about? How much room were you able to get behind that panel? Moving the switches from either side of the steering column should not prove difficult (which could give me a couple of deeper locations for mounting gages, possibly,) but that panel just to the right of the IP looks interesting, and I'd like to know more about how you did the centre mount for the TFT display and all before I go chopping up my own rig (why reinvent the wheel?) I'll just have to make sure I document what I do if/when I get around to it.

I take it the screws aren't simply run into the surround for the IP, or are they? How long did you go on those? I haven't been inside the dash in a while (my 88 should be about the same as your early HO style,) so I'm not sure what I can do in there offhand.

 

[stumpXJ]

5-90, I dont have any notes per-se, sorry. I can tell you that the TFT monitor is less than an inch thick. so it doesnt protrude through the back of the panel as much as you may think? It does however protrude enough that I had to remove the outer wall of the duct work and "re-create" it with flashing, but more recessed.

What do you mean by "IP"?

The TFT and Scan Guage are both held in by the tight tolerance fit (the cutouts were done in my mill, with exact size specs), and silicone on the backside. People often discount silicone, but its strong stuff, and works well on non-porous surfaces (hey, if it holds in windshields, its good enough for me.) and it also acts as a nice vibration insulator. Obviously, I also moved the a/c controls up to the old radio slot, which was pretty straight forward.

The two plates on each side of the column are way easy, and have PLENTY of room behind them for auxillary guages. I had to lengthen the wiring harness to bring the defroster switch over from the left size, but it was simple.

The stainless hardware is simply wood screws, about 12mm long (~1/2 inch) and they do indeed just screw into the old outer edge of the original dash panel. The middle section of the OEM panel (where the bulk of the aluminum is) was cut out on the backside to allow everything to fit flush. With the dash panel secured with its orginal fasteners, and the aluminum panel screwed on, everything is quite sturdy and solid.

I will tell you what, I was not able to hook up my reverse camera when I installed the dash, and planned on doing it this weekend. I have to remove the dash panel to do this. The best I can do is take pictures for you of the back side, and of the dash cut out area. It will be more obvious with pictures as its all kind of hard to explain. I am almost 100% sure your dash area is the same as my 96.

I will post pictures on this thread Sunday afternoon (for me, probably Sunday morning for you)

~James

 

[FlexdXJ]

Quick Question for ya. Is that Jeep from the US? The reason i ask is that that dash shows MPH as the main unit of measure as opposed to KMH. Or is the gauge cluster form here?



I know it sounds like a stupid question because i wouldn't want to ship a jeep from here to Germany!

 

[5-90]

IP = Instrument Panel. Used in the sense as a portion of the dashboard (the "dash" is the entire stretch across, the "IP" is the bit in front of the driver where the instruments are.)

While I like the look of it, it seems to me that running the screws into the bezel would be a bit weak - but it seems to have worked neatly for you. I've been wrong before!

I would appreciate pictures as you tear into the thing this week-end, as I do find the mod very interesting. There may not be as much room in there as I thought there would be (I'm thinking about gages to the right of the IP vice switches, but that's subject to change. I'm not sure if there's anything structural in there that would get in the way...) but we'll see.