Custom Dash For My Fairmont Squire

Nice work. You need to remember a couple of things. Most weather offices don't have windows. The weather guessers never look outside to begin with.

When I was a kid near Boston we had 2 feet of partly cloudy one night.

 

The Government moved all the local employees to Ottawa. It's all done by radar and calls to the Airport now.

2 feet of slushy and partly cloudy? We're heading into our hail storm weeks until the end of July. Probably why the roofers don't give more than a 15 year warranty, even if you buy 30 year shingles.

 

Vacuum Gauge Display Idea!

Another brain wave.

I honestly don't understand why they aren't essential equipment on all cars and trucks. Does an engine display screen warn you about all 16 possibilities? Nope.

The aftermarket guys tell you online why you should have one, but the autoparts stores never get a decent, convincing display rack to do the show and tell. Well here it is!

Remember those prism films the cereal boxes came with. You shift it by a few degrees and the action-figure comes alive. That's what they need!

http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/Summer2003/VacuumLeaks.htm

Forgive me for repeating myself, but if there's any marketing guys in the membership, here you go. Just give the US gauge companies a first shot at it. Between the tach, the tripmeter and one vacuum gauge, you could really understand what's happening under the hood.

 

They looked out the window and so did I. Sunny again. They changed the forecast to 'clearing this afternoon'.

 

Got more done. The big Weller gun died. Couldn't take the constant heating on the sheetmetal. It's under warranty, so back it goes.

When I did the restoration, I cleaned off the 30 years of dust and rust. Then I painted the metal support frame, never thinking that I wouldn't get good grounding. Ha!

Well I could've used my propane torch and then repaint everything or use my brand new Weller soldering iron. I just finished and it 'poofed' it's last gasp. Heating tin enough for solder to stick takes a lot of heat and acid to clean off the paint. So I scraped and sanded first. Still needed a lot of heat.

Before:


After:


It got really hot. I thought the thing could toast my hand. Lesson learned - propane torch next time.

 

Getting old, forgot all about ALL the stuff a good 'ol vacume gage can tell you.

Nice progess Norm

 

Man, whatever the computer-display widgets tell you, they don't tell you that stuff as well. Some mysterious code that you have to lookup, if you got the guide that goes with it and the device to read it.

I'd still have one in a brand new car. Might not carve out the dash, but I'd have one.

 

What did you forget all this when you were restoring?

 

Yeah. I never thought about it. They're all steel, right? You screw them together and you should have good grounds, right? Not so. Because they were rusty and used, and then cleaned up and painted, the rust pits got filled up with paint. It was just dumb luck that I got any ground at all. I'm gonna add some 6 or 8 gauge grounds from the firewall to that bar too. (at least 3) Amplifier, Radio, and the main stock ground. That's how the 1984 Cougar had it setup. The Fairmont had two 14 gauge grounds out of the harness, going next to the radio on that bar. Nothing to the firewall. I'll do one off the steering column bracket, and one on each side at the A-Pillars.

I scooped a trashed 2005 F-150 dash from the trash bin in the alley, and couldn't believe how many grounds that wiring had! And how tiny the wires were. Maybe 24 gauge. All the harness runs in a solid PVC duct!

Which reminds me... I reassembled those bars on the bottom and sides of the dash frame. And said to myself... Why can't the dash harness be inserted first? And then the whole spaghetti dish go back in??? When you and I take them out we leave the harness in place hanging off the firewall. Our memories are too short to remember where they connect. I used a marker to write the connector numbers on them, and then I said to myself "Self, just make a couple of long slash marks before you disconnect."

They all come off before they go under the hood or in the kick panels to the back. How would the factory do it? Ah, ha!

Then I just have to fight with the vent and defrost ducts. :confused:

 

Steve, does your 1982 Cougar have the center dash like the Marquis?



The air vents seem to be located at about the same location, even though they're flush, but the dropdown console seems offset just like the Fairmont (RH pic) I'm thinking that I could make one similar, without moving much of anything in behind. The Mustang console does a jog in the top panel so that it sits square to the top.

After seeing the 1984 Cougar console, it wouldn't take much to screw down some angle brackets and use some kick panels to assemble one together. What do you think? Then I could store tapes and maybe have a real cupholder.

 

That's the side view. I figure if I chop up the kick panels from the donor or some other car, that I could bracket the casing with a sheet metal frame, and reuse the radio casing to locate it properly. Then make an underdash bracket to fasten the whole thing to the top of the firewall/cowl.

Now that I've removed and installed mine twice and Andy's once, I'm getting to know the beast, and like you, I've got the scratches to prove it.

 

No, The 83 and up Marquis dash is similar in design to the 83-86 Tbird and Cougar but not as curvy. The lower center stack is very similar. My dash is very similar to yours.

Here's a pretty good shot of mine.

 

And a tilt steering column! Nice.

Well I'll put it back in and take dimensions for now. Summer's flying by.

 

Talk about wimps. Toronto is our largest city and they've got a Heat Alert on! at 30C (82F)!!!


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/06/24/toronto-heat.html

 

Rain for two days starting at noon today.

The new soldering pencil died too. The old soldering pencil died as well. 5 more joints to go. Crap.

I wonder if there's a chemical soldering process... hmmm. I've had the old, noname chinese one for at least 10 years. These latest ones are barely out of the box. ugh!