Redesigning dashoard Hijet 1998 1.3

Like I said in the topic about my 960 seats, I'm gonna redesign the dashboard.
All this in order to fit a double-din radio, have some switches, a clock, and who knows what..

Today I started taking out the dash from my spare-parts van, and that was pretty easy.
Now that I have it out, I see that there is indeed hardly any space for a radio, at least, if you want it in the middle of the dash.

My thoughts till now:
Here in the Netherlands for the MOT the only thing about the heating-system that has to work, is the blower for the window..
Doesn't even need to produce heat..

Other thought:
The vents pointing at your face aren't ever warm, which is fine for me, since I will be having heated seats and to be honest, from that engine bay underneath your ass, some warmth comes in..

So I was thinking to completely leave the vents for face out, as well the ones for the feet, though as far as I saw that's built in into the blower.
Other thing I could do, is attaching the vents on the left and right to the ones for the window, and only leaving the face-vents out.
That way I'm creating warm air on the sides and on the window, and having some extra space in the middle of the dash.

Biggest thought:
Taking the whole original blower out, and putting something small in there, which only has one outlet, which I will connect to at least the window-vents.

Shaping the dashboard I have some options for, like that sticky foam in a can, very high-density one though, and then covering it with a kind of leather.
Or simply with fiber-glass stuff and with a nice finish.
But that's for later solving, first the blower/heating...

Any thoughts are very much welcome!

This week I will take apart the whole heatingsystem as seen in the last pic, and find out how it works exactly..
Maybe I can break that down to something very small, else I will take out all the heating-possibility and put in a simple small blower-fan like on this website:
http://www.conrad.nl/ce/nl/product/570095/Radiaalventilator-12-V-1528-mh-75-cm-TMC-037101-12V
Together with that thing I will be using only the complete left and right vents + the window vents.
Maybe I will find a way to warm up that air, but probably it will only blow.

By taking out the complete heating-system like it is origionally, I think I'm creating a very nice place for any size radio.
The whole middle area will be empty so I can do whatever I want there
The cigarette lighter I will place somewhere more close to the driver or passenger-side, or maybe only make some usb-outlets, since almost everything these days gets powered by usb.

You can get very small heaters which they use in rally cars etc which would be ideal for this :-)

Thanks. But I ordered the blower in the link. For heating I will use the seat heating, and when itbreally gets cold, I will pit a small sigarette lighter plug heat thingie..

For those few months of really cold weather I'm fine with having an ugly thing on the dash

Make sure you buy a decent branded one then as i bought one off ebay and it melted through my dashboard and nearly set my old van on fire! I bought one made by Ring after and it was a lot better although it didn't provide much heat. I thought i would be ok just using one of those and wearing a coat but the main trouble i had was from the screen misting and freezing up. In the end i fixed the heater properly

This is the kind of thing i was on about before

http://www.t7design.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=189

Oeh, that looks nice for good money!

Ive tried some 12v fan heaters and they were poor crack.

Yep, mine was in a much larger van (Peugeot boxer 320) with no bulkhead and it was pretty pointless having it, may be a bit better in a hijet but not a lot. Seems a shame to do all the work on the dash (fibreglassing etc) and then have to stick a heater on the top, don't forget it will have to be screwed on, leaving unsightly screw holes.

Yeah keep the heater matrix core, and bodge a different box round it with some small centrifugal 12v fans piped permentently to the windscreen.

If you think about it, the little wires to the fag lighter socket are only good for 5 amp or something.... so 5amp x 12 volt = 60 watts

Which ain't gonna defrost a windscreen round my town in winter =)

Nope.. New plans.. The fan I ordered, combined with the original radiator which is built in now.. That's gonna be my new plan..
will only take the original rad out on Wednesday, and from then on I can see how it will be done exactly.
So Wednesday new pics and more concrete plans

Like that, exactly
Original heating radiator, new box around it with my new blower, blowing into the window vents and the most left and right vents.
and then getting rid of the middle vents

Yeah that sounds like a better plan

id be interested to see this finished; I ended up putting my double din in a centre console

For now my double-din is for sale haha
Still I want to do some rework on the dash, but probably nothing will be done about the heating-system..
This will be a long thread in the end.. There's always new plans and stuff, for now I'm even thinking of making the dash a bit higher, which then makes it very possible to put everything I want in there..
But, I will have to start drawing for that I think, plus finally decide what I really want.

please keep us posted anyway; I always forget to take pictures along the way to post on here but I always enjoy seeing the progress. I don't tend to offer much input myself as there are so many knowledgeable people on this forum but if can help I will

For now the radio is in like seen on the pics below.
With 2 speakers on the sides of the dash, and 2 on the ceiling above the seats.

Later, but really later.. I will indeed fiberglass the shit out of the original dash to make something nice out of it..
Though then I want to put in some digital stuff.
So the original clockwork will go as well.
I don't know yet how legal it is to leave out something that counts km's.. Not kmh's because there will be something for that, but that thing won't save the km's driven..
Plus I will need to find out what signals I can find originally, like oil-pressure, oil-temp, that kind of stuff.

that's one way to do it! Looks a little too tempting to a passing opportunist thief though!

The radio itself is bolted to the chassis of the van with some bolts having a unique head, so nothing you carry in your daily toolset, but indeed it's for sure visible.
Still thinking of making a black plastic sheet with some old-radio look to lay over the screen.
Like this:

Will also be handy to protect the screen that way when I have to work underneath the seats.

are you buying one of those dummy radio fronts? I'd be interested to know what they look like in the flesh