Second Dash Test Fitting - POWER!

Yesterday seeing how I now had all of the electronics installed into my Knight Rider 2 TV Dash I figured it was definitely time for another test fitting in the Trans Am. This time would be a powered test since I know for sure now that my dash gauge cluster wires are wired correctly to the plug. I was pretty sure they were as I had done it very carefully and spent a lot of time making sure that I had labeled each wire carefully. But even still, being new to all of this I had my minor doubts. Here you can see my dash resting upside down on the back of my car (left), in preparation to be test fitted into the car. For this test I would simply be getting my dash into as close a position as possible to see what sort of tweaks and adjustments I would need to do and I would only be hooking up the gauge cluster plug and my plug I had most recently made for my GPS and LCD screens.

Here you can see my dash test fitted into the car (above left & right). Tough to get it in and I can even feel that it will need to be shimmed up and adjusted in some ways. I had a very difficult time getting my Quick Release steering wheel adapter on so some tweaks will need to be done there. Also it was very difficult to get the key into the ignition to turn on the car so some adjusting will need to be done there too. I think I may need to adjust my steering column a little to one side to get it to align better with the top middle part of the Switch Pods.

Here you can see my dash turned on (left). I did notice that the power seemed to have an intermittent connection in my dash gauge cluster plug so I think during all of my out of the car test in my back room the plug connection must have gotten damaged a little. Those pins in the Molex connectors can be pretty delicate and I think when I had two just inserted in for power and ground and held in place with an Alligator clip that somehow the female end of the pin must have gotten inadvertently widened. So I'll need to either re-pin it or just snip the power and two ground connections from my gauge cluster plug and wire them up to a different plug. Most likely one of those more sturdier trailer hitch plugs as the pins in those are factory sealed and very durable. I have to admit if I could have found one of those that was a 10 or 20 pin connector I would have used a couple of those for my dash gauge cluster connections. Oh well, live and learn ;)

I thought also during my dash powered test fitting that one of my "Dummy" rows of LEDs were not working but after reviewing some of my very early dash start up tests I could see that the board always acts that way so I guess that's just the way that one board works.

Over all I was very happy with my latest test fitting even though I can see I have a good deal of adjusting to do to get the dash to fit just right. Being new to this hobby I'm not sure how a lot of the other Knight Rider car builders tackle these many issues so I'll be doing some research on that to see if I can get some helpful pointers and tips that I will pass on here.

Season 1 Monitor Frames Ordered

I ordered my season one monitor frames today from Knightscan on eBay. They had the best price I was happy with and at this time of year who doesn't need to save a few bucks ;) I like this shape too as I have always been fond of the season one monitor frames, they kind of remind me of Battlestar Galactica for some reason?? Don't know why but I like it ;) I think also I am going to get my LCD 5 inch touch screens from Adafruit as they seem to have the best price and a wide range of 5 inch LCD screens to choose from.

More 2 TV Dash Work

I've gotten most of the electronics mounted to the inside of the 2 TV dash, not wired together or nothing like that, just been working on getting them all mounted securely to the underside of the dash. As I had mentioned in my previous postings I had to get a little creative due to my initial screwup. No biggie, if anything it will serve as a good example of what NOT to do lol.

I made some additional aluminum bracket to secure the tops of the dummy row overlays and plexiglass into place, reason being is that the holes for mounting on the electronics boards did not match up very well with the holes in the overlays which meant that my screws were going to end up going in at an angle and I did NOT want to run the risk of putting any undue stress on the electronics boards mounting holes by having the screws put in on such an angle like that, so I came up with the solution of mounting the overlays and plexiglass with these little "n" shaped brackets and then later adding a sort of stretched out "Z" shaped bracket to secure the tops of the electronics boards and push them up close to the overlays and plexiglass and also add the elongated "U" shaped brackets for the bottom or I should say tops as we are working with the dash upside down in order to place in all of the electronics naturally ;)

I find that my solution seems to be working very well in making sure all of the electronics boards are secured very well to the fibreglass dash. 

Here is a view of my 2 TV dash flipped over the right way with most of the electronics installed. I still need to install the voice box but I'm going to wait until I order the voice box bezel just so I make sure that my hole will be cut the correct size.

Next up a little sanding on the top to take care of some surface scratches and flaws that need to be fixed up before priming and painting.

 Some minor surface scratches before I did a little sanding and priming with a sand able primer.

After some sanding and priming. Overall the dash seems to be coming along nicely. Can't wait to get it into the car and see how it fits. I need to figure out how to test the electronics in the dash first, I've seen some videos on YouTube with people testing out their dash before putting it into their car. I'm not sure if any special equipment is needed for that or if you just simply hook up the power from the battery and that's it?? Until I know for sure I'm in no rush, but it would be sure cool to get a good preview of how this will all look when it's up and running, maybe even make my own video to put on YouTube ;)

More Work on the 2 TV Dash Electronics Installation

Continuing on with my installation of the electronics for the Knight Rider 2 TV Dash. As I had mention in my last post on my dash progress I had some extra work to do because I failed to leave enough room between the aluminum "L" brackets and the dash console openings. When I started this project I was not sure if I was going to use the Lexan Plexiglass overtop of the overlays or not so I ended up being a little too snug in some areas for where the sandwich of electronics boards, overlays and then my Lexan Plexiglass so I had to get a little creative with a work around.

I had to do a little creative cutting and filling of my existing aluminum brackets in order to modify them to work with my screwup lol

You can see on the right once of the modifications I had to make by cutting out the centre section of the bracket and then adding a new piece onto the end that would overlap and make up that little difference in size adjustment, I also had to do a fail amount of sanding on the face part of the dash openings in those trouble areas as well.

I also had to do a bit of creative modification on the bracket for the Speedometer and Fuel Display electronics sandwich as well as you can see here on the right. It's a nice good fit now. I created a custom pice of aluminium strapping and even though there is plenty of space between the aluminum and mounting I wrapped it with some electrical tape just to be doubly sure that the aluminum will not come into contact with any of the connections on the back of the electronics board.

I went a step further and modified my screw holes a little wider to allow for some play with adjustments. Thank goodness for Rifler's Files as they were perfect for getting into the tiny screw holes and elongating them. With the screw holes adjusted a bit more it made for positioning the electronics sandwiches a little easier.

Overall so far the dash is coming along nicely despite my screwup and "Make Work For Myself" scenario lol With the Lexan plexiglass overtop of the overlays it's looking like it 's really going to give the dash a more polished look as my sweetheart Donna said to me early today when she popped into the back room to see how I was coming along with K.I.T.T.'s dash.

There area some areas I'm going to see if I can tweak up a little better, these dummy rows for instance are giving me a few issues with fitment a little. As you can see the mounting screws are visible along the top part of the dash, granted I can just paint them black and they would be hardly noticeable but perhaps they can be tweaked a little more?? not sure how though as there is only so much space available with the alignment of the mounting holes on the overlays, electronics boards and my Lexan Plexiglass, so I might be just stuck with it as is... I'll see what I can come up with to cure the problem. It's not a big deal but I can be a little picky with little details so I know it will bug me if I don't fix it ;)

Prepping the Knight Rider 2 TV Dash

When I began researching into how to install the dash electronics into the Knight Rider dash I noticed that a lot of people out there seem to use wood blocks, to me this seemed like a potential problem many years down the road, at least this had been my experience with wood in the past when I used to make props and miniatures. The wood is fine for a good many years but if it gets moisture in it, even treated wood it can expand and swell, not only that but if you need to make additional tweaks there are only so many times you can run a screw through the same pice of wood before the hole needs re drilling and you need a larger screw. So my though on this was for a more permanent solution where there are less likely to be any problems with temperature changes, moisture and many of the other issues that can be wood related.

Here is what I have done. First off I have chosen to use aluminum "L" brackets from the metal centre of many home hardware stores, Canadian Tire in this case ;) I cut the brackets to fit my Overlays.

Next I roughed up the surface onto which I would apply a generous amount of Contact Cement and then stuck each "L" bracket into position. I left plenty of room for the possibility of adding acrylics to my dash along with the electronics and overlays. I'll most likely use home made spaces that I'll make out of plastic or aluminum tubing along with rubber washers to get the electronics and overlays to fit nice and snug to the dash face.

I used clamps on some of the brackets to hold them in place while the contact cement sets. Once they were dry I removed the clamps.

I then began cutting up strips of fibreglass matting, the omni directional stranded stuff which I think is the same stuff the dash is fabricated from. I cut up a good deal of various sized strips in preparation for when I mix up the fibreglass resin.

I masked off the inner surface of the dash where there might be a potential chance of accidentally dripping some fibreglass resin and then mixed up my resin in small batches of two ounces. I then began laying in my fibreglass strips using a small brush with the resin. I gave each aluminum "L" bracket a good two or three layers of fibreglass and resin.

The aluminum "L" brackets are secured in very tight and will not budge so they'll make excellent supports for the dash electronics and overlays. Best of all they will never rot or deteriorate in any way, especially after I prim and paint them for good measure.

Dash Electronics Have Arrived!!

My 2 TV dash electronics arrived today from Knight Rider World. Very awesome, I can't wait to install them but there are some things I still need. I need to find out how the electronics are mounted to the dash, gotta make some inquiries about that. I still have to look into how the dash itself is mounted into the car, I have a pretty good idea but I need to know for sure the best way to do it. I'm still waiting for my electronics I ordered from Jupiter months ago, I'm finding that a bit annoying. I'm finding I REALLY like Knight Rider World as they deliver well within a reasonable amount of time. So far both Knight Rider World and Knightscan are in my good books for speedy delivery, and quality stuff depending on what you are ordering.

Knight Rider Dash Arrived Today

I'm very stoked that my 2 T.V. Knight Rider Dash arrived by Fed Ex today all the way from Italy. I ordered on December 11th from Knight Rider World on eBay. You may recall that I chose this dash over many of the others available  because this one has the extra side and centre panels for a much better dash placement. I was very impressed when I saw this version available from Italy, it cost a little bit more but for me it made sense to spend that little extra seeing how I saved so much on the other parts such as

 the gullwing steering yoke, upper and lower consoles that I also got from eBay from Knight Scan. 

Now I need to find some instructional videos on what type of rotary tool is needed to make the cut outs for installation of the electronics and installation of the dash onto the current one in the 1982 Trans Am Firebird.

If anyone knows of any good ones I would sure appreciate the pointing in the right direction ;)

  

K2000 2TV Dash Ordered

I chose the K2000 series 2TV dash for many reasons. Superior quality for one, I especially like the additional wings added to this dash to ensure a much better fit to the existing GM Dash. This model from Knight Rider World was more pricer that many other options I found within the vast Knight Rider community but to me well worth the few extra hundred bucks for something this sweet. I have sent off an inquiry to Jupiter Electronics for all of the components to make this dash functional and complete.