More Work on the Knight Rider 2 TV Dash

I've been getting a lot more work done on installing the electronics into the Knight Rider 2 TV dash. It has definitely been a challenge trying to figure out what methods are going to work best for getting all of the electronic boards secured to the inside of the fibreglass dash. A whole lot of trial and error and experimenting with this idea and that, lots of test fitting and even modifying my aluminum mounting brackets in places that were proving to be a little troublesome. But overall the work is continuing along nicely.

Because I had mounted a couple of my aluminum brackets a little too close and did not allow sufficient room to accommodate the boards, overlays and Lexan plexiglass I had to do some radical reworking to them seeing how they were stuck but good to the fibreglass with matting and resin. I found I had a what my late father would have called "A make work for yourself situation." because of my lack of first putting my boards and overlays together with the Lexan Plexiglass and then test fitting them to the dash and marking where exactly my aluminum mounting brackets were to be placed, instead I had simply taken "Best Guess" which resulted in my problem of not enough room between the mounting brackets and the dash face for the boards, overlays and plexiglass to fit. So I had to make a work-around solution.

I had to cut off the top part of the aluminum brackets in some areas with my Dremel rotary tool and cut channels into the fibreglass resin to allow for some creative work-around to make the boards fit and still be able to mount them securely to the dash. 

I had to make a couple of custom sized elongated "U" brackets that I could place into the cut out channels in the fibreglass resin. These would allow me to use the brackets on the opposite side as supporting structures in place of the ones I mucked up. 

You can see here my custom "U" bracket sunk neatly into the channel I had cut out with my Dremel tool. Holes were drilled into the tabs at each end of the "U" bracket for screws to attach to the bottom mounting screws on the boards Lexan and overlays and to the opposite aluminum mounting bracket.

Once the "U" bracket was in place another test fitting was done to see how my boards were going to fit before measuring up another custom "U" bracket for the other end of the boards Plexiglass and overlays assembly. 

I made up another "U" bracket and carved out another channel into the fibreglass resin to allow the 2nd bracket to fit into just like the first. All things went well and I mounted my bracket to my assembly.

I them did another test fit with the "U" brackets attached to both ends of my assembly for the Dummy Rows.

I reversed the direction of my bolts on the bottom of my board assembly so as I would be able to mount them better to the aluminum mounting bracket. Time for another test fit as I will need to do the same to the other side of my assembly for the other dummy row.

Yup all fitting nicely I an see, so once the nuts are taken off close to the plexiglass the ends of the bolts will fire nicely into the holes drilled into the aluminum mounting brackets along the bottom of the dummy rows.

Tomorrow I'll do the "U" brackets for the other side after I fibreglass in an additional aluminum mounting bracket that I can use for the two monitors that will eventually go into the two TV sections. You can see here as I test fit the aluminum "L" bracket into place before measuring it for a better fitment.

I have to use my dremel tool and cut away some more fibreglass resin so the bracket will fit flush and cut a slit in the middle so I can bend the bracket to match the shape of the tops of the TV ports.

I want to give special thanks to my sweetheart Donna for taking the pictures of me working today, usually I'm my own photographer but my baby was an AWESOME help today with documenting my progress on this Knight Rider dash. Thanks baby, yur the best XXX OOO