New dash build

Not sure why that last pic is in there but I can't see it in edit.

Starting with the supports and ductwork.








Spot welded the difusers.

Should work well, view from the window

Next up the gauge panel, fuse box, and touch screen radio. I went ahead and built the glovebox from PE plastic.

Now for the switch panel, GPS

Next up is the glove box cover. Decided to make it lockable with a spring magnet (push to open) and roll pin hinges.

Now that all the parts are done, I insulated the duct and now on with the wiring.. Relays and connections will all be above the glove box for easy access. No more crawling under the dash. The blue sea fuse box will also be in the dash.



A look at what it will be like.

I like it. What did you use for heater controls? Do you have floor heat or just the defroster duct?

I've been using this vintage air compact unit for years.It has it's own controls and bracket. I hated all that bulky stock ductwork and controls. I had used the stock defrost duct initially with poor results, too damn much restriction. This will work much better. for the cab heat it has a bottom dump.

https://www.vintageair.com/heater-only/

You can see it already mounted in this photo.

I like that defroster duct work.

Is that wider (left to right) than the factory piece? Definitely looks a bit thicker (front to back).

Yes, it's 28" wide, and thicker. The stock YJ duct never worked that well. It was even worse with the compact heater.

I didn't catch that in the pics before. I've had the same type of heater in a couple different boats. They work great. All in all a very nice conversion.

Decided to go with 2 tone metallic paint. Turned out pretty good with just some grinding and sanding. no fillers where needed. Pretty proud of that. Ordered a new steering wheel, hate this grant POS, I already mounted a horn switch on the dash (I didn't like the grant horn crap) so I don't have to worry about that anymore. Not a horn guy anyway, a dash button is good enough. Need to build the switch plate. I have all new switches.

It gave me so much room under the original dash. I really like this unit. Had one in a 72 CJ I use to own. You can't use the defrost ducts separately for the window though as they work unevenly (by design). Found that out the hard way. That's why I started out with a "collector box" and combined the two openings instead of building two defrost registers (or using the supplied ones and hose) . I think this is much cleaner anyway. It also double as a crossmember for the dash support. lol