Dash it all...

Regular viewers might remember this picture first appearing around the beginning of November when I ripped all of the guts out from behind the dash, including the dash itself. Much has happened since then: I've installed an E-Meter in the dash, removed the fuel & engine heater gauges, installed an electric heater core, removed the AC components (it's dead, Jim), and even cleaned things up a bit while I was in the neighborhood.

As I got ready to put the dash back in I realized that something else had happened in the intervening months: a few brain cells had died, or at least moved on to other topics. I was faced with a handful of screws, connectors, push/pull rods, foam, and wires that all looked vaguely familiar, but nothing concrete. So I spent the better part of a Saturday night performing the ancient ritual of trying everything until all of the parts were gone. It all came out fine, although I hesitated the first time I hooked the twelve volt battery back up and turned on the key.

Once it was all together I rigged up a 120vac plug to the car's ceramic heater wire, plugged it in and turned the car's fan on full blast. After a second or so: heat! Being in a heated garage it was hard to gauge the effectiveness (plus it's fifty degrees and raining outside: weird winter!) but all of the air ducts had nice, hot air coming out.

Slightly modified dash

Can you spot all of the changes? Extra points if you correctly count the number of 5 1/4" floppy plastic pieces!

Next: Zapi Schematic