Just Around the Bend

Have you ever gone hiking in the mountains and after many hours you start to get tired, but keep going because you're convinced your destination is just around the next bend in the trail?  I'm like that, but often find that the trail just keeps going and going.  It's disappointing to find you're not there yet, but it always feels good when you finally do make it to your goal.

I was at that point in my project this week.  I had just come off the great experience of really driving the car for the first time and now I'm thinking I just have to connect the wiring and slap on some carpet.  After all, how hard could the wiring be for an electrical engineer?  I know the basics -- a headlight needs positive and negative wires, a switch and a connection to the electricity source.  In theory, yes, in practice?  Well, let's just say I went around another bend in the trail.

It turns out that the wiring isn't too bad, it's all the other aesthetic decisions that are hard for me.  My dash will end up with many switches, indicators and gauges.  Where should I put them all so it looks good and is functional?  What type of switches do I want (I never realized how many options are out there)?  Should the switches light up?  If so, what color?  And so on...  How am I going to fit everything I want behind the dash (a heater, glove box, wiring, defrosters, etc.) when there isn't that much room?

It quickly became overwhelming.  I had to walk away for awhile, but when I came back to it, I started to write down every function and control I thought I'd want.  It turned out to be a long list.  The current count is 14 switches, 5 indicator lights, 7 gauges and various other items.  Now at least, I can start to play around with different ideas and that could be fun.  I also decided that I'd keep mocking-up the parts of the dash until I have a full plan before I commit to making anything permanent -- that takes a lot of pressure off.

Here's one part that I've worked out -- the heater.  I wanted it hidden behind the dash and the area is only about 8" x 8".  To start, I found the smallest aftermarket heater out there (although I did see one guy hook up two hair dryers as heaters, but I'm not going there).

It has a blower on top and a small radiator inside that hot water from the engine flows through.  The hot air will be forced out of the bottom of the unit and it's designed to fit under the dash of an older car.  Unfortunately, for a few reasons, this won't work for me, but I thought I could reuse the components somehow.

So I took it apart.

After playing around and thinking about it overnight, I think I found a solution.  By putting the blower on the bottom and the outlets at the top, I can run small hoses over everything to the spots where I want the heat outlets.  And since the outlets are at the top, it will be easier to hookup the defrost vents.

Here's a mock-up of what I'm thinking.

It's small enough to fit, puts the water connections in the right place and hopefully will work out.  I'm going to use this as I design other parts of the dash to see how it all works together.

Up next, a glove box.