Thread: late 80's county dash - what's original?

Originally Posted by D110V8D

Just to reinforce it a bit........I have the same in my 85 110.

I have pulled the air con system out and am in the process of replacing it with the good ol' trustworthy vents.

I hate the look/performance of the county air con dash set up. It is fugly.

Replacing the vents is a bit of a mission as anyone will tell you. I'm half way through it. Have all the bits for the vents etc. Next up is to drill out all the spot welds holding in the panels blocking the vents. Then spot weld the brackets onto the outside of the firewall and all systems go.

may I be so bold to ask if you are taking pics as you go? would make a great tutorial for the projects section

I remember reading a project guide for this somewhere ages ago, but no idea what site it was on!

I'll start taking pics from now on.

I have the dash out (easy enough to do without pics) and the loom exposed.

I'll start a thread in project section.

cheers mate

Originally Posted by UncleHo

G'day EchiDna

That is about an 86 5speed 110 with Factory fitted Air/Con I have a friend that has just bought an 86 with 5 speed LT 85 with that dash, Ooh what a joy to disamble that one they were the totally intergrated units, unlike the optional under dash units, Note: when reassembling make sure you don't pinch the windscreen washer tubes where they come through on the left side, we had to disssamble the dash to replace a broken R/H screen nozzle that had the tube pinched stopping water supply.

cheers

Was looking at Kieth's today Uncle, and the thing that surprised me was the removal of the Old Faithful front vents. Even my Defender has the same ones as the Stage 1. Had never noticed this before.

Agree re the inadequacy of the "factory air", will have to make a curtain to block the rear off.

bbb

Hi EchiDna, it's exactly the same as my '85 county. My fan/heater box in engine bay caught on fire and completely destroyed itself (melted all plastic components, even up inside the vehicle on dash). Not sure what happened but my guess is fan malfuction igniting wiring or leaves. Sorry to be a sour puss just thought you should know.

The thought of acquiring all the components and attempting to refit seemed more overwhelming than doing a dash rebuild. I am currently enquiring about a 12volt air con/heater unit as i dont want any more drag on the engine. I'm hoping to get my teeth into the rebuild in approx 2 weeks time, will keep you posted. Good Luck, Kster.

whoops!!!! sorry about the bbb message, not sure what happened but my PC spat the dummy.

The fan switch on the right will have broken off its mounts. I fabricated aluminium brackets and refurbished my switch panel. The globe in the back is sometimes replaced with a 5 watt bulb which melts the plastic. I was able to adapt a Narva 49812 globe holder to fit (see http://www.narva.com.au/Globes_10.html) but if I was doing it again I'd probably use a high intensity LED.

Sketch the vacuum tube layout on the D-connector at the back so you know which colour tube goes where. I didn't and had to nut it out. I may have the sketch around here but I may have given it away when the I sold the County.

I've seen two different design panels. The front looked the same but the rear was different.

While the dash is out, resurface the vacuum flaps with new foam rubber so that they seal once more. I bought a sheet of 3mm rubber from Clark Rubber. If you can, also do the flap in the front mudguard.

I found that on mine the plastic duct which held the flaps was broken so they flexed a bit. I drilled out the rivets and backed the plastic with aluminium sheet and re-rivetted it. I didn't take any pics (I don't think) so I can't even describe it properly.

Late edit: I've just had a look on my other computer. I do have some very blurry pics. I'll post them here tomorrow.


Ron