Dash Redo: dos, don'ts, and pics!

Luke Wilson · July 31, 2014, 03:19:39 PM

Hey everyone,

Going to be redoing my dash soon, would love to tap into the collective wisdom here, and see what your most and least favorite parts about your bus dash is. If you had it to do over again, what will you add or remove?

And nothing can compare to pictures... lots and lots of pictures! 😉

Luke

Cary and Don · July 31, 2014, 04:54:37 PM

Make an access panel to the back of the gauges. It is a real pain to make changes or repairs from under the dash. I saw a dash that one bus nut had installed where the top could come off. So wish we had one like that. Leave an area to add more switches or gauges in the future. We have added a number of switches.

Don and Cary

Melbo · July 31, 2014, 06:31:50 PM

Put the most important stuff center left and the more benign stuff to the right. I don't know who told me that but when I redid mine that is what I did and it works good. I also made the front of my dash to come up so I don't have to crawl under to change bulbs or remove stuff. I used molex connectors for each dash panel -- I have five of them -- so I can take a section up and easily unplug it and easily put it back. I did not leave space for later additions and it would be nice to be able to add stuff. For labeling the dash I had kinko's print in white on clear vinyl so I could add labels or change the use of switches.

HTH

Melbo

Mex-Busnut · August 01, 2014, 05:30:24 AM

Pictures please people!

Dave5Cs · August 01, 2014, 06:59:34 AM

Check the top of your 2 air tanks in the front next to each other and see if you can get to any fittings on top of them. If not put an access panel in the floor. It was a major pita to get to the leaky check valve there.
Put in a water temp gauge for each side of the engine so you can see the difference in heat.

Dave5Cs

Melbo · August 01, 2014, 09:02:06 AM

Here are a couple of pictures of the project when it was in progress.

Melbo

TomC · August 01, 2014, 09:20:06 AM

One of the best things I did was to buy five different colored 50ft 3 wire extension cords. I cut the wire 3ft from the plug so that if I had to remove the engine, all I had to do is to unplug them. Now I have 15 wires going from my engine compartment to the driver's compartment to add anything. I've used some for the cruise control, and for adding a tachometer. Good Luck, TomC