Yeah those things are super nice. However, believe it or not, all the OEM stuff is perfect, so no need to fix it immediately. I’ve got so much going on right now, I’m proud of myself for getting done what I did. What I do think I’m going to get is one of those A Pilar deals for the UG from Golden Rovers that will be a cleaner fit for the look.

 

I didn’t feel like working out tonight, so I worked a bit more and pulled the front seats. It’s really not that hard, but I suspect will be a bit of a bear to get back in. Darn things are HEAVY too. I’m glad I got them out as I want to clean really good in there and do more smell mitigation. I do think what is really going to finish that off will be getting the dash replaced and new foam in there.





I’m debating pulling the CD changer as although I used it during the fly and drive, I seriously doubt I’ll ever use it again.

 

Chuck the CD changer, you'll never use it again

 

Yeah, this is a bit of a learning exercise and I thought I read a thread here at some point about being able to use the OEM head unit, and then use a Bluetooth device that got juice and a wired connection from the CD changer harness. That might be something I do to the Giverny, but that’s a good bit down the road.

In terms of next steps on the interior, getting both front seats recovered is probably the last step since the headliner is in great shape- although I do need to pull it down to replace the rear sunroof.

 

You may be thinking of a Grom unit

https://gromaudio.com/store/bt3_adap...interface.html

 

Well, I didn’t feel like working out tonight, so I decided to putz around on the dash. Well, as these things go, I just kept going and got it out.

Wow. That was NOT easy. I have my first complaint with the Rave since my D2 journey began in that it was woefully incomplete in how much there was to do. It missed about 5 electrical connectors and the same number of fasteners. The surprises were there were 2 bolts and 2 nuts holding the bracket for the cluster that had to be taken out, and then the bracket below the passenger airbag was also a bit tough.

To be clear, what started as pretty straight forward and not too bad- even if quite a bit more than I anticipated- ended up being as hard as I had feared. I obviously wasn’t really worried about tearing the dash up- just didn’t want to mess up anything that was staying- but I’d say you’d be best served for this to be a 2 person job (and the Rave does mention you should use 2 people).

Reinstall is I suspect going to be quite challenging and without question will require 2 people to make sure nothing gets broken or messed up. I’m going to have to transfer the harness from the original dash to the new one as I just noticed a couple plugs that were clipped, which isn’t all bad as it will help familiarize me when I get to that point. I also labeled the plugs on the original harness to help me remember.

Another thing I’ll be doing is taking the literal 100 or so fasteners and organizing them while it’s fresh so I can know what goes where and such (regular readers know how wacko meticulous I am in many regards- professional hazard I suppose). I also took lots of additional pictures so I can recall where stuff is.

All in all, not the end of the world and I’d say over a couple days 4 or so hours of work not including pulling the seats. The last time I replaced a dash was in one of my E30 BMWs and it was not too hard. The Disco was very British in my wrenching experience in that zee jermahns use 3 fasteners strategically placed, whereas Nigel uses 25 for the same purpose. And of course there are 15 different types of fasteners connected in different ways in Nigel’s version. Whatever, it’s a toy and I’m kinda passed my grumpiness with the Disco when things are a bit challenging.

A couple pics;

 

Got my bolts organized, tidied up the tools (put them away), and cleaned up the carpet. One thing I certainly have to say about Land Rover carpet; it certainly is quality. I vacuumed it really well under the seats and under the CD changer (removed for good) and the amplifier on the driver’s side. The carpet- even where it is high traffic- still looks brand new.

I went to Wallyworld and got some more smell cleaner stuff and poured and sprayed again. I am virtually positive I’ve got it now as I even sprayed the covers for the underside of the dash. Tomorrow I’ll vacuum it up and probably work on getting the harness transferred over.

I guess then it will be the long road of assembly.



Ironically found this under the amplifier.



The carpet seriously looks brand new.

 

I’ve been piece parting away at getting the dash project done. I’ve learned a lot, which is a good thing, because I feel familiar with all the connections and mounting points now. I got all new foam in the places I could get to (I wasn’t going to pull the HVAC box and split it).





In typical fashion for cool old cars, the rebuild not replace motto holds true. I started scraping off the remaining crumbling foam and thought, heck with it, and was able to pull off the doors pretty easily. I am VERY glad I did as it made the job significantly easier and I could be much more thorough and precise.



I was sure to put a little loctite on the screws and was VERY careful not to drop them for reinstall.



One of the nice things about having both dashes, is I’ve been studying the routing and all the connections for the harness. I’d divide it up into 3 separate sections:
- Driver’s side (cluster, lights, rear washer, dimmer, temp sensor, mirrors, fuel door)
- Center (ICE, switch bank, HVAC controller, HVAC box, main huge plugs, some little plug that I think is for the lighter or maybe other center console stuff, and locks and clock)
- Passenger side (light for glove box, switch to activate light for glove box, airbag, and some other plug that I don’t know what it’s for)







I’ve labeled most all the connectors from the original dash and am now ready to pull the old harness from the replacement dash (again, a couple plugs were clipped, thus why I have to do the transfer) and install the original harness in the “new” dash. All it will take are a couple zip ties and couple clips I ordered from Amazonia to make it OEM (I killed the ones in the center section so I wouldn’t have to use force to get them out).

I forgot to mention, I measured the foam for the surrounds and got pretty close. From the pics you can see it’s not sexy, but functional and out of the way. The stuff for the flaps I got at home despot because I couldn’t find anything I felt comfy with on Amazonia and was concerned I’d get something too thick and make the actuators work too hard. It’s pipe insulation and was pretty much the perfect size except for a couple small cuts and is a scoshe thinner, but perhaps a scoshe more dense than the original stuff.

All in all, I feel significantly better about it and feel like I can get it done and not mess anything up. Most likely I’ll use a helper just to get it placed and be more precise so as not to pinch any wires or mangle any connectors (in some ways like pulling an engine out).

Then I suspect it will be a couple more days to get the remainder of stuff put back in and the seats and all that.

SHEESH!!!! That’s a lot of work for just getting rid of dash that was curled up. But it is the last step in smell mitigation as well as probably making the HVAC more efficient.

 

Yikes! I just remembered I need to swap the VIN plates! I think I’ll do that now before I forget!

 

In case anyone thinks I’m just being a pansy about how complex this is, I just pulled the original harness, and had to count. 37 different connections. 37. I feel like I’m playing some memory game of remembering where they all go, and now you know why I took so many pictures of routing and such, in case I forgot.