Mo younesi
Member
- Posts
- 45
- Location
- Scotland
Hello folks. I haven't been here for a while as busy doing various bits on the Landy so thought to share a few photos also ask for some advice.
Firstly we all know the defender instrumentation panel are held in place with those stupid plastic logs which break very easily and you will end up with instrumentation panel being loose and rattling. Of course if you have some issue with wiring, which we all do, it is quite common having to go to the back of the instrumentation panel.
With dark days of winter upon us just now, I got fed up with how low is the light intensity on the instrumentation panel. I had already change the bulbs that goes to various instruments to LED type last year which made a good improvement but the other light bulbs that you insert and twist direct on the PCB film and lights up various warnings were still the old type.
Found some LED type on eBay and bag of 20 of them for a couple of quids seemed a good improvement to do. When they arrived opened up the instrumentation panel and updated all of them. BIG MISTAKE!!!
Firstly they did not made much improvement in the light intensity and secondly a whole bunch of warning lights stopped working so I realised that I have to undo what I have done, so the instrumentation panel came out again and all connection disconnected and the old bulb went back to where they were.
With apology to make it a long story, my third point is that two of those stupid plastic legs were already broken on my instrumention panel and this time round the third one also broke and I was left with only one of them, so it was time to do something about it.
Fancied the steel made types and found this company on the web think they are call rapptor Engineering who make the panel and the housing for it with mild steel sheet metal and painted. I know some people were raving about it but I was very disappointed to see their prices. It would cost £140 for the panel and its housing. Having been a design engineer all my life and designing a lot of sheet metal parts, I thought of their price more of a dal light robbery. So made a simple rectangular plate with two holes in them and using the nut retainer clips made four bracing plates and actually cut away the last stupid plastic leg. Job was done at a fraction of the price and instrumentation panel is solid as a rock now.
Firstly we all know the defender instrumentation panel are held in place with those stupid plastic logs which break very easily and you will end up with instrumentation panel being loose and rattling. Of course if you have some issue with wiring, which we all do, it is quite common having to go to the back of the instrumentation panel.
With dark days of winter upon us just now, I got fed up with how low is the light intensity on the instrumentation panel. I had already change the bulbs that goes to various instruments to LED type last year which made a good improvement but the other light bulbs that you insert and twist direct on the PCB film and lights up various warnings were still the old type.
Found some LED type on eBay and bag of 20 of them for a couple of quids seemed a good improvement to do. When they arrived opened up the instrumentation panel and updated all of them. BIG MISTAKE!!!
Firstly they did not made much improvement in the light intensity and secondly a whole bunch of warning lights stopped working so I realised that I have to undo what I have done, so the instrumentation panel came out again and all connection disconnected and the old bulb went back to where they were.
With apology to make it a long story, my third point is that two of those stupid plastic legs were already broken on my instrumention panel and this time round the third one also broke and I was left with only one of them, so it was time to do something about it.
Fancied the steel made types and found this company on the web think they are call rapptor Engineering who make the panel and the housing for it with mild steel sheet metal and painted. I know some people were raving about it but I was very disappointed to see their prices. It would cost £140 for the panel and its housing. Having been a design engineer all my life and designing a lot of sheet metal parts, I thought of their price more of a dal light robbery. So made a simple rectangular plate with two holes in them and using the nut retainer clips made four bracing plates and actually cut away the last stupid plastic leg. Job was done at a fraction of the price and instrumentation panel is solid as a rock now.