Stretch's Digidash thread

[Stretch]

Hey guys, I felt it necessary to make a build thread for my Digidash conversion, since I'm sure some of you will be curious to see it progress, and I'm more than happy to oblige your curiousity.
Just follow my progress, check the pics, give me suggestions/comments or neg rep me ahahah whatever you want!
Enjoy!

****Update and pics on page 22!****

Here I am, just got it home finally, a close-up of the cluster.

Here is it compared to the regular cluster I will graft all the neccessary parts into.

Cracked open. Isn't it cool that this is what we all look like inside?

A slightly better pic showing off years of toyota engineering. This was largely considered the most powerful computer in Asia, so naturally Toyota harnessed its power for a digital guage cluster!

The cluster seperates into little sections, like islands. this section is for the tems, some warning lights, and the boost yeah!

This is the main unit. It is the biggest, and therefore the coolest one. Also the heaviest. It shows the tach, speedo, left side is fuel level, right side is oil temperature.

Here's the digital clock! Yes, even the clock is digital, without it the car would suck. It comes enclosed front to back in its own personal case for some reason.

This is the tach. My particular digidash had only 110,842 km on it! Gotta love those sweet JDM deals on low mileage parts yo. Also, notice the pic in the background. It's my old supra! Guess the colour/year!

This here is the coolest seperate part of the dash. It's the overlay that seperates all the displays, and it's actually made up of 3 layers. I tore it apart tonight, and it put one hell of a fight. Thanks to GooGone tho, I removed all the goo from the glue and the parts are clean. It's a clean plastic front, metal framework for some reason, although the metal is almost like aluminum foil ahaha, followed by hard plastic backing for the displays to screw into.
All those squares on the bottom are the seperate warning lights. I plan to incorporate those into my LHD cluster, because it looks better than the USDM way of mounting it all.

I plan to update this fairly often. I'll have an update later this weekend for sure.
eric

 

[Allan_MA70]

mine... http://smvideos.suprapics.com/index.php?fileid=767e39e265569157526433fafb68abb1

 

[IJ.]

Eric: Force the flash for the pics and use Macro for the close up !

Just dark blury messes here!

Or at least do some editing>>>>

 

[Stretch]

Thanks for the tip 1J, but it's the camera that sucks. I'm not sure if I'll beable to get the use of a better one, but my dad's got a 5.0 megapixel that's crystal clear. I'll see if I can snatch that for the important pics, like the final product :naughty: . You should beable to make out some stuff in my shitty pics anyway.
eric

 

[IJ.]

Hit refresh

 

[Stretch]

Ahahaha, way to show me up with your mad photo skillz. I don't have time to fix these right now tho. I have to sleep, since it's 2:33 am here.
eric

 

[IJ.]

LMAO it's really easy

 

[jdmk3_87t]

^^^Keep us posted Stretch! I'm interested on how this will work out for you!

 

[Looonie]

Just wanted to post a minor correction

The guage to the right hand side of the tacho/speedo is actually the water temperature gauge... their is no oil temp gauge factory on the digital dash, there is the oil pressure and boost pressure gauges over to the left of the TEMS display units...

Unless you have some weird one

 

[Stretch]

Thanks for the correction Loonie. I knew it was some sort of fluid temp guage, I assumed oil, but I'm glad I now know it's water. I could probably make it oil if i wanted anyway :icon_bigg
I bought some clean acrylic today, but it doesn't like to work with me properly ahahaa. This is the hardest part of the build; getting the cover plate with the markings on it correct, as the numbers have to be in the same exact places on my LHD cluster or else the bars won't line up properly. I think i know a place that mught beable to help, but I can't get there until Monday. I guess I'll just keep fitting the lcd modules into the cluster until then.
eric

 

[Clint]

mine... http://smvideos.suprapics.com/index.php?fileid=767e39e265569157526433fafb68abb1

Sweet AC/DC playen in the background right on!
:bigthumb:

 

[Stretch]

After a closer look at the main unit tonight, I discovered that my digidash was from an automatic! Someone taped over the auto parts; you know, DR12N that stuff. Aswell as the ect. I removed the tape, it must have been applied in Japan since it was super sticky and gooey. I felt awesome removieng some JDM tyte tape. I need to use googone to get that sticky shit off tho, I'm not gona recover it, since it'll be hard to see anyway unless it's lit up, and it wont be so..

I also started cleaning out the rear half of the LHD cluster shell, the white half. I had to remove about a Ziplock's bag worth of the plastic, and the main digid unit still won't fit. I'm gona work some more again tomorrow, and post a pic maybe if I get it to fit. If not then I might have some other ideas...
eric

 

[Stretch]

Here's a pic of my continuing destruction of the digidash unit.

It's the smoked acrylic part that goes directly over all the electronics. I tore it apart to clean the main smoked acrylic piece (the one farthest to the top of pic). It's nice and clean now :biglaugh: That crinkled piece is actually almost as thin as tinfoil, just a bit thicker. It held the smoked piece ontop of the other piece with the rectangular cutouts. SOOO hard to free it. i thought i was gona break it.

Here's what about 30-40 mins of Dremeling will do to the stock guage cluster rear shell.

I wonder why the big hole?


I'll keep working on it tonight, maybe throw in another pic or 2.
eric

 

[supra90turbo]

Holy crap Eric! Any more Dremeling and you'd just have a small frame left. haha. Keep us updated! I'm very intrigued...

 

[supra90turbo]

ahem.. lol

 

[Stretch]

Ahahah you guys! I can't lighten the pics in Paint, I looked! The white ones turn out fine tho, they need some dark for contrast.

I pretty much finished what I set out to do tonight. Here's some pics of it.

Here is my RHD cluster rear shell. I can't get another one unless I wait days and days to buy one from a member, so I chopped it up into 3 pieces! The centre one of which is CRUCIAL to my plan working.

Here you see the centre section of the RHD cluster shell positionned below the cut LHD shell. Something's happening.

OH MY GOD! Yeah, you guessed it. Nice fit eh? Without me using this centre piece the main digi unit wouldn't fit correctly into the cluster. I tried clearing the shit out of the LHS cluster without cutting it up, but it wasn't deep enough. The digi cluster is about 2 inches deeper! And the holes are pre-cut for the plugs etc... so I found this way of doing things to be the easiest!

Right side pan pic. You can see the gap left when the centre piece is fitted into it's new home. I plan on using fiberglass to close it up, unless I can come up with a better idea.

Left side pan pic. Again, notice the holes left where the LHD shell doesn't line up with the centre section. I only hope fiberglass will treat me better than it did when I tried repairing my rear fenderwell rust!

eric

 

[Clint]

Wow man you have done a lot of work! I hope it works it would be trully amazing!

 

[supra90turbo]

Nice job, Eric!
Fingers crossed here for you w/fiberglass. I hear ya w/the fender rust. My Subie needs some attention, and I suck with bodywork...

 

[robbo185]

i really hope this turns out. Keep up the good work!

 

[Stretch]

I haven't done much in the past day or so. Today I cut out the remaining pieces I'll use from the digi cluster shell. Here's some more pics.

I fit the pieces into the "shell' I have mocked up. The centre main unit is positionned correctly and will remain there forever, but the two side pieces can move around slightly. The left little one is fine, but the right one doesn't fit right, due to the fact that the chip board was shaped for the RHD cluster. Damn you toyota!

Here's a close-up of the overlap created when trying to fit the mis-shaped unit where it belongs. If I could flip it the fit would be perfectomundo, but then you wouldn't see the screen :biglaugh: .

Here is a close-up of just the board in question. You can see the shape of it, and how it seems to fit perfectly only one way.

i thought about leaving it out, as it only really has tems and some warning lights, but I really want the whole thing, so I'm gona have to try and make things work. If I could have a board made that was the flip of this one, then I could re-solder all the components from this one to it, but I think my dad is the only person who might have an idea how I could attain such a board. I'll have to ask him tomorrow.
eric