Sunnie the Brumby.

Thalass · Post by **Thalass** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:39 pm

I need a house and garage before I can have a project car, mate.

Otherwise I'd probably already have one in bits :P

Hey do you know what sort of fuel economy you're getting out of it at the moment? (it's pretty much the only unmodified brumby on these forums :P)

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 2:29 pm

Thalass wrote:Hey do you know what sort of fuel economy you're getting out of it at the moment? (it's pretty much the only unmodified brumby on these forums :P)

I haven't looked at exact fuel consumption figures yet, but if its not below 9L/100 its very near 10L/100km - driven nicely. The car isn't reved hard as we don't know what revs the engine is doing - the drivetrain is very "agricultural" than that of my L series. The two cars are worlds apart:

Sunnie has:

- lower seating position in the body
- firm throttle pedal
- longish brake pedal movement
- light clutch

Ruby Scoo has:

- higher seating position
- soft throttle pedal
- soft "super responsive" brake pedal until your used to it again...
- heavy clutch for some unknown reason.
- Heaps of junk in the back of it, starting from behind the driver's seat...

The L feels like it goes faster - but that's probabily due to me driving differently as its my car to drive hard

The Sunnie has a lot more fun factor than Ruby Scoo and seems to turn heads more, particularly when you've got the roof glass open

Cheers

Bennie

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:54 pm

El_Freddo wrote:If you find one of these dashboards grab all the wiring behind it, that should be all you need except the pressure sender as mentioned. You can run another wire for this into your existing loom so long as you have 5 pins in your blue plug from the loom to the engine - it doesn't matter if the engine loom doesn't have it as you can add it.

Okay, dash is in and all working with exception of the 4wd status. I've got the above quote posted here as all you need for this dashboard swap is the entire dashboard and the wiring behind it. If you've already got the correct dashboard to mount the instrument cluster in (eg a digi dash) all you need is the instrument cluster and wiring behind it.

This wiring will, in my experience, plug into other existing wiring in the car and operate as normal. I didn't have to change the under bonnet wiring, saving a pot load of time.

Total time from one dash to the other was the best part of two days. I also installed the AC air box under the dash, electric window wiring + associated console and spent a lot of time cleaning up dirt and dust from the last 19 years of travelling.

Here are the pics as I went along: First hurdle was to find a spot to do the work outta the wind and rain - Victoria putting on its finest for me. I got the tractor outta the shed and moved the brumby in.

^ Old console and Dashboard

And without the dash board or heater box - only the fan box left, and yes, that is a spark plug in the heater hose to stop coolant:

With the AC box installed and the heaterbox replaced:

From here I spent a lot of time cleaning stuff up and just trying to keep things tidy in general - meaning tools and screws etc. So now we "skip" to the dirt to be cleaned up:

No floor mat as its wet - found out the windscreen rubber leaks in a good shower of rain when moving at speed... Here's the final product, a much better unit and a lot easier on the eye:

And the night lighting - Starting with the instrument cluster:

And the heater controls - these never used to light up:

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 11:00 pm

Very happy with the unit - so much so that I took a photo of it on our way back up to benders, not the greatest quality but hopefully you get the picture - pardon the pun.

There's only 400 metres more on the sports dash than the original brumby dash

Since the dash board has been put in I've been working on the electric windows... stay tuned for that write up, they're in but not finished... Yet.

Overall, Gail is very happy with sunny so far and can't wait til I give it back to here with all the goodies. Only problem is that I'm not sure that I want to give it back...

Next write up will be the windows and stereo.

Cheers

Bennie

brumbyrunner · Post by **brumbyrunner** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 11:00 pm

Nice job.
Now it looks like mine.

rtcb65 · Post by **rtcb65** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 7:00 pm

It almost looks like it might of come out of our shed..lol. Na. Just joking.. Very nice work . Well done. And i like the write up about the dash. Alot of info i needed. Thanks.. The dash swap is the next thing i am doing to mine. . Nice work..

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:55 pm

rtcb65 wrote:It almost looks like it might of come out of our shed..lol. Na. Just joking.. Very nice work . Well done. And i like the write up about the dash. Alot of info i needed. Thanks.. The dash swap is the next thing i am doing to mine. . Nice work..

Thanks mate, that means a lot to come from you! Sunnie has a bit of handywork from up your way, so I guess you could say that its sorta related...

I had a massive day yesterday modding the touring wagon regulators to allow the brumby door glass go All the way down. In standard "trim" the TW electric window regulators leave about 2 inches of glass exposed when all the way down. I had to do 4 mods to make them fit and work the way I wanted them to. A basic run down of these are:

1) Swap touring wagon window "runner" for the brumby's window runner
2) Drill out welds on the regulator arm sproket, move arm in CORRECT direction and re-weld it
3) Make longer secondary arm guide using the touring wagon window runner that has been removed in step 1, drill a hole in the door to make this fit
4) Weld up gear "trough" when the glass was as far down as I wanted it - this stops the motor flexing the inner door panel when it gets to the bottom of the window run.

After running around in the morning doing things that didn't allow me to work on the doors I got to them just before 1pm. Between a few things including chasing a horse (ironically in the brumby) for about an hour to get it back in the paddock and welding the driver's door regulator opposite to what I wanted (eg not allowing window to go down at all), I got both doors done by 3am!

There were highs and times I wanted to throw it all in and cry. Now I'd do it all again if I got a brumby myself. I'm just glad I got it done and would encourage others to do it if they've been thinking about it. Check out this link to my write up - Brumby Electric Window Install.

One good thing about being up that late was that for the first time I saw sugar gliders in out 200+ year old swamp gums, it was quite spectacular to sit for a while and watch them jump around from limb to limb. I knew they were in the area but never thought they visited our "feature" trees...

Late today after a decent sleep in I got some central locking. I wired this and the stereo in, it all went well til we found that the head unit we have is not the one we wanted - there was a mix up between picking the unit and the dude getting it from out back to paying for it up the front of the store. Very frustrating.

Tomorrow's activity will be adding another candle to the cake, sorting out the stereo debacle, mounting the central locking - I've got that worked out on a coupe door in the lounge - and mounting the stereo so we can at least listen to it for now.

Til next time, have a good one

Bennie

LEALAROO · Post by **LEALAROO** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 2:02 pm

Looks like things are working out well for your project. makes you feel good when a dream comes together doesn't it.
Great job.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 2:18 pm

LEALAROO wrote:Looks like things are working out well for your project. makes you feel good when a dream comes together doesn't it.

Thanks, it is a good feeling when it all comes together as you want it. But very frustrating and tests your character when things go pear shaped. Its all going well now.

We'll have to make up a new stereo facia as we need to space it out a bit. Here's a tip - go to your local hardware chain store that does doors and building materials. Talk to the guys that work there explaining what you need - we just got a door sized MDF board to make up the facia. He was going to cut a piece off for us but we told him not to bother as we had a ute

Cheers

Bennie

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 2:26 pm

And now here's the central locking:

I got it sorted last night on the coupe door, then fitted it to the brumby door after getting its operation the way it should be.

Pretty happy with it, just gotta tidy up the curled ends by cutting them off and swap the black screws for a nut and bolt job, then tidy up the under dash wiring before strapping the central locking control unit to the steering column.

Hoping to get the stereo facia done today along with the speaker mounts. Pics will be a few days away for that. Then fit a keyless entry unit, close everything up, put the floor back in it and enjoy.

Cheers

Bennie

Thalass · Post by **Thalass** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:19 pm

This is looking great. Though one thing just occurred to me: I am way too used to the Outback's aircon system to go back to the ol' manual controls. Even when driving the missus' car it irks me! I <3 my set-and-forget temperature control :P

I wonder if I could fit it into a brumby dash...

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Jul 26, 2008 7:42 pm

Thalass wrote:This is looking great. Though one thing just occurred to me: I am way too used to the Outback's aircon system to go back to the ol' manual controls. . .

. . .I wonder if I could fit it into a brumby dash...

Anything's possible

Bennie

Bumpty · Post by **Bumpty** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:43 pm

Things are looking good, any updates?

D3V1L · Post by **D3V1L** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:55 pm

yes bennie...whats new?
dave

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 10:58 pm

Okay the update.

Basically Uni is taking a lot of my time - namely through rounds for the next 3 weeks and then homework for the next 4 or 5 after that

Sunnie has a new head unit, a kenwood something, I made a sweet mounting board covered in grey suede. The speakers need to be mounted to the doors, I've kinda butchered the inside of the drivers door trying to work this out. Now the idea is a complete custom MDF board running the length of the door to replace the original plastic unit. Map pocket will be mounted to this I think.

The floor lining needs to be put back in - we found that the old window rubber still leaks, will probabily be getting a new one at some stage.

We're looking at sports bars, Gail sorta knows what she wants so we're always dropping in on other brumby's to check out whats mounted in the rear for ideas/photos for ideas...

Sunnie also needs a new muffler, the current one seems to have rusted out inside and rattles at about 1500 revs. Gives me an excuse to keep the revs above that mark when I drive it - been a few weeks now. Anyone know if an L series muffler fits?

After all of that is done an immobliser will be fitted then we'll maybe start looking at the L 5 spd being fitted...

I'd also like to be attending the Deni ute muster, I dunno if we'll make it though, time will tell

As for now, I gotta write up some lessons...

Cheers

Bennie

preno · Post by **preno** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 7:17 pm

hey bennie, just a quick question... did you remove the tacho dash from the leone urself? if so was it very hard/time consuming? ill be attempting to remove one in the morning an hoping to get it done before work. any little tricks i have to watch out for?

very nice brumby there, i love the mods. been giving me ideas, hence the dash:D

good spot for the central locking, took me a while to figure out a decent place to mount mine. i ended up mounting the actuator vertical connecting to the key lock with about a 2" spacer between the actuator and door. works pretty well.

also with the whole dash, should it basically just plug into mine if i grab all the wiring behind it?

cheers

matt

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 9:34 pm

Mate, your on the right track with the wiring. I just plugged it all in and it worked the way I wanted it to. If it comes from a 2wd car expect the 4wd engaged lights not to work, I don't think there's any globes in the dash to light up...

To remove the dash from memory:

There are 3 nuts along the windscreen - under the demister panel strips, these are removed by lifting the black tabs up - take a small long flat head screw driver for this.

There's another one on the steering column, one under the dash near the left and right doors, can't remember if there's any in the middle on the gearbox tunnel, pretty sure there isn't.

You'll have to undo the wiring plugs on the driver's side and same with the fans on the left hand side under the panel that covers everything under the dashboard.

Pull the speedo cable out. There's two relays on the right hand side, accessable through the coin slot compartment, remove this to get in there to undo the retaining nuts (tough nuts these are!). You'll also have to pull the demister/vent pipe work off, this is relatively easy... Getting them back on is another story.

You'll also have to have the console removed to get the dash out. To get the centre console and electric wiring (if you're after this) remove both front seats makes it heaps easy. If you can remove the windscreen from the donor vehicle it will make the 3 top nuts under the windscreen real easy to get, otherwise they are uber frustrating as the face straight to the sky with no thought of removing them with the windscreen installed.

If you start at 9am and work is at 2 you should piss it in with time to get home, clean up/store parts and tools/have shower and drive to work... You need to be working efficently. These times are only a guess, I got the brumby's dash out with the leone one done in about 4 hours - after I had pulled the donor dash out so I knew what to do. The plumbing for the vents etc was the most difficult bit about this.

Good luck with it, you won't look back after installing this dash

Cheers

Bennie

preno wrote:hey bennie, just a quick question... did you remove the tacho dash from the leone urself? if so was it very hard/time consuming? ill be attempting to remove one in the morning an hoping to get it done before work. any little tricks i have to watch out for?

very nice brumby there, i love the mods. been giving me ideas, hence the dash:D

good spot for the central locking, took me a while to figure out a decent place to mount mine. i ended up mounting the actuator vertical connecting to the key lock with about a 2" spacer between the actuator and door. works pretty well.

also with the whole dash, should it basically just plug into mine if i grab all the wiring behind it?

cheers

matt

preno · Post by **preno** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 11:20 am

thanks heaps mate. that really did help:D got it all done in about 2 hours!

those 3 bolts at the top were a real big pain....

matt.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:54 am

G'day Preno,

How'd you go with the dash swap? We should catch up if you're in town.

Latest update: Not much has changed - we took the tool box outta the tray area to expose all the rust, there's not as much there as I thought.

Now looking at how to treat this rust: I think I sprayed it with WD40 to keep moisture out for now. Since Victoria's got its winter weather (and we're in december) there's no use doing the rust now. I'll try and get a pic of it when I remember.

This week should see all of the AC installed on the condesor box that's already in there - the only bits not going in will be the AC radiator out front (need a new one) and a piece of wiring under the dash as I need to find a new one - the bit I've got has been butchered and I also need to see where it connects to for power etc. That'll be a next time job when at pick a part.

The speakers will be installed this week - they should have been done by now, but then again, they're an "early" xmas pressie...

I've also sourced a replacement bullbar, just gotta pick it up from SUBAMAN!!!, can't wait

Then it'll be a "very very sneaky" xmas eve install

That's about it for now, hope to soon have the power steering on too, just gotta make sure the rack is in good nic before installing it.

Cheers

Bennie

tex · Post by **tex** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 2:03 pm

I don't know if im too late but try this out,
attachment.php?attachmentid=825&d=1207626630
Some of you may have seen it before but im still trying to find a lower door skin without speaker holes in them or at the least up the front! I need to make it down to pick a part maybe...