Heater coverup

[GeorgeHurst]

Hi there,

I've built an MDF version of my parcel shelf to accomodate speakers for my CD player. I have built a wooden shelf where the parcel shelf should be and then affixed two panels with speakers in to the front, bridging the gap between the shelf and the dash.

I'm considering changing it to make one solid panel accross, covering up the heater. My question is; if I do this, do I run the risk of dangerous heat build up in this area? That might effect electrics or even cause fire?!
If I were to cut a hole beneath the heater outlet and create some form of duct to channel the hot air out of the hole, would I avoid any such risk?

(I realise I will need to consider how to turn the heater on, so would probably make a sloped recess out of the panel with a channel for the heater arm.)

Any thoughts much appreciated,
Cheers, George

[bigginger]

I wouldn't say there was any fire risk, but I would say you'd be losing a lot of handy space, and introducing more stuff to go through your legs in a crash
a

[Kevin]

Have to agree with Andrew point's, but it would also have to be easily removable as it would restrict under dash access, sound sinteresting though as I havent seen anything done like that before.

[Orkney]

Ive been toying with the idea of something under the heater - a sort of hanging centre console in wood.
Just to take a radio, initially as that seems the most sensible place for it to be , then got thinking be handy to have a pocket/hole for bits & bobs, maybe even an ashtray & lighter socket and can holder.
Trouble is it will have to be quite far back to avoid the cabin air duct at the front bottom of the heater unit, and wont want to be so deep as to interfere with the clutch pedal or the pesky headlamp dipper switch.
Will have an experiment with some bits of ply at some stage and see if it can be done.

[Peetee]

If you are proposing to mount this on the heater you might want to renforce the L plates at the sides of the heater because they are very thin steel.

[GeorgeHurst]

it would also have to be easily removable as it would restrict under dash access

The shelf that I have put in to date is secured with right angle brackets on the A posts and at the bulkhead, then thae speaker panels are screwed onto the front of the dash and the front of the shelf, so only a few screws to get it off. I would take a similar approach with the proposed installation.

Trouble is it will have to be quite far back to avoid the cabin air duct

Perhaps you could build the console around the heater and then pipe the hot air from the air duct to a new air duct in the front of the console. That is in essence what I am proposing, though in a slightly different format.

peetee: As mentioned above I will fix via brackets to the car, so the heater won't actually be bearing any weight, it will just be covered.

Thanks all for comments, it seems like there is no fire risk or anything! So I will give it a go. I will post pics at some point when done (about to start rebuilding entire car post respray and then I'm off travelling for a month so it may be a month or two!)

Cheers,
George

[MoggyTech]

Remember to allow access to the bonnet release.

[bigginger]

Very good point
a

[GeorgeHurst]

Yes indeed, I'm going to try and salvage a bonnet release knob from another sort of car and attach it through the enclosure to the current one somehow. Need to work out the specifics but hopefully got it covered!

[Kevin]

Or get a spare moggie one and fit to suit onto the existing.