Banpei's two door panda Trueno from Japan

[banpei]

You may wonder why I am drilling a hole in my ashtray.


It's because I want to make an even bigger hole in it!


And why do I need an even bigger hole in my ashtray?


To hide the chime kill-switch!

The reason started with me pondering where to put the light switch for the foglights. There are a limited number of spots available on the dashboard of the AE86, and the GT Apex occupies 1 for the parking lights, 1 for the defroster, and 2 for the power windows, leaving a blank spot in case you need expansion for fog lights. I used the blank spot for the chime kill-switch:


My initial solutions were:
1. Print an adapter to change the coinbox (as seen in the picture above) into two spare blank switches
2. Cut a hole in the dash to the left or right of the present switches and add it there
3. Cut a hole in the side of the HVAC panel
I didn't want to spend another week on modelling and prototyping an insert for the coinbox, nor did I fancy making an irreversible change to the dashboard. So HVAC panel it was...

When I finally had the HVAC panel removed (which requires half the dashboard to be dismantled), I actually had a much better idea: why not install the switch to the back of the (unused) ashtray as a hidden switch?

With half the dashboard dismantled, it was much easier to install all the wiring. I was able to route all wiring neatly behind the dashboard panels and route the wiring towards the fog lights via the top of the right fender.

So now the fog light switch has been installed where the chime kill-switch once lived:


And how well does it work?

The sequence in the video is like this: the fog light covers open up when both the ignition key is in ACC, and the switch is turned on. When I turn off the switch, they will close. Then I enable the popups, turn on the fog lights and both are illuminated. Then I put the popups into maintenance setting (turning off the lights, but keeping them popped up) and then put the ignition key into OFF, which then turns off the fog lights, but the covers don't close. To close the covers, I first have to put the ignition key into ACC once more and then turn off the switch. And finally, I close the popups by moving the light switch into the off position.

In other news: tonight I went to have look at another garage box:

This box is lower than my current (2.2 meters versus 2.6 meters), but it's much deeper and wider (6 meters deep and 2.7 meters wide versus 5 meters deep and 2.4 meters wide). Even though this one is slightly bigger in volume, the actual reason for changing is very different: this garage box is only a 5-minute walk from my home, while my current one is 10 to 15 minutes by bike. I already made up my mind, and I'm moving into this garage in the near future.