sentinal02
12-07-2004, 02:09 AM
First YJ tech post! lol.
Ok, we’ve all seen the posts about making the heat come out the A/C vents. And I’m sure anyone who lives in the season climates has said at some point that they wish they could adjust the heat a bit better. The YJ vents just aren’t located in the ideal spots for human comfort. Sure your feet are warm and the windshield takes 5 seconds flat to defrost, but even after the air in the cab has warmed up a bit your steering wheel is still ice cold and you’re alternating hands on top of the dash to keep them warm. Well now you don’t have to. Incidentally, this mod might work on a CJ but I won’t swear to it. The idea should work, but I don’t know about the dimensions.
After two winters of frostbitten fingers holding onto the wheel, I decided to get smart. I said, why can’t I design some sort of vent cover to deflect the air out towards the back of the jeep once the windshield has defrosted? The answer was I could. Here’s what I came up with.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/sentinal02/Heater_Deflector_001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/sentinal02/Heater_Deflector_003.jpg
Now that you’ve seen it, you’re probably saying why didn’t someone think of this sooner? I know I did. This simple piece of sheet metal makes all the difference driving in the cold. Having done it I’m quite surprised some of the aftermarket companies haven’t done this before. Perhaps they’ll come up with something if this idea takes hold. But until then, here’s how to make your own. All you really need is a couple flat, straight edges to make the bends with, a drill and 9/64” bit, and a pair of tin snips.
Ok, first thing to do is run out the steel supplier or hardware store and pick up some sheet metal. I used 16ga sheet simply because I had a bit of scrap that I was practicing welding on, but I found this to be a little thick to cut easily with the snips. 18 to 22ga would probably be a better choice if you’re buying it from the supplier. Incidentally, Home Depot sells smaller sheets so if you don’t have a steel supplier locally check there. Most suppliers will have odd sized cuts though so it might be cheaper there. Anyway, while you’re out, pick up four 6-32 round head screws about 3/8 to 1/2” long, with matching nuts and washers. Might as well grab the paint of your choice too while you’re there. Don’t forget the primer if the paint calls for it when painting metal.
Ok, now that we’ve got our goodies, back to the shop. Pull out your tin snips, your ruler and combination square (or any other method you have for finding a 45° angle.) If you’ve got a table saw or power miter saw you can fit either one with a metal cutting blade to make the larger straight and miter cuts a lot easier. Just be sure to suck as much sawdust out of the traps as you can before starting so you don’t start a fire with the sparks. Now, first step is to layout the deflector shield itself. Go out to the jeep and measure the length of the vent that you want to cover. I went just shy of full length with mine because I have the clinometer mounted in between the two vents and if overlaps them by about half an inch. So mine are 12.5” long instead of the 13” that the vents actually measured. You’re might be different though so be sure to measure first. Since the shield just sits on the top of the vent opening though, you could easily make it only cover half the vent so you get air to both the windshield and out toward the cab. I did notice that the outer half of the vents blew harder than the inside so you might want to check yours with the blower on to be sure you get what you want. Anyway, once you decide on the length, add 2-1/8” to that length. That will cover the side folds. The width of the shield should also measure 2-1/8” wide. So what you have is a rectangle of stock 2-1/8” wide x (your desired length + 2-1/8”). Got it? Good. Scribe the rectangle on the stock and find the center of the short sides and mark them. Measure in 1-1/16” from each end and draw a vertical line across the width of the rectangle. Now, take your square and draw two 45° lines from each edge of the rectangle where you just drew those vertical lines to the center tic marks you made in the step before. These width measurements are set to give you a 45° right triangle with legs that are exactly 1-1/2” long because your dash pad is 3” wide. In either the up or down position you’ll either cover the windshield half where the vent is, or the cab half to let air hit the windshield in defroster mode. You should get 4 lines total looking something like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/sentinal02/Heater_Deflector_006.jpg
Those inner vertical lines represent our bend lines while we’re going to cut along the 45’s we just made. Cut out the rectangle first to make things easier to handle and then cut along the 45’s to remove all the waste. Once you cut things out it should look like a two way arrow.
The next step is to pick one edge to be top and one to be the bottom. Doesn’t really matter which, but I like to pick the cleaner edge as the top. This will be the edge most visible to you once installed. Once you decide, measure down along the vertical width lines 1/2” and scribe a line across the entire length. This will be another bend line to create the piece that will force the air toward you. From that point you just found, mark a 45° line back toward the top to intersect the leg of the triangle. This little piece will allow the two bends to fit together nicely. Take the snips and cut along that vertical line to free that long bend line up from the triangles on the end. Now cut along the little 45 line and remove the little triangle you just cut out. You should have something that looks like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/sentinal02/Heater_Deflector_007.jpg
Ok, we’ve all seen the posts about making the heat come out the A/C vents. And I’m sure anyone who lives in the season climates has said at some point that they wish they could adjust the heat a bit better. The YJ vents just aren’t located in the ideal spots for human comfort. Sure your feet are warm and the windshield takes 5 seconds flat to defrost, but even after the air in the cab has warmed up a bit your steering wheel is still ice cold and you’re alternating hands on top of the dash to keep them warm. Well now you don’t have to. Incidentally, this mod might work on a CJ but I won’t swear to it. The idea should work, but I don’t know about the dimensions.
After two winters of frostbitten fingers holding onto the wheel, I decided to get smart. I said, why can’t I design some sort of vent cover to deflect the air out towards the back of the jeep once the windshield has defrosted? The answer was I could. Here’s what I came up with.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/sentinal02/Heater_Deflector_001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/sentinal02/Heater_Deflector_003.jpg
Now that you’ve seen it, you’re probably saying why didn’t someone think of this sooner? I know I did. This simple piece of sheet metal makes all the difference driving in the cold. Having done it I’m quite surprised some of the aftermarket companies haven’t done this before. Perhaps they’ll come up with something if this idea takes hold. But until then, here’s how to make your own. All you really need is a couple flat, straight edges to make the bends with, a drill and 9/64” bit, and a pair of tin snips.
Ok, first thing to do is run out the steel supplier or hardware store and pick up some sheet metal. I used 16ga sheet simply because I had a bit of scrap that I was practicing welding on, but I found this to be a little thick to cut easily with the snips. 18 to 22ga would probably be a better choice if you’re buying it from the supplier. Incidentally, Home Depot sells smaller sheets so if you don’t have a steel supplier locally check there. Most suppliers will have odd sized cuts though so it might be cheaper there. Anyway, while you’re out, pick up four 6-32 round head screws about 3/8 to 1/2” long, with matching nuts and washers. Might as well grab the paint of your choice too while you’re there. Don’t forget the primer if the paint calls for it when painting metal.
Ok, now that we’ve got our goodies, back to the shop. Pull out your tin snips, your ruler and combination square (or any other method you have for finding a 45° angle.) If you’ve got a table saw or power miter saw you can fit either one with a metal cutting blade to make the larger straight and miter cuts a lot easier. Just be sure to suck as much sawdust out of the traps as you can before starting so you don’t start a fire with the sparks. Now, first step is to layout the deflector shield itself. Go out to the jeep and measure the length of the vent that you want to cover. I went just shy of full length with mine because I have the clinometer mounted in between the two vents and if overlaps them by about half an inch. So mine are 12.5” long instead of the 13” that the vents actually measured. You’re might be different though so be sure to measure first. Since the shield just sits on the top of the vent opening though, you could easily make it only cover half the vent so you get air to both the windshield and out toward the cab. I did notice that the outer half of the vents blew harder than the inside so you might want to check yours with the blower on to be sure you get what you want. Anyway, once you decide on the length, add 2-1/8” to that length. That will cover the side folds. The width of the shield should also measure 2-1/8” wide. So what you have is a rectangle of stock 2-1/8” wide x (your desired length + 2-1/8”). Got it? Good. Scribe the rectangle on the stock and find the center of the short sides and mark them. Measure in 1-1/16” from each end and draw a vertical line across the width of the rectangle. Now, take your square and draw two 45° lines from each edge of the rectangle where you just drew those vertical lines to the center tic marks you made in the step before. These width measurements are set to give you a 45° right triangle with legs that are exactly 1-1/2” long because your dash pad is 3” wide. In either the up or down position you’ll either cover the windshield half where the vent is, or the cab half to let air hit the windshield in defroster mode. You should get 4 lines total looking something like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/sentinal02/Heater_Deflector_006.jpg
Those inner vertical lines represent our bend lines while we’re going to cut along the 45’s we just made. Cut out the rectangle first to make things easier to handle and then cut along the 45’s to remove all the waste. Once you cut things out it should look like a two way arrow.
The next step is to pick one edge to be top and one to be the bottom. Doesn’t really matter which, but I like to pick the cleaner edge as the top. This will be the edge most visible to you once installed. Once you decide, measure down along the vertical width lines 1/2” and scribe a line across the entire length. This will be another bend line to create the piece that will force the air toward you. From that point you just found, mark a 45° line back toward the top to intersect the leg of the triangle. This little piece will allow the two bends to fit together nicely. Take the snips and cut along that vertical line to free that long bend line up from the triangles on the end. Now cut along the little 45 line and remove the little triangle you just cut out. You should have something that looks like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/sentinal02/Heater_Deflector_007.jpg