brunnhilde's digital thermostat - part 4

 

I was going to wait until the replacement Ink Bird temperature controller arrives before removing the Kerstner control panel to transfer the four mounting hole locations over to my custom faceplate, in case I need to use the air conditioner.Sometimes I am too cautious and over think. I decided that I would go ahead and get as far as I can while waiting for the long post in the tent to arrive.

there has always been these two mystery exposed screw holes

I had always mystified why there are two set of holes for the Kerstner control panel. Two of the holes are not covered by the plastic panel. Today I realize they must be the legacy of Airstream handy work. When the NAFTA James Cook first arrived to the US, some complained the air conditioner not being adequate for hot states like Taxes and Florida. Airstream worked with Westfalia and decided to replace all the air conditioner with one of higher BTU. I would infer because of the change, the control panel was Also changed which has different screw hole locations. Hence two set of holes.

I was going to use this as the template for transferring the hole locations but they are crooked WRT one another

When I checked the 4 holes on the Kerstner control panel they are not at all square. They are all crooked with respect to one another. This is no surprise that Airstream's super tech must had hand drill them rather than using a template. A monkey would had done a better job.

I carefully check the four holes which I believe was made by Westfalia factory with a template. They are perfectly square WRT one another. This is definite proof that the control panel was changed with the bigger AC.

these are the original Westfalia factory made holes; the other 3 are Airstream's hack job when the AC was Supersized Me 😂

When I set out to fabricate my own custom faceplate, I sized it a big longer to cover the two unsightly exposed holes. Hence it is now perfect if I transfer these hole locations over - with a piece of paper.

how to transfer the locations of the four good holes

it is very easy to make a mistake which holes to transfer

the transfer was perfect and you can see how well square (as evenly symetrical) is this set; I made countersink at the holes to match the screws

no more exposed screw holes

Again another major step of un-Airstream. I like the way it looks now. It would look better when the display is lit.