The following will be a worklog of my fiberglassing attempt at a 4-din center console. Seeing as how my last fiberglassing project was a pretty favorable success, I am more than confident I can make this work! The console will house the following components:

(1) 7" Microvision LCD screen
(2) Alpine 9833, IMHO their last SQ-oriented HU
(3) Modified climate control housing

All of this will be mounted in a pine frame that has been backed with mortar board for reinforcment. The shifter console has been cut down to the 12V adapter in order to provide enough room for the wood frame. The wood frame will be attached to the shifter console, then the whole thing will be wrapped, resined, bodyfilled, holes cut, sanded to death, then painted. I will also be adding the buttons for PROJECT V into the console in the process.

Enough with the intro, now onto the pics!!!

***Note: All potential thread hijackers, please leave your weapons at the gate.

 

Here is a rough shot of all the components in place...



...and a shot of the wood frame installed (sorry for the crooked pic!)...you also get a sneak peek at PROJECT III here...



...and a shot from the side.

 

wow....looks very nice....I can't wait to see when its all said and done....

 

i was wondering, what type of paint have you been using, and will you be using for you interior projects??

 

Thats Hot!

 

(1) Sand off the OEM paint with 220-grit paper (it WON'T stick otherwise)
(2) Smooth the peice off with 500-grit paper wet sand
(3) Spray with Dupli-Color Adhesion Promoter (CP199)
(4) Paint the peice with Plasti-Kote off-White (1589 WHITE)
(5) Spray the peice with Dupli-Color Acrylic Enamel (DA1692 Crystal Clear)
(6) Allow peice to cure for 5 days
(7) Repeat steps 5 & 6

...might be kind of excessive, but preliminary trials had the paint coming off to easily. The bond is now concrete as any I have seen.

 

All looks really good. The only question I have is why not flush mount the CD player; get rid of the plastic trim ring. It really looks like you are doing a good job and flush mounting similar to the climate control would put it over the top. Good luck.

 

Well, the monitor and climate control will be...I have never really considered flush mounting the HU...d@mn, thanks for the idea, man!

...I will have to see how hard that is going to be, though. It's going to make mounting the thing a bit tougher, but I have never been one to turn away a challenge!

 

It's been awhile since I've been behind the dash, but, couldn't you just drill new holes on the metal cage about 1/2" behind the other holes and then add some extra material to your fantastic trim piece. Just make sure you leave room to be able to detach the face or fold it down, whatever that unit does. Keep up the good work.

 

Metal Maxima when u gonna update your hamepage I want to see all how-to's u performed on your max

 

xtantmaxima - Good idea, but I won't be able to use the OEM metal frame. I will be needing to cut the screw holes for the climate control in order to gain enough clearance for the HU. Instead, I will be fabricating my own frame out of some aluminum. Oh, and I went back to see if I could flush mount the HU, but no go. I would have to fabriacte a whole new wood frame in order to get this to work. BUT...I should be able to clean it up. Maybe I will shoot the trim peice gloss black when I shoot the amp rack. I don't know what color I should paint this console peice when done, so look for a poll when this is closer to completion.

Nomad - Yeah, d@mn, I have not updated that thing in ages! I will spend some time at work today posting all my HOW-TOs (I think I have around 5 thus far), with any luck I will have it all updated by then.

 

Looking nice can't wait to see the results.

 

^^same here. you have some nice projects going on. looking good

 

oh man, i wasnt going to ask about flush mounting that HU, i just figured you were going to do it. if the front of it folds open or somehow opens for cds be sure you have enough clearance. glad someone gave you a challenge

 

Alright, I didn't get as much done as I had hoped in the past few days since I lost 2 days trying the secure the HU. SO, what I finally did was just say f*ck it to using a metal frame and decided to, you guessed it, fiberglass my own mounting frame. I started out by wrappin the backside of the frame in tin foil and then wrapped the HU in tin foil. Then I simply wrapped mat around the HU and pressed it to the back of the frame...



...let is cure, then popped it out. Here is the frame. I will likley cut this tommorow and sand it down a touch. I will simply mount it to the frame using some very small screws.



Now that the frame is secure to the shifter console, I am adding two strips to reinforce the bond between the center & shifter consoles.



...with any luck, I can wrap this tommorow!

 

this is getting more interesting by the day.....

one thing...might want to drill some ventilation holes in the fiberglass mounting bracket, to allow as much heat as possible to escape from the HU....

 

man i cant wait for it to finish

looks pretty sweet

 

that's a bear of a project to pull off right. i would have used a metal mount of some sort. like a steel electrical box cover (the small ones). i've bent numerous ones to serve my needs.

keep the updates rolling

 

Ok, today I wrapped the fram in polar fleece and applied the resin. I think I am going to be having some sagging at the top where the monitor will sit, nothing a little body filler and some patience can' smooth out!



...and here's just something else I felt like throwing out there. Here are two completed peices from my two-tone bone & black interior conversion. The wires coming out of the vent rear are for the LEDs I have mounted.

 

looks good

be VERY careful with that shifter trim - i suggest reinforcing it even more than it is. they tend to break....
...ure gonna be able to get that monstrocity in in one large piece?
either way - props. when do we see more spy pics of the secret two-tone?

 

Sweet! can't wait to see the final product

 

i wish i could do stuff like that

 

Alright, all I have time to do today is fit-test the peice and trim the excess fleece. I spent most of the day cleaning my fish tanks & cycling filters...the missus and I also got a new red & black oranda which has some AMAZING color to it, so we had to set up a quarentine tank for him which she has cutley named "Club Med". ANYWAY, here is the first side shot of the fit test...looks pretty good!



Looks like I will have some sanding to do on the driver's side, though...the fit is a bit too tight; nothing some wet-sand and 60-grit paper cannot make easy work of.



Lastly, we see where my big challenge is going to be. I am not sure if I am going to tackle this with kitty hair or body filler. I will have to think out how this gap is going to be filled, but I am confident we can get this filled quite nicely.




The resin seems to be giving it the support where it needs - the main thing is not to handle it by the shifter console, which it pretty easy. Oh, and although it's not much, here's another...



PS - The old ghetto pedals were there when I bought the Max...I have some AEs I will put in when these procjets are done.

 

i like the sandals, more than the pedals

 

Alright, looks like I will be filling the gap with some tiger hair...got some today!!!

 

This is sweet and all...but why is this in the ForSale section?? LOL

 

huh? this is the audio and electronic forum.

btw metal....how do you drive this car when every day its all torn apart?

 

You learn to deal with it...it'll all be worth it in the end.

 

Yeah, it's always worth it once the project is done. Looks really good so far man, I'm hoping to try some fiberglassing here in the near future, maybe you can give me some pointers on where to start the learning process.

 

I got an instructional DVD, gives ya the basics...other than that, it's all been hands on! I'll send you a link where I got it from.

 

It wasn't....it got moved....after my post....

 

it would look 10X sweeter with the HU flush mounted. it kinda sucks that you got so far already...i know with my projects, i hate going back and starting over. it's just that in your 3rd pic, the profile of the HU sticks out so far compared to the other units. good luck with your projects, though.

 

hey metal is this gonna be painted that bone color like your vents or are you gonna do it black? cause imo the bone color all the way down to around the shifter area would look pretty sweet

 

dam looks real good bro, your very creative, uhm is your car white though?

 

damn, METAL MAXIMA, to me ,you are a bear

 

looks sweet man

 

Thanks for the compliments, everyone! I have not been able to get to this project much in the past few days (work, rain, g/f), but with any luck I will be able to get a big chunk of it done on Saturday.


...not sure yet. The lower halves of the interior panels will be painted bone and the upper halves are going to be wrapped in suede...so I am going to have to wait and see what color I will make this. I am either going to shoot (paint-gun) the peice when I shoot the amprack...or paint it bone. I'll have to see which I want to go with, I'll probably end up posting a poll, heh-heh.

I MIGHT be able to flush-mount this yet...I'd have to raise the chassis of the HU up a bit from where is sits in the frame, but I could probably do that pretty easily with some rubber bumpstops...I'll just have to wait and see, although I can tell you that I am certainley leaning towards flush mounting it...and creating another weeks worth of work in doing so.

...nope! It's Super-Black, with all of the perks of a 5th gen paintjob (see: paintchipped as hell)

 

looks good so far. you got projects after projects to keep ya busy huh?

 

It's a mixed blessing. Today, however, EdgeX is coming over and I am doing his window switches and shifter light. All this after working 14 hours yesterday, AND going in for 3 more @ 6am this morning.

...can anyone remind me what the word RELAX means?

 

haha i want to relax too, but i got a chem review to go to around noon, and my sound splinter rl-p is coming in today

can't wait to put my audio back together.