ReDesign by FEATHER

I came in a bit ago to double check on the measurements for the Double DIN unit I will likely be installing in this conversion. Before I did, however, I changed a couple of minor things. I made an angle stiffener for the trailing edge of the lower insert to one that goes all the way across. I also changed the outer doublers to 1/8th material rather than 3/32; and I narrowed it a tiny bit because I think what I did before is a bit too tight.

Then I set up the router gig to trim the ends off of one of the air vents. I am trimming them off because some of the material in the back needs to come out anyway, and with the trim they allow a bit more reveal of the leather surround than otherwise.

Then I am in the middle of doing the two openings on a second upper insert, but in the newer position. At this point I will need to glue in some of the back doublers and then I'll be able to work on the router gig for the middle opening; and that one too, I may want to open up a tiny bit since I think it might be a little too tight, particularly depending on the thickness of the leather that will cover the insert.

Here are a few pictures.

Randy V

I must have missed it in the other discussion - what is the plan for the two rear AC control *****?

DZGunner

Liking this alot

ReDesign by FEATHER

Hi Randy, Thanks for staying tuned. The rear AC ***** will go on the lower trim piece, either in about the same position as original or perhaps along the right side. There will also be room on either version of the lower insert to put a 12V power outlet of some sort. I haven't found one I really like yet because I would like it to look kind of high class, but not to gaudy. I don't care for the ones with the rubber plug on a strip of rubber or similar, but would like to find something that has a nicely hinged cover. Any ideas?

ReDesign by FEATHER

I put the inside doubler material on the new upper insert I am starting over with and will let it cure before I do some more routing on it. I also worked the router jig over for the middle opening both to move the opening down a little so the reveal is about the same along both the top and bottom of it, but I also opened the hole out a few thousandths because I see that the face of the Double DIN Nav unit I am going to install has to have a bit of room so the face can articulate in and out on its own and I think it was too snug before. I have to count on leather about 45 thousandths thick and that has to be accounted for in these openings since the leather will wrap inside each of them.

Here are a couple of pictures of the doubler material and of the now roughly finished lower ears that are going to result from eliminating the botton strip on the upper insert. I was going to take a couple more pictures but the camera battery was exhausted. Now I am charging it and watching football.

After the game I think I will go back out and tackle one of the consoles so I can show what has to be done to those for this conversion.

dr bob

Jerry--

Since the A.S.H. can is diasppearing and the most common non-smoker uses for the power outlet move to cellphone chargers, NAV units and radar detector plugs, why not place the [UGLY] outlet(s) down into the knee space or the parcel tray (on non-airbag cars) next to the console, eliminating them completely from the console face?

Alan

I agree mounting the outlets somewhere out of direct view is better + functionally cables & bulbous chargers in use near the shifter are bad, and they look even worse than the bare outlets. Mine is already moved to the console side.

Alan

jwillman

Jerry,

Awesome work. Would love to have one of these for my 79 when they are ready for sale!!

ReDesign by FEATHER

I didn't do any more with the upper insert. What I did was dig out a spare console that is pretty complete and in about average condition, or even better, and disected it for this project.

The first thing I did was remove the vent and duct from the upper area of the recess. That takes drilling a couple of holes at the bottom corners and then using a coping saw, sawing it out up to the upper corners. Then I have to put the saw in differently so that I can cut across the top of it in the back leaving the top flange or part of the duct that has the two mounting holes in it so that they can still be used to mount the console later.

Once the vent is out I need to grind the left and right edges a bit to true them up and so it is narrow enough to fit into the upper part of the insert. Then I ground off the bottom flange and leveled off the front face of the bottom so that it will glue nicely into the insert. I may do that tomorrow.

Once that is glued in there is a big gap at the top where I left the mounting holes in the console, and that will have to be filled up with a formed piece of ABS and glued in.

I will be using Goat Tuff Glue to put this all together because ABS glue does not stick to the original plastic. Goat Tuff will stick to both of them.

I also took out one of the two middle cross braces so that I could operate the coping saw. The bottom one will be left in until later when I have put something else across the opening so the console will hold its shape. Part of that will be the tray or rack that will be holding the Double DIN Unit in since that will be mounted in the console and only protrude through the upper insert. I'll probably add one additional strip of aluminum somewhere a little lower for the rigidity we need.

I also used my disc grinder to remove some of the plastic around the shifter area that wont be needed and might be in the way.

I found a little delaminmation along the botton edge of this console, which is pretty common, and I will be glueing that back later also.

I also fitted the lower trim insert that I put a longer stiffening angle under. It is really flat now. The upper curvature in the cowl at that area is actually more delamination that I'll be trying to repair.

ReDesign by FEATHER

One of the things the above pictures show is an area on the under side of where the bottom edge of the upper insert will go that will need to be filled up with some plastic so the bottom edge of the insert will have something to rest on.

There are a few more pictures here since I couldn't get them all in the previous post.

Ducman82

Maybe I missed it but, if you cut the vent flap and move it out, won't that leave a gap between the back of it and the heater box?

VegasGnome

Jerry, Here is a link for a 12v power socket with a hinged cover: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Waterproof-1...item565fc54d3b.
Keep this project moving!

ReDesign by FEATHER

Yep! If the vent flapper assembly is not moved out of the console and put into the upper insert then there is a gap left between the front of it and the vent louver grill. That is what Kieth Widom did in his version of this conversion. The problem I have with that is that the vent grill flap is no longer workable unless you use something like a pencil or something similar to operate the litte knurled end of the lever that will no longer be sticking out.

I created a sort of vent duct gap filler to fill the gap in the back. More about that later.

ReDesign by FEATHER

Thanks Glenn. Great Price too. I bought those and may put one in the project, or, as Dr Bob suggests, put it somewhere else.

ReDesign by FEATHER

Now might be a good time to make a sort of check-list of the things that we still need to do to comlete this project, at least in the manner that I have in mind. Here goes:

1. Re-rout the top and bottom openings then open up the Double DIN hole with the router in the upper insert. (DONE)

2. Clean up the vent flapper assembly and make a final trim after verifying there will be enough room below it for the NAV unit. (DONE)

3. Glue the vent assembly into the upper insert. (DONE)

4. Cut and form a piece of ABS to fill the gap at the top of the vent; glue it in. (DONE)

4A. Cover the upper insert with leather. (DONE)

5. Trim some ABS strips to build up the mounting area for the HVAC panels at the bottom of the upper insert, and glue them in.(DONE)

6. Fashion a rack or sleeve to mount the NAV unit into the console. This will be out of about .032 or .040 Aluminum. (DONE)

7. Build up the sides of the console inside where the NAV rack will mount. (DONE)

8. Fit the upper insert, the AC panels and the NAV unit into the console so that the NAV rack position can be determined and then mount it in.

9. Glue a strip of ABS to the bottom of the larger AC panel body to make the correct spacing between it and the narrower AC panel. They need to be articulated a bit between themselves in order to have thier faces follow the curve of the bottom of the upper insert where they will reside. (DONE)

10. Determine if the lower insert will need openings for the rear AC controls, and open them up. (DONE)

11. Glue a strip of ABS along the foreward edge of the lower insert, if it is determined that it will still fit. (DELETED)

12. Cover the lower insert with leather. (DONE)

13. Cure the delamination(s) in the console, and rebuild the mounting points that are broken, including glueing on a doubler for the top two central points. (DONE)

14. Cut out the bottom of the shifter recess in the lower insert leaving an edge to mount the shifter boot base or frame to.

15. Fashion a shifter boot base/frame out of heavy ABS.

16. Design and fabricate a shifter boot out of leather to match or contrast with the other coverings.

17. Final Assembly, I think. This will include fabricating and installing the vent duct extender that I designed before.

I wonder what I have left out. I guess we will find that out as we progress.