Custom lower console in progress.....

[great white]

Hi all.

Time to get a bit more serious about my rear cam and gauges.

But, as we all know the 95-98 interior is a bit......umm... "challenged" for space to install gauges.

I really dislike pillar mounted gauges. Just gets in the way IMHO.

So, a couple hours of cardboard work gets me the raw "buck" to start with:

You can see where the touchscreen will go. The area where the broken and useless ashtray used to be will mount 8 or so digital gauges.

I'm on the fence about building another carputer and putting it in the console itself. I've got enough left over parts to install it, everything from power supplies and dolby 7.1 soundcards to dual head video and amps. Sure would be nice to have on board OBDII diagnostics again, but I don't know if I could stand the "whirr" of the cooling fan inside the cab. The Ol' whoar up under the hood makes enough noise already.....:rolleyes5:

What I'm at a loss for is what to put down in the big flat space that's left over. I've toyed with the thought of making a space to hold the blackberry, the ipod or just a tray to hold whatever is rolling around.

Any ideas?

 

[sparky18]

what about some sort of those electric cooled cup holders to keep the beer cool ;-)

 

[sparky18]

or of course heated ones for coffee,whatever.

 

[btfarm]

Find a late model ('01-'07) with the center console at the boneyard and put the lower section with the cupholders/etc in there. Looks like a perfect fit.

 

[great white]

Coming along nicely:

 

[great white]

Finally got the lower console into primer:

I've added an inverter and a USB power supply. The inverter plugs are on the lower face with the switch and the USB plug in is the square in the lower right upper surface.

Left to do is put the monitor back into it's casing, install the auber gauges, make the black plastic floor for the cubby and final painting to match the interior.

Now that the console is coming to the finish, it's time for something else to go with it:

Can't see it? Pic too fuzzy?

Lets zoom in and see if you can pick it out:

Yup, rear cam!

Night vision and all.



Made myself a nice solid bracket and welded to the bumper. The cam clears the tailgate when it's down by about 1/4 inch. The rear bumper lights are going to go very nicely with it.

You just knew I was going to do something with that monitor in the console.

 

[great white]

In the truck and ready for use:

Turned out pretty good.

I like it!

 

[Ed HD]

That looks awesome!! Can't wait to see it all wired up and working?

 

[btfarm]

Very Nice!

You should be proud of that workmanship...:thumbsup:

 

[big block 88]

That looks killer great job man!

 

[great white]

Everyone loves pics!

I still haven't figured out where to hang the mic. I've got a couple ideas, but I have to do some test fits first.

The hole in the right lower corner is where I was originally put the devil's own controller. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

But once in the truck, I couldn't see the indicator lights of adjust the injection setting with seat in the driving position.

So, it got moved to the gauge mounting location.

I haven't filled in the hole yet, I've had enough of fiber-glassing for now.

I've only got room for 3 gauges now, instead of the original 4. No problem, I didn't know what I was going to even put in the 4th location anyways.

The Cb is also functional now. Bluetooths the iphone great! People can't even tell I'm not using the phone for sound quality.

With roof mounted antenna, I'm getting pretty much flat SWR readings at about 1.1:1

Overall, a big success!

 

[Z79outlaw]

Cool, nice work.

 

[Pepperidge]

Just now seeing this because of your update...you do great work!