Ducman82

any update on this? i know you have been busy.

Jerry Feather

Yes, I am busy right now on the rear wheel well liner project. I think that is going to have me pretty busy for a while, especially if it works out and I go into production to try to satisfy the interest.

In regard to the Flush Center Console conversion, I have that almost complete except for a little final development of the indicator lites in the shifter insert. I have one nearly done for Jimmy, but sent him a blank one for the time being to try to get his car going now, but haven't had the time to finish up the lite version of his insert yet. I'm not sure where he is with his conversion.

For Jimmy I trimmed out a replacement center console with some leather that I found that is a little thinner than most, about .035 to .040 thou, when the usual thickness is about .045 to .050. I have allowed about a sixteentn of an inch between the inserts and the console which is about .063, so the space is limited. With Jimmy's I did both the console and the inserts with the thinner leather, but getting them together was really tight. I think that is about the limit for leather covering in my conversion.

If someone were to cover their console with the usual leather of about .045 to .050 leather and then hope to put my inserts in to it with even the thinner leather that I have a limited supply of in .040., I doubt that it will fit. Then, if someone were to have their center console covered with the usual pattern of leather with the really nice french seams along the top edge, that means there are two layers of .050 leather down the inside edge of the console where the flush inserts are intended to go and there is only .063 space there for it. With the leather on my inserts and the two layers of leather on the console, there is no way.

Then there is the delima that I see, or at least perceive, and that is that for someone to do this conversion in the field with their own console. I am having a difficult time conceiving of someone cutting the AC vent out of their insert and fixing it into the upper insert of my conversion. I had enough difficulty doing it myself, and then covering the result with leather, so that I cannot see someone doing it in the field and then glueing it into the insert after I have already covered the isert with leather.

What the boils down to is that the best way for me to try to provide this conversion is for the user to send me their console and have me cut their vent out and glue it into the insert then cover both inserts with leather and return them. I will also need their double DIN nav unit in order to fashion the correct mounting in their console.

In short, there is simply too much in-the-field fabrication in this conversion to make it very feasible and therefore affordable. Or not.

Jerry Feather

Nicole

Can we clone Jerry, and then have one Jerry work on the fender liners, and the other Jerry on the console inserts?

If not, I stand by my word: Fender liners are more urgent than the console inserts - as much as I'd like to see those done as well.

Jerry Feather

Today I think I made some significant progress. Probably enough to realize that there is going to be some interesting difficulty in trying to mount these liners in all the cars. Interesting because just about every version of the car is likely to have to have different mounting brackets developed; and that may also be for each side.

One of the things I found today is that I think that the right side of the inner car is not quite semitrical to the left. What I was working on today was the fitting of the right liner inner half to the S4 that I am working with. I found that the liner would not fit as far foreward as the left one does. There is a reverse curved panel in the foreward inside "corner" of the well that I have formed around, but it seems to be a little too tight on the right side as compared to the left. What I am going to have to do is form a flat spot on the right inner half to allow for the difference.

Another thing I think I found is the reason that the right top rear corner of the GTS factory liner has the squarish indent in it is to clear the fitting on the bottom rear of the plastic cannister thingy that is mounted in the very top of the right wheel well. I think it is a charcoal cannister for the fuel vent system, but what do I know. Anyway, my liner clears it except for the need to grind a little notch in the liner flange to clear the fitting.

I also developed a form piece that will form a lump or bump in the liner inner half that will clear the fuel line that goes up the rear of the inner part of the right wheel well. I'll form a next version of the inner halves maybe tomorrow and see how it works.

I finalized the design of the left two mounting connectors and will start working on making them in aluminum. I plan on using .075 sheet in 6061 T6, but I have to develop some method of bending them to shape; and I don't have a stout enough press brake to do it with. I'll have to look into that part of it. I used to have a friend here with a brake I could use but he sold it and moved away.

I find that the right front of the wheel well in the S4 has only three mounting points in the car. I think I can convert one of them into two points and that I can use the other two to mount a bracket or connector to that will have two or three points of connection the the liner flange.

For the rear of the right side there are simply no mounting points. However, there is a little stiffener brace at the bottom like on the left side that I can add two points to, the same as on the left. Then I hope to figure out how to connect to one or more of the fuel line mounting points for some more points in the rear.

With all this different bracketry that is apparently going to be incolved, I am beginning to wonder just how difficult these liner are going to be to mount in the field. I guess I have to start working on some extensive instructions.

Jerry Feather

OBehave

Jerry,
I have a laser cutter and press brakes.If you send me a dimensioned drawing of the brackets, I would gladly donate the services and material to help with the forward movement of this most worthy project. Ed

Jerry Feather

And. That is a great offer. I'll give it some thought especially if I come up short on a brake that I can use here.

Jerry Feather

Jerry Feather

Thanks. I see that I have posted the progress report in the wrong thread. I guess I leave it there since they are getting a little mixed up, but tomorrow I'll post some more progress in the WW thread. Sorry.

Jerry Feather

Jerry Feather

I see that I have this progress report posted in the wrong thread. I'll make some more progress tomorrow on the liners and post it in the other thread. Sorry.

Jerry Feather

Jerry Feather

Is there an echo in here, in here, in here? JF

Nicole

Hi Jerry: Thanks for the update!

You might want to keep updates on the fender liners in the other thread, and limit this to the console insert pieces - just to avoid confusion.

Jerry Feather

Duh! Is there an echo in here, in here, in here. Jerry Feather

Alan

Jerry,

Fender liners are top priority of course.

However - interested to know if you still have any of these laying around.

I have a spare console, and some time this winter. And have plans for changes including for the HVAC head unit update to a 3 **** type more modern design.

Do you have a flush top console part without any cutouts (or just vents) and ideally a lower with no clock (just flat) and a manual trans cutout (or no cutout at all).

Not asking you to mold one - but if you have one available - I'm interested in it AS IS (understood to not be a finished project). This would be for prototyping use.

I'd also be interesred in more offcuts of your flat source material (as you sent me with the cowl cover) I found very good uses for these in various projects.

I can handle lots of fabrication tasks (though not like you!).

Alan

Jerry Feather

Hi Alan. The answer is yes, I still have several of these Flush Center Console Conversion inserts, both upper and lower. And, in respect to the lower, both for the 5 speed and for the Auto shifters. The main reason I have not made any final progress in this project, aside from the pressing need for the WW Liners, as you suggest, is that the design as I developed it did not come out is such a way as to lend itself to compiling a kit and sending it out. It turns out to be more of a "system" to do the conversion and one in which new components and the console itself sort of grow together into the new configuration. After they are completed they can still be taken apart, of course, but doing the conversion is where the growing together comes into play.

I found that there is not a very distinct place in the system process that seems to me to lend itself for me to stop and then sent it out to the field for completion. That of course is based on my assumption that not too many of the persons who might desire this conversion are likely to be able to do any given level of fabrication themselves, nor can their mechanics, but where the line is between those capable and those who are not is unknown to me.

Given that you might be one who is capable to do some of the necessary fabrication at some point in this conversion, or someone who is willing to simply throw away what has failed in your efforts and either start over or give it up, here is the sequence of events that the system requires:

1. Fabricate the raw upper insert by compression forming in the forming machine with it all being heated in the oven.

2. Trim the raw formed upper insert, both with the bandsaw and then with the disc sander.

3. ABS glue the two strips of ABS doublers along the bottom edges of each side of the upper insert, the ones that will slip into the channels at the bottom of the console center openings.

4. Place the upper insert in the router jig and route the upper opening for the new air vent outlet location, and the bottom opening for the HVAC and AC/warning panel (these nest together, which might be a small problem for what you have in mind).

5. Glue some strips of ABS for doublers into the inside of the upper insert around the two openings that are now made which also end up surrounding the middle opening that will be made for the double DIN Nav unit.

6. Put the upper insert into the same router jig and re-rout the same two openings; then put the insert into the other router jig and rout out the center double DIN opening.

7. Install some additional doubling inside the upper insert for mounting the two components (HVAC and the other one) into the lower opening. If you are going to replace the HVAC head you will need to know if you are going to have space for it because it cannot be any bigger than the original and, depending on how it is going to nest with the other narrow panel it may also need to be smaller than the original.

8. Next you will need to remove the air vent body from the upper part of the console center recess and do it in such a way that you leave the two top mounting holes in the console (and they may need to be restored because they are usually broken.

9. Then you need to carefully trim the air vent body so it will fit into the top of the upper insert where you will need to glue it into place. This part and no. 8 above are the ones that I find are going to be pretty tricky and is the point that I kind of changed direction on this project from trying to do a kit and suggesting that I do the conversion in my shop with someone's console.

10. When the upper insert is glued together with the air vent body and it has the proper doublers in it for mounting the bottom HVAC components and the center double DIN opening is correct for your unit, it is then covered in leather. Now its is ready to be placed into the center console and the center will now be flush.

12. Now we will form the lower insert for the 5 speed.

13. Then it is trimmed in the same way as the upper insert.

14. Then we will need to cut out the opening in the bottom of the recess for the shifter.

15. Glue on the two doublers along the bottom edges as with the other insert.

16. There is no preformed opening in this insert for anything besides the shifter, so if nothing else is going to be mounted in it, cover it with leather.

17. Now remove some of the plastic cross bracing in the center console leaving only about one going across, as I recall.

18. Fabricate and install the appropriate kind of mounting tray for the double DIN unit and install it in the console. it needs to be of a nature as to become a substitute for some of the cross bracing that you have removed. It also need to be made so that when the Nav unit is mounted in it the face will be at the flush location.

19. Now the console can be mounted in the car and you can try to figure out how the back of the air vent is going to mate up to the air box under the dash, because with the vent in the new location there is a big gap between the two. I devised a unit for this, but I have only made one for Jimmy.

20. Now you need to fabricate a plate for the base of the shifter boot, one that when covered with leather will fit snuggly into the shifter recess. If it fits snuggly enough it may stay in position by friction, but if not you can glue it into the bottom of the shifter boot then put it into the recess and screw it in from below.

21. Now you can put the insert down over the shifter (with the shift **** removed) and push the lower insert into position in the lower part of the console.

22. Actually you will probably want to put the upper insert into the console first.

23. There are some other issues like hooking up the wires and such to all of it and one problem with the original HVAC is that the pin connector will no longer work because the new location for it does not allow enough room for it.

Now, Alan, do you see a place in this sequence where you think you might be able to take it over and complete it yourself and to accomodate your own components?

Alan

Jerry I'd be happy to take it on at step 2. Especially since the configuration of openings I want to build will be different from what you have shown.

What happened to the other thread (or the rest of this one...) - I can't seem to find it.

This latest posts dates to way back - but is all that showed up in a search for this...

I have pictures for you of the modified HVAC blower switch with pigtails attached

Alan

Jerry Feather

I am bumping this because I think there is some current or recurrent interest in this topic about now.

If I can find the most recent thread about this conversion I'll bump it too.