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If they're anything like your battery, they'll be 'must haves'.
Can I suggest the interior rear quarters as your next project?
Shawn, I'm not sure what you are referring to as "your battery," but thanks.
In respect to the rear inside quarter panels, that is a whole different animal. Those panels might be made out of ABS plastic and formed in the thermo forming setup of my plastics guy, but I think only one at a time could be pulled and that will take a bit over half of a sheet of plastic. Then, I think that ABS is not the right material for these because of the potential temperatures involved. These panels will need to be reproduced in fiberglass with high temp epoxy. That is going to entail making molds off of good original panels, and that is quite a project. I don't think I even have enough space in my shop to work up even one mold.
Even if I could make the molds, I think that the final layup of finished panels would have to be farmed out and that will be kind of expensive.
The real problem in all of this is that there really is not much of a market. Then the other problem with most of the items that I have gotten involved in is that for the even modest cost to a user, that most often puts a stop on buying anything. In particular since in most cases a 928 owner already has an item that they can get by with, it is more economical to do that than to spend a hundred bucks or more for a new item. I'm pretty sure that that is going to be the case with these console side panels if I am able to complete the development.
By the way, I was able to buy the two rough GTS console panels from Mark A. I think they will be sufficient to help me develop a method to form those.
It would be interesting to hear from anyone who had obtained a pair of the ABS plastic quarter panels and hear how they turned out. One thought is that maybe they are no longer available because of problems relating to the temperatures involved. I find that ABS can be formed quite a bit at about 250 degrees F and very much so at close to 300 F. However I see just now with my drops of ABS out in the sun on my deck tend to take at least temporary different shapes just in the sunshine.
I'm going to go out to the shop shortly and start to work up the basic form for putting the shape into these panels. I was going to try to write up what I have figured out about that here, but I think that is too complex; so I'll simply take my camera with me and take some pictures as I go.
Here is the first step -- Captain may I. These two pieces of plywood will capture the top edge of the panels to hold them straight and true to fit the groove in the console. Actually the small forward end will have a slight downward bevel to match the slight bend in the forward end groove in the consol.
Last edited by Jerry Feather; 05-26-2024 at 12:28 PM.
For my design of these panels I an adding a quarter inch to the bottom edge. That plus about an additional eighth will be beveled about 25 or 30 degrees. In order to accomplish that most easily I have to add as much to the blanks at the bottom as the material will allow and that is so far about 5/8 inch. Then when I do the bevel I will be beveling about 7/8 inch and then cutting off about a half inch of the material to leave a 3/8 inch bevel at the bottom.
S0, the next problem to solve is just how wide should I make the base for all of this forming "machine." I worked that out in my sleep last night but now I have to lay it out in wood. The outer edge of it will have to accommodate another kind of double wood clamp for the bottom edge of the panels and that is kind of complex to figure out for the width of the base.
Last edited by Jerry Feather; 05-25-2024 at 03:34 PM.
I made the basic forming board and then mounted the previous forms to it. Then I cut up a 2 by 4 to use for the clamps for the bottom edge in the form. I made two of them for one side and neither of them is right. I'm taking a little break and then I'll go cut up another 2 by 4 and try again. I'm using the passenger side out of my 82 to work up this forming jig and that seems to be working pretty well.
My next phase will be to try to figure out just what the proximity is of the shelves to these panels. I'll have to put one of my shelves back in to see where the end of it falls in relation to these panels.
Last edited by Jerry Feather; 05-25-2024 at 04:07 PM.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to find a set in excellent condition and 3D scan then have them printed? Alternatively a mold can be made for them to be made out of plastic?
I made a third form for the bottom edge of the panel and it looks like it will work. I'll have to form one panel and try it. I'll do that before I bother to make the one for the other side. Then my belt sander had a small failure and I don't have the correct screw to fix it. At least I haven't found one yet.
Khaled you have to understand Jerry,
he has a machine shop in his garage,
and the wisdom of how to use the various machines it contains.
NOTE he is very comfortable coming up with many types of remedies to difficult problems.
He is an OLD School craftsman.
( not many of these types of people are left)
For as easy as your suggestion is for you,
this is as easy as it gets for Jerry.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to find a set in excellent condition and 3D scan then have them printed? Alternatively a mold can be made for them to be made out of plastic?
I do respect Jerry’s workmanship (along with everyone else’s)… I have the taste and vision, but I don’t have those skill nor time, and accordingly appreciate them and the work.
My comment was a simple inquiry of the possibility of use of modern technology (3D scanning) to obtain a faithful image which can be tuned in CAD as needed to produce on demand parts or a mold for plastic injection.
No attacks and no disrespect made towards anyone, and I expect the same in return.
Hey hey hey guys…no disrespect made towards anyone, and I expect the same in return.
Had you had bothered to read the thread you would have had the answer to your first suggestion. If you had a clue about injection molding, you would not have even made your second one.
One of the things that I noticed yesterday in my study of the console in me 82 is that the front mounting point of these panels has a lot of up and down movement. I'm not sure why; but I think as a sort of make-shift fix I am going to put a couple of little shims under them between them and the top of the tunnel. I think that might be a common problem, and that may very well be part of the reason the two installed panels shown in this thread appear, to me at least, to have small gaps at the top.
Last edited by Jerry Feather; 05-26-2024 at 11:57 AM.
05-24-2024, 11:19 AM
