Jerry Feather

Thanks, guys. It is actually nicde to be appreciated for this simple stuff. I am actually happy to be able to contribute what I can in this way because I know a lot of you spend a lot of your time contributing in the many other ways that you can. That is a great contribution to the legacy of our beloved 928's. I'll keep on doing what I can for as long as I can; so I hope we will all have a better future with our cars that we might otherwise have. Jerry

Benton

Wow Jerry, impressive work! So that's what all of those console parts have been for.

Jerry Feather

Hi Mark. For your benefit and for those who might have tuned in late and do not wish the read this whole thread I thought I would provide this interim report.

What I am building here is a machine that I hope to use to form some ABS Plastic sheet into some center console trim pieces that will go around the shifter and will delete the ash tray and incorporate the clock panel, this first one for a substiture clock which will be out of a 2005 to 2007 Infiniti. This one is also going to be utilized in the flush center console kit project that will facilitate anyone putting much of their controls and such at the flush level and then incorporating a double Din Navigation, etc. unit.

At this point in the development of this machine I am about 3/4 of the way complete, or perhaps a little more. I am near the finish of the first forming lever and have only three more pieces to fabricate to have it complete, plus I will need a latch for it also.

Then the final step will be to fabrticate the last of the foming levers which will be used to form the inside of the openings for the shifter and for the clock. That one will be relatively simple; and I already have one of the forms that will go on it, made. The other form will be for the shape of the clock itself. Other than those two all I will need is two levers and some cross bars for holding the two forms. I actually have a couple of these levers I can use, but will have to cut them down. In any case I have some of this work already done.

What I hope that means is that I might be forming some plastic this weekend. That will be the exciting part. I hope to be able to take some good pictures of the forming process so that everyone will be able to see just what we have accomplished here and how it actually works, IF IT DOES!!!

There will likely be some adjusting of the machine to get the forming just right, but that will be fairly easy. There is also the potential to make a fairly major/minor change in the form itself since I am not real sure that the opening for the shifter is actually large enough. At this point I don't really want to know, but will need to find out shortly. Then I can change what I need to and get it to work.

When I get to the point of having this machine do what I want I will leave this thread as having accomplished my purpose; except I may at some point, come back to it just to show the development of the original trim piece, if it even turns out to be worthwhile to go any further with that development.

In any case, When this current trim piece is accomplished I am then going to develop another machine to form the upper panel for the flush concole conversion kit that I have been successfully diverted to in this project. I think that is going to be a real nice asset to the further updating of the 928 but still utilizing much of what is provided with the original cars. More about that in the next thread.

Jery Feather, FBA Certified

Jerry Feather

As a further explaination of what I am trying to show here, I thought I should explain what this wierd thing is at this point and where I think it is going.

What I have shown so far is the current development of a machine that I an developing that I can use to form a trim piece for the lower part of the center console of the 928. This one will be utilized in a flush type center console conversion that I am also going to develop further.

This machine consists of a base plate with the form for the inside surfaces of the subject trim piece. That much should be obvious from the pictures. The form looks a lot like the trim piece I am going to try to form. This one does not look exactly like the original because it is different. Nevertheless, the procedure is the same as if I were forming the original trim piece as origially intended.

This machine consisits of the base plate and hinge plate. On the base plate is the form I developed for the trim piece.

Next, above the base plate and form is the plastic holding frame. This one is articulated in the upper area so that the plastic, once heated to soft and formable, can be pulled down around the form to start the forming process. You can see from the latest pictures this part of the machine with the articulation aspect incorporated.

Upon the plastic frame, I have mounted an additional frame which will have the members that will be used to form the plastic around the form on the outside. It is hinged upon the plastic frame.

What will happen is that the plastic will be mounted in the plastic frame including a bend in the platic to fit the articulation aspect of that frame. Then when that frame with its plastic heated and soft and then is pulled down around the form, the next lever will be pulled down upon that frame and around the form on its outside. That will form the outside of the trim piece.

The part of this machine not shown is not made yet, but is will be the last forming lever which will have the forms for the inside of the trim piece.

I didn't intend by my last post to suggest that this thread is at the end, because it is not. I still have to develop the rest of this machine and then show the process of forming for you to get the full benefit of this HOW TO.

Jerry Feather

No_Substitute

yes, thank you...I am fascinated. I think it also helps people understand how much work goes into "just a bent piece of plastic".

Jerry Feather

Thanks, Sabine. If all of you look back to the early part of this thread you will see that I showed three different forming machines that I developed to make some plastic things. One of them, the simplist one actually, was to form the Hatch Latch Receiver Liner. When I was trying to sell some of the resulting liners someone inquired about how such a small piece of plastic could be so expensive ($40, as I recall). I then posted a list of about 32 steps in the forming and fabrication process that were required to make the part, and that was after I developed the little forming machine for the liner body. That machine was not nearly as complicated as this one I am working on, but later you will see that even after I get this machine going, there are going to be several steps in finishing a trim piece after it is taken out of this machine.

Nevertheless, if it wasn't creative and fun, I wouldn't be doing it. Jerry

Jerry Feather

I think I have sort of overcome a kind of "hump" in this process. I have been troubling or puzzling over the two side parts of the main forming lever--the one that will form the outside of this trim piece. I have had a pretty good concept of the upper bar and even the lower bar, but the side members of this first forming lever have been holding me back a little, at least mentally.

Nevertheless, I have reached the point of getting them made, almost. I have made the upper bar and the lower bar, which is a little more complex, and with them in place that kind of tells me the limits of the side forms that needed to be developed.

What I have to show here are a few of the steps that I went through to make the lower cross bar for the first forming frame. This bar will be the one to pull the plastic down around the tail end of this trim piece form. The shape of this member is not too critical since the plastic that comes in contact with it will essentially be cut or ground away in the final trimming process of the resulting trim piece. Nevertheless, I would like it to be pretty close to the final, just because...

First I cut two recesses in the forming bar with a lugger bit, which is the only thing I have that cuts a radius close to what I need. Then I milled out the material in between to form the forming recess. Then you can see that I have placed the forming bar in approximate position in relation to the forming levers; and finally I have it bolted in place with the levers standing upright.

Jerry Feather

Next, after I had the upper and lower forming bars complete, I first made some determination about what the angle of the upper flange ought to be. Then I set the upper bar at that approximate location. Then I set the newly formed lower forming bar at its approximate location. With both of them set, I cound determine the distance between. I already have the angle of the sides of the trim piece, so all of this starts to come together.

I had a piece of angle material which I think I showed before, so I cut it to appproximate length and started marking it up for trimming, but when I put it next to the other piece of corresponding material I thought I had to go with it for the other side, I found that one is 3/16 by 2 inch material and the other is 1/4 by 2 inch. I didn't want to use something as heavy as quarter inch, so I had to back off.

I did have some 1/8 inch by 1.5 inch material (angle) that I kind of had in reserve, so I started over with that. What you see here is what I have come up with so far with that angle material.

I have formed one of the lighter angles for the left side and have the other nearly formed for the other side. You can see how I have it clamped up into approximate position and how it will play into the overall forming process.

What this doesn't show is that I have found that using the 1 1/2 inch angle material I do not have quite enough material on the forming side of the angle to pull the plastic down as far on the outside of the form to make the side flange that I need. What I am going to do is simply rivet another piece of about 1/16 inch aluminum plate to this angle which I have cut to the exact shape of the side flange I want to form. If there is some adjustment I need later in that piece, I can just grind it off, or it it needs to grow for some reason, I will just make a new one.

Hilton

Not sure about the Infinity clock, looks a little dainty for the 928 compared to other instruments/controls.. but looking forward to seeing the forming machine in operation and the final product. Keep up the updates, this is very interesting and impressive.

Jerry Feather

Hi Hilton. The larger of the Infiniti clocks seem robust enough for the 928. but you might be right about the earlier, littler one. However, if the space is as limited as I think it might turn out to be, the littler one may be jsus about right.

On the other hand, I have looked a number of times on eBay for other clocks that might be suitable, and have seen nothing that I think would be suitable. I am opposed to a round clock; and I am njo sure why. It just looks like a round clock is not at all suitable in this setting. It looks old fashioned or something; and just turns me off.

Do you, or anyone else, have a suggestion for a nice analog clock that I might be designing around. Now is the time for one to step up, if there is one. I have a lot of design flexibility at this point, and will always have, I suppose, but I would really like to know now what the alternatives might be. Show me what you have in mind, if anything.

Jerry Feather

Ducman82

do you plan on making one without a clock?

Jerry Feather

I have been trying to include is this thread a lot about my mental processes associated with this project, primarily because that is a lot of what it is about. HOW TO, for me has a lot to do with how my brain works in this kind of endeavor.

In furtherance of that approach I thought I ought to let you in on where my brain is at this point in the project. What I set out to do was build a machine to develop an alternative trim panel for the lower center console in which I could adapt an alternative analog clock to that offered by the factory for over $500 new, and which sells used for $250 to $300.

When Nicoile and Jim, I think, pointed out the Kieth Widom flush console concept, and after I gave it a lot of consideration, I think this project was successfully diverted in that direction, although I have remained commited to showing you how I would go about making a machine to make the lower center console trim piece, even though now it is one that I thought might be suitable for some kind of flush center console kit or system that others might find useful.

I am going to complete this HOW TO in regard to the trim piece currently in progress; and that will complete this thread when I get there. I will be showing how the plastic is formed and how the plastic, once formed is then trimmed and finished for use in the center console.

However, what is going on in my head now is some further development of this idea. I am working on a concept for a further development of the flush center console concept that is actually more flush that even Kieth Widon came up with. I am going to refer to this further development as "taking the flush center console concept to a new level." The pun, if it is one, is intentional.

What I am planning to do is develop this lower trim piece in such a way that it will do away with any "recessness" that you see in Kieth's project. One of the things that I notice with both of the shifters--the 5-speed and the auto--is that they are both offset to the left of center. I think that means that there can be some additional panel on the right that can be flush. I also think that the auto shifter may articulate much further foreward than the 5-spd, so I may have to have two different trim pieces for the lower console, but then I may still be able to incorporate the modification and moving of the auto shifter that I previously suggested.

When I finish the pending trim panel development I will be able to tell what adjustments It will need to be flush and then be covered with leather the way I think it will have to be to do what we want. When I know that then I will be able to make a new form for this trim piece that is usable in the machine I am making; so I wont have to be designing a new machine. The form will be incidental.

What the new trim piece may entail is a smaller opening for the shifter and perhaps a clock on the left of the relocated clock panel with the rear AC sdwitches located one above the other on the right of the panel.

That may solve a lot of problems that I will go into later. Even if it takes two different forms for this trim piece, that will be no big deal. What it is going to entail is bringing the surface of this trim piece up to flush completely rather that having any of it recessed as with the present and with Kieth's. Even the boot for the shifters will be mounted at the flush level rather that any lower as presenty seen. In this way the "gaposis" that is apparent with the last versions of this concept will be gone.

In any case, I will provide continued development of this machine I am working on now and we will see how it works in forming at least this second generation of this trim piece, if that is what it turns out to be.

Jerry Feather

Jerry Feather

The answer, literally, is no. However if you were to ask if one of the versions of this panel can be made to exclude the clock, the answer is yes. In fact any iteration of this trim panel can be made to exclude the clock. As I discussed earlier, if the opening for the shifter needs to be large enough to preclude moving the shifter, there could be too little panel area to incorporate a clock.

So, I suppose one of the optional configurations that ought to be considered is one that says "you don't need to move the auto ****fter, but you wont have room for a clock."

Thanks for your question. It really helps to know what others are thinking.

Jerry Feather

Landseer

For me, its about having a solid plastic console cover, such that I can cut it and mount what I want.

There are some Z-like gauge bezels I want to fit into the console area instead of ashtray and clock.

Koenig-Specials 928

I am also interested in one without the clock. I wrote earlier that I want to put additional gauges there as well. Very interesting that you're explaining the steps and thought process. Makes it easier to follow and I'm learning so much from it. Keep up the good work and thanks.