Jerry Feather

Landseer:

Now you need the entire console and now you need just the parts you can mount your radios and gauges to. I guess I don't have a clue about what your are talking about.

Please review this thread and then you will get a better idea about just what I am trying to create. If that is going to be of some use to you I will be happy to hear about just what your particular needs are. If you need a complete console I suggest you contact 928 International or some of the other vendors of used 928 parts or watch eBay. I just bought one on eBay for a reasonable price. I am NOT going to replicate the "whole console!!!"

Jerry Feather

Jerry Feather

Hi Landseer. I thought I would respond more specifically to your quoted post.

You heard I was making inserts? Yes I am making inserts, but the lower of them I have been continuously calling the lower trim piece. The upper of them I am actually calling the upper insert.

Now I am making the entire console??? Where did you get that. I am not making the whole console. You need one? So what happened to the one you were supplied with with your 928? Why do you need a whole console? You will need to find a whole original console someplace beside from me.

You don't need the HVAC insert? That is good because I have no idea what the HVAC insert is. Are you talking about the HVAC control head?? I would expect that you do not need one of those, but that is not an insert--it is a control panel or control head.

Just what it and the inserts mount to??? The insert for the upper area of the center console is what the HVAC mounts to. The Upper Insert mounts to the center console. The HVAC will mount to the upper insert. Are you paying attention or what????

Well, and the inserts too???? What???

I understand that you do not have an airplane, a carputer or a double
DIN nav unit.

Just what is it that you do have that will need something from this system of FLUSH mounted center console conversion that I am trying to deveolp with some input from you guys who might be interested is the prospective conversion???????????

Jerry Feather

81Euro

Jerry, I'm sad to report the ditch witch was flying today! The Prosport digital gauge bezels are not removable, or at least I don't see a way. This leaves us with the actual measurment for each gauge of 2.255 inches. I think I'm beginning to get the picture that the auto guys are not destine for a 3 gauge din. I do appreciate your effort to squeeze things closer so that we might have a shot at 2 gauges or at least one. The 45mm gauges that I have found are not digital and the Prosports 45's are only available with amber backlighting. Not a bad presentation except I have converted my instrument cluster to blue leds. Keep steady on the creation and I'll try not to interrupt further. Jimmy.

Jerry Feather

Jimmy, What about converting the Prosport 45's to blue lighting. I think you can find different color led's and some instrument shop can probably take then apart and change them for you.

Here is how 1 3/4 inch (45mm) gauges might look in the bonded configuration we discussed, with some reasonable spacing.

Jerry

81Euro

Now who's persistant! I love the way your mind works. Prosports is headquartered in St Petersburg and I have placed a call to see if they can help. Will also do another search for 45mm gauges. Am I correct the seam shown in this picture will be eliminated with the continuous insert? If so, this will be a creation of beauty! Jimmy.

Jerry Feather

Right, Jimmy, the joint between the two inserts would be bonded, actually with a spacer in between, I think, to take up for the lack of two layers of leather that will otherwise be there. The material that is there in the flanges will remain, but some will have to be cut away in the event of placing one or more of the gauges there. There is going to be only about a quarter inch of space from the bonded joint to the bottom edge of the next panel installed above the joint, so don't count on much flexibility in terms of placement of gauges in this area. That quarter inch of space plus the joint itself, of about another quarter inch, is all the space we are going to have to work with.

Jerry

SeanR

If you have the gauges low like that, you will also have to contend with glare. Sort of like when you leave your phone by the shifter and as you take a turn, you get blinded.

Jerry Feather

Actually I think the Double DIN Nav/etc. is going to command much more attention the the clock,oil temp, and fuel/air gauges, at least for Jimmy, since that is what he is planning on. What other gauges are there to put in the conter console that might require so much attention that are not already in the instrument cluster?

Jerry Feather

tlsmith1999

you have to be careful trying to move the HVAC too low, the head unit needs plenty of space in the back.

Jerry Feather

The HVAC location in the system I am developing is going to be placed just about exactly where Keith Widom put his in what I think is the original flush console conversion. It appears to me to fit there.

Jerry Feather

81Euro

Jerry, I went to the shop today and placed the actual 52mm Prosport gauges in the area as shown in your last picture. My experiment: I mounted the gauges on cardboard to simulate a single din and placed them in the location of the ash tray of the existing console's recess piece. The crude experiment has at least three variables, 1) the actual width because I used the recessed insert vs the unknown width of your flush lower unit, 2) the existing curvature in this area vs the curvature of your masterpiece, and 3) the forward travel of the automatic shift leaver in your lower piece. Assuming these variables can be mitigated, I believe the results are: A) Gauge depth (1.50) appears sufficient. B) As you have said all along, 3 gauges (in tandum and offset) overlapped by a few mm, i.e., they don't fit! C) There appears to be sufficient mounting area for 2 gauges. D) The location is not ideal for gauges but is acceptable considering the alternatives. Reflective glare (indoors) could not be evaluated. This was not to question your expertise but moreso to visualize the placement and appearance of 2 gauges. Bottom line: I'm a happy camper and eagerly await your next update. Let's go fish'in (when you're finished), Jimmy.

Hilton

Is there sufficient gap around the fitting edges to allow for skinning it in vinyl or leather to match the factory interior, instead of the ugly plastic?

Have you tested the piece in a factory-leather console to make sure the piece fits? (factory leather is applied over the standard vinyl console so the inset area may be slightly smaller?)

Jerry Feather

Hi Hilton, There is sufficient gap designed in these pieces for them to be covered with leather. The grain of the leather will be kind of pot luck in respect to matching the simulated leaher grain in the cast plastic or vinyl console bodies. I think acceptance of that potential contrast is fairly common.

No, I have not tested these pieces in a factory or other leather covered console. In fact this concern only came to me the other day when ducman, I think, posted a picture of his console covered in leather by Rob Budd. Now I am concerned that the gap I have allowed may be taken up already in those cases. So far, the only solution to that potential problem may be to skive the leather around the edges of my pieces. However, I will have to wait until I can confront such a console, because I don't have one at this point, or until I can create one myself to work with.

Jerry Feather

Hilton

Ok thanks - getting the grain to match factory leather isn't too hard locally.. there's a trimmer who carries Porsche leather near me and who has done a few of the local 928's (he'll be doing my dash soon, as it needs recovering due to leather shrinkage).

The fit in a leather console isn't too critical - can also plane off enough plastic to allow fitment. I'm just thinking ahead as the flush console is the second best internal mod I've seen (first being a pair of Paul's seats).

Jerry Feather

Every now and then I check on-line for some miniature gauges that might work for the gauge guys in this project. I find some 1 1/2 inch instruments, but not necessarily the kind of indication that might be desired. I think if we keep looking, we will find dome gauges that can be used with the automatic Trans version of this console conversion, or find someone that might make some for us.

Jerry