yaz996

My best results with the Einstar come when I lay down a white and blue striped towel on my counter top. I'll elevate the part over the towel via hockey pucks or other blocks, then I'll crumple up the towel randomly to create extra "features" for the tracking.

merlot

I'd still be interested in what you come up with. Gotta be cheaper than OEM racks, right?

circuit.heart

If you already have a Yakima rack? Absolutely. A spacer in compression can be 3D printed, I'll try it soon after some of these other missions have been accomplished. Little bit of finishing work needed if you want show quality but should be strong enough since it's all just getting clamped. Admittedly I haven't been focusing so much on the rack stuff as I have received more interest in the other parts I'm making.

Back to the interior, I took the cupholder apart:



I had to buy another half-broken cupholder to have enough pieces to cobble together one good one, but it is doable at home with just a Torx driver and a good memory. Which means, I think I can make metal versions of the fragile plastic flaps/loops. That should be a helpful product as many, if not most, 996.2 cupholders I've encountered seem to have these pieces broken.



Swedit steering wheel is here! I think the seam relocation went great, and the leather is so many steps up from the glazed-over-time OEM stuff.



I bought a leather airbag to go with it as well, but it looks in rougher shape than the pictures showed. That sucks, but the crest can be transferred over and the leather itself refreshed/dyed. I'm in no rush to tackle that so I'll use the vinyl airbag for now. Unfortunately one of the Tip switches cracked during disassembly so here we are, JB Welding it back together...



Almost ready to put the interior back together with the new horseshoe, no pics of that quite yet... in the meantime, tackling the HVAC controls relocation.





I think I mentioned this before, but because I want both a double-DIN radio and a clean center console, I want to tuck the HVAC controls in an inconspicuous place that's nonetheless still accessible. This first test print is just to set dimensions and get an idea for how well I can integrate it with a normal GT3 center console delete. If it works, I'm gonna design the rest of the system where the HVAC is hidden by a flipdown faceplate that doubles as a MagSafe phone holder/charger. Car's gonna look pretty ghetto till everything is finished but I have the vision in mind, just need time to execute.

Leeroy89

Very impressive so far!

circuit.heart

Damnit!



Printer tried to compensate for shrinkage and went too far, so the slot didn't leave enough room. Printing a second prototype now with some extra features - I think I figured out how to get a damped, hinged trapdoor onto the front face of this thing. McMaster sells lubricated cables that I'm gonna check out:

I've made the trapezoid so small that there's no space for the normal gear + rotary damper combo typically seen in OEM "soft open" doors (see the cupholder pic for a perfect example). If a cable can do the trick instead, it can be straightened out right next to the HVAC controls and be super compact! I'll show and explain this better once I have print in hand to take pictures.

In the meantime, breathing a sigh of relief on my steering wheel! The JB Weld from yesterday miraculously cured strong, so I bolted the frame for the Tip switch back into the steering wheel with no issues. Now the challenge was replacing the small delicate "catches" on the other end:



Wasn't sure if it'd be even possible to glue these in "like factory again" to retain the original function of these catches - they're supposed to flex out of the way so you can push the Tip button cap down / pry it up without damage but the available surface area for gluing is just so small. So my next best idea was to fill in all the gaps and just don't let it flex anymore. The button cap will be secure, but I doubt it'll ever be able to come out nicely again. 4 layers of electrical tape cut real small sticks nicely onto the catches:



Layer some epoxy into the original broken edge, then wiggle the two tiny catches in, and build up epoxy as a layer around the whole thing (of course, avoiding the axle of the button cap).



It's been curing for about 8 hours now so I tried the button out, it works!



I have the horseshoe in as well but I'll wait till the steering wheel is installed before taking those pictures. Excited to finally drive the car again after a month of just tinkering haha.

circuit.heart

You'll have to excuse the paint color on my horseshoe prototype, I'm trying a bunch of things to see how best to offer these as a product and off-the-shelf rubberized paint is absolutely not it. Perhaps matte vinyl, but definitely going to try to do (real) black leather at some point.







I ziptied the HVAC controls to a bracket temporarily so I could drive the car around for a bit. Man, it was not happy after sitting for a month. Fuel delivery was very spotty for about 10 seconds, but it eventually made its way to idling and I putted to the Chevron to throw in a bottle of Injector Defender then fill the tank with fresh 91. Immediately evened out the idle and I took it out for a few rips once the water temp hit 180. The transmission is definitely learning my driving style from scratch - compared to when I bought the car, heel-toe downshifts are way easier and smoother, but rev-matching downshifts when not on the brakes is inconsistent. Wonder why.

While the Porsche was hot I went to the shop and picked up my best print of the year so far. Perfect fitment on this HVAC control enclosure. It's gonna stick onto the underside of the dashboard for now - I figure there's a market for a simple pod like this for folks who already deleted their center console. I got a PM regarding making a "full" version of the idea (aka integrate it into the console delete piece) so I'll be tackling that at some point too, excited!



Underneath, I've shrinkwrapped the housing as close as I can to the HVAC control module itself so I don't want to hear a single complaint about legroom lol. This is the limit.



My experimental "damped cables" are coming in on Friday, so I need to quickly design the hinge and trapdoor going over this faceplate. Super stoked to get this done, 3D printable products are orders of magnitude faster to develop than thinking about vacuum forming tools and smoothing out organic shapes with leather wrapping!

Lastly, off-topic but on-topic... I stumbled upon a watch almost exactly like I stumbled upon my 996. Was so cheap I thought it had to be fake. (Don't ever let me gamble in Vegas) I bought it, leaning hard on PayPal buyer protections, and took it to the local Tag dealer for an authenticity check. Turns out it's real lol, however it wouldn't wind which explains the price. Then the kicker... while discussing next steps with the dealer, we accidentally finessed the movement into winding right at the countertop! Soooo that's a real Tag Heuer Carrera for the price of a mid-tier fake.



Although I personally don't care for brands, the Tag Heuer / Porsche relationship makes this a great conversation starter and it's quite poetic that both Carreras have worked out for me by sheer dumb luck

circuit.heart

Alright, great news. The HVAC controls can be tucked pretty deep under the dashboard, leaving plenty of room for mechanisms on top of it



From the looks of it, the enclosure should be able to intersect the GT3 center console delete, I just don't know at exactly what angle as I didn't get a chance to install the delete panel before scanning the interior.



But that's fine, I've just designed a delete panel that can be printed with a cutout for the enclosure. Doing this piece made my up my game in Rhino3D - the smallest details were stubbornly difficult to get right, and I'm glad I went through the exercise. The progression from scan (left) to surfacing work (middle) took 4-5hrs I think, and then another 2-3 to make the solid, trim edges, and make everything watertight and 3D-printable.



Super excited as always! If this lines up (fingers crossed) I'll get the pieces carpeted and start working on that trapdoor up top.


Edit: same-day service. I'm off to Home Depot in the morning for more primer and paint - can finally have a complete interior again once this is installed haha.

2mAn

No idea how I missed this thread. so many cool things!

Where are you located? I know you've mentioned some local SoCal tracks but I also think I saw something about NorCal...

c didy

Sweet. It's nicely sculpted.

brontosaurus

Man that modern horseshoe with the blank removals looks fantastic. Great work going on here & look forward to more updates!

circuit.heart

Thanks guys!

I'm in the Bay Area now but formerly an LA carboi. Was supposed to switch to a respectable career in tech but some things just die hard lol.

Quick update today, I've got some paint fume smell in the cabin, worth it. We are looking good on the shapes.





I've made one "mistake" with the length of the HVAC enclosure (it doesn't actually cover the prongs in the back of the HVAC controls) so that's why there's a gap there - the profiles all look like they'll fit so I'll print a longer enclosure, and get the console delete carpeted!



Not pictured, I'm also working on a smaller, more sedate-looking revision of the horseshoe that doesn't need to be glued to the stock horseshoe. 1) No need to sacrifice a stock one 2) can physically reduce the dimensions of the print to be more OEM-like and 3) can make some grooves to allow for leather, leather seams and deviated stitching We're gonna find out if 3D printing is strong enough to sustain the forces that the stock horseshoe has to deal with.

I'll update the spoiler development thread as things progress more. I scanned my tea tray, the geometry is a little different from what the external spoiler insert suggested so I am redoing all of the linework to make it perfect. Once I've got it all lined up, vacuum formed smooth spoiler as promised!

SSDVC

Awesome work !

plpete84

This is looking super impressive and kudos for putting time into developing it. I'd be beyond interested in one. Would be a nice touch to my 996 Touring build

Bellissimo

Very impressive!

firewalkwithme

My cupholder feels super delicate and flimsy. It's functional, but I was looking to replace it and was shocked at the prices from the dealers. It's potentially going to prompt a full console removal job and the swap to a single DIN radio at this rate because I just don't trust it. Would love to know how you think it could be improved upon.