Indash Ipad for Delorean

[jfirios]

I see how you made the cross bars. I am on your site a lot trying to analyze what you did. I am currently working on the back wall and shelf. You used strips to elevate the shelf right? On the center console how did you attatch it to the body? looks like you just have the L brackets for the cross braces. I am by no means a master fabricator, but i have ideas and am learning.

[protodelorean]

I see how you made the cross bars. I am on your site a lot trying to analyze what you did. I am currently working on the back wall and shelf. You used strips to elevate the shelf right? On the center console how did you attatch it to the body? looks like you just have the L brackets for the cross braces. I am by no means a master fabricator, but i have ideas and am learning.

Yep. I raised the rear deck so that the new top surface just sits on top of the original wood panels (about 3"). The strips that raise it, sit nicely into the notches on the left and right sides of the fiberglass transmission tunnel.

For the console, I didn't have any good pictures of the frame, but I just sketched up a detail. The cross pieces are aluminum angles that are riveted together to form a "Z". See sketch:consoledetail.jpg

[jfirios]

That is awesome. So you made the rails and mounts then attatched the wood to the side of the rails. I am thinking of keeping the origional sides and top, though I am extending it a bit to fit the eq I am installing. I am adding a double din stereo where the old single din and vents were and extending the top for the half din eq. or keeping the eq below the HU. The vents I am relocating. Blocking off the front two and going from the sides to new round vents in the knee pads.
Though with the rail system like yours I can attatch the fiberglass center right to the rails. Is that correct.
For the back, you did the shelf first then shortened the back wall to fit the raised shelf. I am thinking of raising mine in order to recess the amp and light it up from the sides.
I am installing the ipad in a slide in type of holder in the middle of the back wall, but i want to be able to rotate it from portrait to landscape when i want. Do you know of anything that I can use as a hinge to be able to do that?

Yep. I raised the rear deck so that the new top surface just sits on top of the original wood panels (about 3"). The strips that raise it, sit nicely into the notches on the left and right sides of the fiberglass transmission tunnel.

For the console, I didn't have any good pictures of the frame, but I just sketched up a detail. The cross pieces are aluminum angles that are riveted together to form a "Z". See sketch:consoledetail.jpg

[dmcpom]

well after seeing the vid for the first time thats great work and awsome job love the engine work and dash

[jfirios]

I am making the railing and am wondering how you handled the problem with the cable trunking on either side. Did you cut the cross beams so that they are shorter on the bottom and longer on the top to allow the cabling to go under? I am planning on using the exhisting center console as the sides and upper for the radio and all. I can just screw that right into the railing then re foam and cover it. Right?

Yep. I raised the rear deck so that the new top surface just sits on top of the original wood panels (about 3"). The strips that raise it, sit nicely into the notches on the left and right sides of the fiberglass transmission tunnel.

For the console, I didn't have any good pictures of the frame, but I just sketched up a detail. The cross pieces are aluminum angles that are riveted together to form a "Z". See sketch:consoledetail.jpg

[protodelorean]

I am making the railing and am wondering how you handled the problem with the cable trunking on either side. Did you cut the cross beams so that they are shorter on the bottom and longer on the top to allow the cabling to go under? I am planning on using the exhisting center console as the sides and upper for the radio and all. I can just screw that right into the railing then re foam and cover it. Right?

Hmmm. I'd have to go and look, but that's most likely what I did. (I didn't do any major re-routing of factory harnesses so if it crossed over side-to-side, I'd have made a path for it.) As for attaching the sides of the console to the rails, I actually used wood for the top of the sides and pressed in "Tee nuts" then I bolted thru the inside of the rail into the insert in the wood. i can sketch it up this evening it that'll help.

[jfirios]

Well, from the rough in i have, I think i can just use self tapping screws that will go though the cardboard sides and into the side railing. then when i build the center like you did I can just screw the new top onto the cross beams. did you do a new fiberglass front for the radio front?

I am trying to think of how you made the plug for the fiberglass mold for the center. I see that you used the same angle alumnium for the frame then wood for the negative of it. You waxed the whole thing before applying all the resin and cloth? I hope you don't mind me asking all these questions. Honestly I kind of idolize your car and the work you did on it. It is really extraordinary.

[protodelorean]

Well, from the rough in i have, I think i can just use self tapping screws that will go though the cardboard sides and into the side railing. then when i build the center like you did I can just screw the new top onto the cross beams. did you do a new fiberglass front for the radio front?

I am trying to think of how you made the plug for the fiberglass mold for the center. I see that you used the same angle alumnium for the frame then wood for the negative of it. You waxed the whole thing before applying all the resin and cloth? I hope you don't mind me asking all these questions. Honestly I kind of idolize your car and the work you did on it. It is really extraordinary.

I did fabricate a whole new face plate for the vertical part of the dash. Same way I did the console top. Since this was one-off stuff, there was no need to make real molds. For these parts, I try to do a single-use (sacrificial) mold out of whatever I can put together to form the right shape. I used a flat piece of MDF wood for the surface, then the aluminum angle for the sides and more MDF pucks or blocks for the other shapes. Here's the trick for keeping the fiberglass from sticking: Cellophane Box Tape! Fiberglass resin will not stick to it. So as I'm assembling the mold, everything is neatly wrapped in box tape. No need to wax. Now, the fiberglass resin will pickup the edges of the tape, leaving fine ridges in the final part, but those can be sanded out or a thin layer of filler over them. Just be aware that the tape pattern will show up so take your time and apply the tape neatly, minimizing seams as much as possible.

Good luck!

[Farrar]

Agreed 100% on the clear packing tape -- between that and structural foam you can make just about any shape you need out of fiberglass.

Farrar

[jfirios]

great trick. When you are building the plug, all the shapes you are doing are for what would be deep when you reverse the mold right. So if you say want the arm rest to be deeper or have a larger cavity, you would use a bigger block for the mold right. Then in reverse, if i want something to come up like a ridge or something, I can make it and then fiber glass it to the top of the mold. Let dry, sand, prime, paint. then it should sit right on the rails and screw right to it.
I am right now waiting to get the stereo components in first then going to do the center and verticle section. then the back shelf and wall.