My Custom Centre Console

[Tillsy]

Two years ago, before I had completed the purchase of my DeLorean, I already knew there was one thing I would hate - the centre console. Ownership only strengthened that - everything from the raised sections, the huge and easily bumped switches, the clock being obscured by the shifter, shallow storage tray, lack of cup holders, etc:



To that end I spent over a year designing, and redesigning, my own replacement. After seven months of building prototypes and then, ultimately, the final version I am pleased to finally present the (mostly) finished product:



Being as anal as I am, attention to detail has been THE biggest factor of this project. Below is an action shot where you’ll notice the "open door" and "open trunk" buttons are not illuminated - I do not allow this while driving and turn off the lights to make this clear. The lock button flashes when the security system is armed or relaying information. The windows now automatically go all the way up/down with a single press of the button. I have rewired the dash light for the defroster to no longer be stuck on, but instead cycle on/off with the element itself (to show the button has been left on I pulse the button’s light, just as I do for the door buttons when open for example). I’ve rewired my park lights to be on all the time as Daylight Running Lights - and replaced the double-click switch with a single click to compensate, plus my console buttons and clock now dim with the headlights rather than park lights (I’ve also made my headlights automatically turn off with the car). My flux now runs off the car itself and powers up automatically when the doors are open. Relocated the accessory socket to the rear, since anything I want to power would be in the rear tray anyway, and have also added USB charging sockets for iPhone/Go Pro/etc. The cup holders I have located, unlike every other car I have seen in Australia, to not be in the way when changing gears. There are no raised sections, the switches cannot be bumped on, the clock is not obscured, the storage tray is deep enough to actually hold stuff without sliding out while driving, and stacks of other features/design factors.

[Patrick C]

I love how this looks. Who did you get to make the custom button logos?

[Chris 16409]

What does the "Velociraptor" button do? Eject the passenger? LOL! What about the "Antenna" button?

[Spittybug]

VERY NICE

Would love it if you could share some of the construction details, material sources and wiring with us. I have made modifications to mine by using a joystick for the 4 door functions and moved the window switches from their original position.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery, please share!!!!!!!!! I think it very nicely modernizes the car's look.

*** just noticed the gear shift lever too! How does it display the gear???? Cool item.

[Patrick C]

*** just noticed the gear shift lever too! How does it display the gear???? Cool item.

I scoped one of these out some time ago:

http://www.gaslock-shop.de/epages/es...oducts/GL-1022

[Michael]

That's just too cool!! I like the shifter gear selector too. The whole thing looks very Apple inspired.


VERY NICE!!

[aipri]

Very cool and very clean, nice work!

[jackb]

Stunning. I'm not a fan of the stock center console at all either, but lack the skills to do something like you've done. Your work is incredible.
I am super-jealous.

[Tillsy]

I love how this looks. Who did you get to make the custom button logos?

I hand-designed each of my button graphics in vector format using Adobe Illustrator, enabling perfect rendering at any size and most importantly DPI. This was a nightmare job for two reasons - 1) I am anal about accuracy and detail, 2) It was extremely difficult to strike a balance between accurately scaled detail so they looked realistic and simplicity so they were easy to glance at. The immense variety of shape to the doors and the precise angles (and notch) for the windows being particularly difficult. This was also an opportunity to correct four personal frustrations - the defog symbol on the DeLorean is the square one used on all cars even though our rear window is a narrow rectangle, the trunk symbol used on the DeLorean is a standard rearward opening one whereas ours opens frontward, the unlock symbol on most cars is a padlock pivoted at an angle that padlocks do not pivot at, and the lock symbol on most cars is not realistically depressed into lock position. I had these graphics laser engraved and then black etched into each button by an engraving specialist - I am assured they will wear well and are UV resistant (important here in Australia as UV is so bad these days that plastic, paint, skin, etc perishes insanely quickly). This photograph is of my testing and labelling of each button prior to having them modified (though if you have a good eye you’ll notice some of the graphics are not the final versions):



And here is a close-up of one of the completed buttons after laser engraving and black etching with the final version of my graphics:

[Tillsy]

What does the "Velociraptor" button do?

That button turns on my animal repellers - here in Australia to shoo away kangaroos, I believe in the US for deers? The way I see it, if you're going to build an animal repeller into a car why not do it with some style Besides, I figure a DeLorean is the only car you could sneak a funny image onto and get away without it looking silly

What about the "Antenna" button?

That opens/closes my garage door. Intentionally a little on the discrete side plus requires a little bit of security to activate.