Looking good.

 

 

Seeing it in person, I was totally blown away. This is about as trick as it gets! Now just to figure out what three gauges a guy would put in there.

 

I agree... job well done - appreciate all the work.

Lets get this baby covered in fabric so I can get it in my ride!!

 

It looks real good from the pics jonny. A few questions...

Does it fit snugly to the stock pillar in person?

Whats the purpose of painting it black if its going to be covered in fabric?

Also im sure you took into account the depth of the gauges right? Id hate for you to get them all done then the gauges dont sit flush because the length of the housing hits in the back.

Will you be drilling the holes for the gauges or do we have to do that?

 

All good questions! I would like to know this as well.

 

240 you have to be an engineer lol

I will explain as best I can with out rambling, Some of you may get it others wont here i go.

Question 1 and 2 yes it fits very snugly to the pillar it is exactly two layers of fiber cloth on top of the stock pillar + bondo and give or take extra resin. Here comes the tricky part. The piece you are looking at is a direct fit for any pillar, it was painted black so that it could be waxed and the pva would not stick to it. Since everyone has given the ok, what i do with out giving away too much is wax it, spray it with a release agent, then spray it with 1-5 layers of gel coat then over lay with roughly 10 layers of fiber and resin, what this will do will give me a female version of the male mold that you see now. Once I have the female version of this mold I can simply spray that will pva, then the gel coat, then thrown down a few layers of fiberglass. One might be thinking great idea but you will never get that exact or snug fit, wrong, This is why at the very beginning I asked who would be against double sided tape and covering it, for this very reason, It is impossible with out a mold injection to get this exactly perfect. Also this is the reason I only did 2 layers of fiber for the male mold to keep it as thin as possible and as close to the female mold as possible.The most important part is there is still so much that can go wrong you have no idea, I wouldn't mind having to make another mold if something doesn't go right but I wouldn't enjoy it lol.

Question 3 and 4 I was having problems when I was making fabric gauges from pvc, also as some of you guys saw earlier it was hard to align each one, so I bought a triple pillar from car quest and modified it, this way there is no way they can be out of line and no way the gauges will not fit. I made a copy mold of it and hacked apart as much as possible still keeping them attached, looking at it your eyes or at least my eyes trick me with the black but I assure you they are all evenly spaced and perfectly aligned. the last one might be a little bit bigger but that was because i had to hack the end off and re mold it to get it to fit snug against the window crease. As far as cutting the holes I will cut the centers out of your original pillar as far as the gauge holes, I don't know yet depends if I can cut them and then just leave the fabric tucked in them, or If they have to be wrapped with out the holes. Once the first gel coat one is done I will know. Problem is if I cut them it will be at 2 inches each one of u will have to shave 1/16 off it would be tough to do with fabric there, If the fabric needs to be tucked in the hole it might be too snug for the gage to fit.

 

Thank you for that detailed explaination. It is redundantly appearant you are the right person for this job. Having built the only 240sx kouki lip mold on the market from fiberglass, i understand exactly what your having to go through, and its now obvious why the version in the pics is painted black.

About the holes, if you could send the pillar pods with fabric and the hole predrilled to the proper size ready to go you would be a bad a$$ beyond measure. Now something i noticed about my AEM gauges is that there is actually an 1/8" or so of lip that runs around the face of the gauge so when it slips into the pod it stops. Even if you did not tuck the material, as long as it was cut relatively smoothly there is still a small margin for error that you would never actually notice when the gauges are in. Of course the worst thing that you could do is drill the holes too big then they would never snugly hold the gauges. So if a little trimming with a dremel is in order then so be it.

Does any of that make sense or am i off?

 

spot on good to go I am literally ordering the Partell #10 and white gel coat as we speak.

 

Wow, this is a really nice project.

If there is still room to get in on this I'll definately take one or if you need a little company money to keep things rolling we can do that too.

I'm impressed. Now I can get rid of the 2 random gauges sitting on my dash.

 

TVT, now you need to really get rockin' on some serious kick in the pants power for us N/A guys so we have a reason to buy this pod...like to install boost gauges, pyrometers and so forth!!!

 

After spending a half a day with Anthony at the dyno, I can tell you he is the guy you want to have making things happen for the N/A. Very intelligent hard working and nice guy.

 

I'm not gonna lie it means a lot reading all these posts, its worth all the hard work in itself, hopefully we can get this pod busted out and get started on the singles and duals. Also the center console will be in its finishing stages this weekend, keep the fingers crossed, for those of you following that. Assuming all goes well with the mold and I am not hand making the first 10 lol I will make more for those who want them, we will play it by ear.

I will add you to the after group list. I'm not looking to make a killing off these so there will be no price gouging those who aren't on the list wont have to worry about that, I would like to make a fair price for some of my time and the extra money I have invested, but you guys wont get the same deal as the original 10, thats the deal.

As far as money goes WE are close to the budget limit, no worries, I will let you know when I will need more, as of right now I just want to make sure the mold sets up right, before I ask. Hopefully everyone is cool with that? Here is what put us right to the edge should be here early next week, I also need to go buy a 3.5 and 2.0mm tip for spraying gel coat thats about another $40.00.

Product Number Description Price Quantity Subtotal Status 13 PVA Release Film 22.95 1 22.95 Pending 166 MEKP Dispenser 7.95 1 7.95 Pending 778 Release Wedges: 1-1/4" x 4" Flexible 1.95 1 1.95 Pending 796 Release Wedges: 1-1/4" x 4" Rigid 1.95 1 1.95 Pending 182/69 White Gel Coat Kit 64.95 1 64.95 Pending

 

Just let us know how much more $ you need and ill send funds. Did you end up finding the perfect matching fabric or something very close?

 

To be completely honest I am kinda disappointed in BOTH of my fabric guys, I am yet to receive any samples or any feedback as in phone calls or emails from either. I let them know I was VERY serious about buying fabric, just needed to make sure I got the right color. I am going to do THEIR job and follow up on it tomorrow.

 

Let me know what type of fabric and the color code and I'll get on some people to get things moving. I've got a lot of "friends" in Chrysler and Mercedes now that I've probably doubled their M112 engine part sales.

Also I sent you a PM about some more projects going forth.

 

No go on the color code yet that is why we are waiting on samples, Its the SRT6 headliner material You are more then welcome to try and hunt some ORIGINAL fabric down that would be sweet.

 

According to UPS the package from fiberglast.com should be at my house am going to get on spraying the gel coat this week, still no word on the fabric, I am going to give it till Sat then call them both again, if not taking business elsewhere.

EAGAN,
MN, US 06/03/2008 6:22 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY
06/03/2008 2:50 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN MINNEAPOLIS,
MN, US 06/03/2008 2:17 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
06/03/2008 12:12 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN

 

Thanks for the update Jonny! We are all looking forward to these bad *** pieces.

 

^ +1