03 infiniti fx35 w/all the toys, add a carpc too? oh yeah... :) - Page 7

turbocad6 · 09-06-2007, 12:44 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by monkeyracer

you're right, sometimes that looks cheap.

have you ever seen flat black covered with high gloss clear?
I think if you get the right flat black it looks amazing, when light shines on it, it's a glossy black, otherwise the flat shows through. It's hard to describe it though.

For you, I think the laquer black would be awesome, if you do it right. Paint just the right pieces, and have restraint to not paint the wrong ones. Too many times someone gets a can of interior paint, and just takes apart as much of the dash pieces as possible and starts spraying them without thinking of the final product.

Of course you will get it right, just warning those subscribed here about it...

yeah, I can't stand to see most cars that someone just paints a bunch of interior stuff just for the sake of painting it, most interior paint work looks like dog crap, I'm picky & I wouldn't do that, I would just do the existing aluminum trim, that's it, & of course this center bezel... it's when you start adding the window switch bezels & the cluster bezels & try to paint anything & everything is when it gets horrible, what I have in mind will look nice, just hesitant cause the console will be much more likely to get scuffed or marred easily, where now it's low maintanance brushed aluminum, which by the way looks real nice, another reason for me hesitating to paint it all

2k1Toaster · 09-06-2007, 01:01 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by turbocad6

yeah, I can't stand to see most cars that someone just paints a bunch of interior stuff just for the sake of painting it, most interior paint work looks like dog crap, I'm picky & I wouldn't do that, I would just do the existing aluminum trim, that's it, & of course this center bezel... it's when you start adding the window switch bezels & the cluster bezels & try to paint anything & everything is when it gets horrible, what I have in mind will look nice, just hesitant cause the console will be much more likely to get scuffed or marred easily, where now it's low maintanance brushed aluminum, which by the way looks real nice, another reason for me hesitating to paint it all

why not just cast your new bezel in aluminum?

I am sure it could be done.

Cover the existing plastic in clay, fire, smelt, pour, cool, sand, done.

dmxl · 09-06-2007, 04:44 PM

how are you going to do the vents or are you just enlimating them?
Great install btw you are undoutly a master fabricator!!!

monkeyracer · 09-06-2007, 04:55 PM

i was trying to come up with a way to re-fab the vents in my galant (r.i.p.) and I found some abs slats that would have worked. Interested to see your solution to that part of it.
My little brother tried to paint a bunch of stuff on his old saturn, got a can of the trim paint, and painted anything that could be removed with simple tools. Once he put it all back together it looked like S*** almost like a smurf sneezed blue snot here and there... What's even funnier, is some dude at his work saw it and thought it was a special edition or something and wanted to buy the car from him because of it...

turbocad6 · 09-06-2007, 06:12 PM

the vents I came up with a solution, I will make the vertical slats from plastic, I found a magazine rack that has just the right curve for this, the radius of the outside edge is pretty curved, but the inner edge closer to the screen is more or less straight, the slats I have are curved more than even the outer curve of the bezel, so the center protrudes slightly, hard to explain but it looks cool. one rack does 2 slats, I may do 3 in each opening so the oe center button can go on a center slat, if I do only 2 in the opening, then there is no center slat, just an inner & an outer, it then doesn't look right.

the first signs of a kiddie car is a bunch of painted interior stuff, that & the blue bulbs in the headlights, kinda goes with the 6" exhaust tip on a 4cyl with a giant wing

Quote: Originally Posted by 2k1Toaster

why not just cast your new bezel in aluminum?

I am sure it could be done.

Cover the existing plastic in clay, fire, smelt, pour, cool, sand, done.

I thought about sending a template to one of those places that make the stick on dash pieces, they make an aluminum overlay for the stock dash, maybe they could do one for this, but for the most part that stick on crap looks like , well, crap

I also thought about making a mold of this piece, it took so much work to make it, it'd be cool to make a reproduction with a mold, but theres like no one who would change there whole dash to do this to there truck, & the newer trucks with this newer style dash have a newer control system too, so this wouldn't work for them either. figured no reason to go through all the hassles, but I was thinking abs....

I never thought of trying to mold the whole thing in aluminum though, that sounds pretty sick... possible too I guess.... damn you

... I don't know much about doing a mold like that, I would'nt want to ruin the original piece, & I'd have to brace it to the right position cause it flexes alot, but not when installed, it almost pops into place but if it was ridgid it'd have to be just right... hmmmmm.... that would be totally sick, I could polish all of the aluminum inside the truck.... man, now you got me thinking....

turbocad6 · 09-08-2007, 02:52 AM

I think I'm just going to go for that oem, came that way factory look, I played with some texture & I think it looks good, it looks pretty factory. this is about what the final finish will be:

sporty_drew · 09-08-2007, 02:54 AM

wow, looks great! Glad you went with the OEM feel. Is that a spray on or a can? i really like that texture.

2k1Toaster · 09-08-2007, 03:22 AM

Nice texture!

Although I gotta say, I was hoping to see some 600C furnaces going on smelting pop-cans to cast.

Looks good!

monkeyracer · 09-08-2007, 09:58 AM

looking great, reminds me of my treo 650 after i painted it with ceramic paint (holds up better to abuse) same texture, etc... I'll post a pic later...

turbocad6 · 09-08-2007, 05:40 PM

I did think about aluminum casting for like a minute or 2

I want this to look like it came this way from infiniti though, so I stayed with oem finish, I guess it'll look a little more like it came from infiniti when I get rid of the acura symbol

I'll post up some details later tonight of how I got this finish

last shots for the week

2k1Toaster · 09-08-2007, 05:45 PM

Definately looks OEM! You going to make all the buttons and dials functional?

d0tech · 09-08-2007, 07:56 PM

What skin is that?

turbocad6 · 09-08-2007, 10:27 PM

I think its fsr, or something, it's all flash, cool skin, it's a rr skin... forgot the author

EDIT: yes fsr, by moahdib, located here, cool skin.

all those controls & buttons are 100% functional, but there functional on the factory system, which is all still there & used... the screens been moved overhead, but it's all still used....

now I did think it would be sick if I could use some of those buttons for the pc too, I mean if I could say toggle between pc-oem, that would be sick for sure, but I'm not to sure how practical or diffiocult that might be, I looked briefly at the board & one thing I can say is, it wouldn't be easy, that's for sure

I'm thinking about building controls into the armrest for the pc, with a central knob like the benz, bmw type concept... I'll use a space navigator for that & maybe a few more buttons to a keyboard simulator or something,

I also found something pretty cool that I want to build into this install, don't know how yet, but it's the coolest keyboard I've ever seen, I started a thread for it here, it's for xbox360 & connects to thecontroller... there has to be a way to use it with a pc...

turbocad6 · 09-09-2007, 12:38 AM

drew, details on the paint texture...

most times I see guys go texture it's just too much, I mean the bezel shouldn't look like stucco to me, or look like it's undercoated either so I did my texture just by a splatter technique I came up with.

I did that with a sem trim black that I mentioned.it normally lays out silky smooth. first I paint it a few coats for coverage, then I turn the can upside down & blow out the paint till only air comes out, then I turn the can sideways & agitate it up & down (relative to the nozzle)... while spraying out vertically over the panel, this makes the can spray a little paint & a little air alternating, causing it to spit kinda, but it's a fine mist & it falls to the bezel & begins the texture.... keep moving shaking spreding coverage as evenly as you can.

keep doing this & eventually the can will run out of air kinda but still have paint. at this point the preasure is too low for the paint to atomize correctly & again, it kinda spits, but pretty uniform, at this point youve got some fine texture & the can at low pressure can add more texture as desired. when the pressure is really low be careful cause it could start to spit ugly too.

that's it. when it drys it may look a bit uneven gloss, with some spots looking drier than others, you can then do a few medium coats of the same trim paint to even out the gloss. another alternative is to finish this with a satin clear, which I probably will in the end.

turbocad6 · 09-11-2007, 12:49 AM

pc motherboard mounting was a bit of a problem, the pc needed to float in the dash, on an angle & be close enough to the screen for the ribbon cables to reach... there pretty short as there only made long enough to fold the tablet open & disconnect them.

mount needs to be strong & secure, motherboard can't bounce around or move, I came up with an aluminum bracket idea, the rear of the tablet slides in & is held by the battery pressed into a docking area kinda... it fits well & is nice & secure, best part, it clears the screen & the ribbons reach... no pictures of the motherboard mounted, camera died

it's alive!!! first run in the car, screen looks really good, viewing angles are perfect, no blocked corners or edges, nice.... getting closer

anyone guess what this bracket is made from?