I brought my 86GT 4 years ago. I have done some mods to it but due to money and the military I was unable to really finish anything. Finally I have the time and funds to complete (hopefully) my first build. I have been doing research and designs and I am ready to tackle my first build. Here is the car, I bought it off of Ebay 4 years ago for 1500 dollars. I have messed around with the interior learning new tricks and messing with new materials.
The paint coming off the front clip was done from me driving in the snow 3 years ago, which cause the accident that put the car in the garage ever since. Here is some pictures of my interior when I first started this project, notice how everytime I change the interior it gets more and more advance.
This is my first attempt, using plexiglass. I put in a digital fuel gauge and I used my GPS as a speedo. thought it was kinda trick at the time. .
Here is what I did about a two years later. I have more pictures I was going to do a write up but its this is not the focal point of the story. The gauge housing was from a 94 Ford Probe that I had 11 years ago... but I still had the dash (my first first first build that went SOOOO wrong)
The speedo was going to be a aftermarket heads up display that I had aquired. I turned out pretty cool except one thing. The gauges that I bought off of Ebay which was pretty cheap did nothing but look cool since it did not have anything to hook up sensors too. MISTAKE #2!
I want to run a tablet as my radio and nav system. I chose to run with the Nexus 7 due to it running Google, and I love Google maps. I also have the Nexus 4 phone which works very well.
I bought the Nexus dock so that I can easily slide the tablet in and out without hooking up any wires
I wanted to do something different so I decide that I want to float my HUD in the center of my back-up camera monitor which will set in the middle of the gauges. something like this.
This is something that I carried over from my last gauge cluster that I made. When I put this on the dash the plan is for the whole monitor to be hidden until I back up, but only show the MPH while driving.
Too keep the project on schedule.... which is July 17th I have to jump around from the inside to the outside of the car. The whole is modeled loosely on the SR-71 Blackbird. I will take certain designs from the plane. Like my hood design with the active aerodynamics, as well as a new front clip from a 84 (thats right) Fiero.
As you see my driver side fender is busted but I found a perfectly good 84 in the pick and pull junk yard. I took the whole front (both fenders, hood, and bumper) from it. all in good condition.
that paint job reminds me of a van I knew when I was younger.
I thought the gauges looked nice, then the red backlight made me think they were awesome. I like the design! looking forward to seeing your progress, keep it up!
I started making what I will call my information tunnel which will house my back-up camera monitor and HUD unit. I am making it out of plexiglass since every system will be design as a single individual unit, so if I have to upgrade, or replace I dont have to reinvent the wheel. I can just remove and replace.
I tend to skip around on my projects on the car, thats so I wont lose my interest and I can better see forward production on the car.
as of right now everything is held together with hot glue. I will dis-assemble it and paint it when I am finished and use a plastic epoxy to put it togther.
I noticed that the screen was a little out of placed, but I fixed it
The tunnel will be painted black and will have another screen which my HUD unit will project the MPH on to. When this unit is complete you wont be able to see the tunnel unit the car is turned on and only then the MPH will be displayed until the car is in reverse.
I finished my HUD unit, but came up with a design change so back to the drawing board.... But this unit will be made from fiberglass and will include the idiot lights!.. Stand by for pictures later today.
I've the car twice before once in Pa. for sale and the other time in Nj. Funny thing I just bought a formula that was bought in nc off ebay 4 0r 5 years ago. Good luck I love the paint job.
Sorry for the delay. Life likes to throw obstacules when things start to run smooth on a project. This is somewhat of how the center consul will be back-lited using red led. The top plexi-glass will be painted black and also tinted with smoke tint in certain location to allow light and the switch labels through
I wanted to curve the plexi-glass to follow the lines on the consul. So I made something like a mold so when I bring the plexi-glass up to temp I can brace it to the fiberglass to retain the shape.
I cover the fiberglass with foil so that the plexi-glass wont pick up anything from the mold
I put the plexi-glass in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. You can kinda see the plastic go wavy a little. I pulled it out and placed it in the mold, let it cool and BAM!
I put the consul back in the car, I also put the AC controller in also. The only problem now is that I had cut the automatic shifter and now it is too short for a shifter knob. I have another one in my R & D parts Fiero.
Sorry i havent posted in a while, Life have again gotten in the way so I will not be able to finishby my dead line of july 18th. I will still continue my work and hope to have it finished soon.