My Custom Car PC and Vinyl interior build thread (56K Go Away) - Page 2 - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

Frosty · 06-23-2009, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbrrmike

i planned to come in and joke about rice.......but that looks pretty badass, and the fab work is quality.

Pretty damn nice work man! It's odd seeing the radio there though, it looks a little to jammed together, is there anywhere else you could put it?

rbaksi · 06-23-2009, 08:46 PM

yeah I think its too jammed as well but I don't know where else to put it. It could be in the glovebox or center console but thats just too hard to access. Its really the fault of me buying such a big screen.

If anybody has any ideas of where to put it I'd love to hear your thoughts

SuperSweet · 06-24-2009, 06:15 PM

Just out of curiousity...why do you have a radio if you have a carpc? All the carpc's I've seen just use the pc

SamhainZ28 · 06-24-2009, 06:22 PM

Very nice work!

rbaksi · 06-24-2009, 06:23 PM

I have it because otherwise I need a FM tuner and some sort of volume controlling device for the PC, which do not integrate that well really. Also I don't know how to connect a computer to the speakers without the head unit since it commands a signal to each individual speaker. I would need a great soundcard, but my setup is a laptop connected to all of this, so it makes it more difficult from the audio switching standpoint. I wish I knew more of how to do it standalone without all the bugs

sweetbmxrider · 06-24-2009, 06:44 PM

if it sends a signal for each speaker, wouldn't you be able to use an amp and maybe even an equalizer? what kind of connections are coming out of it? there has to be a pretty easy way, just gotta find the right people.

97Formula · 06-24-2009, 06:45 PM

Just a thought -- What if you use an amp to power your speakers, and then use the PC to control the volume? You can get one of those phono-to-rca wires (connect one end into the laptop, the other ends would go into the amp input).

Looks nice so far...

EDIT -- Thanks sweetbmxrider for beating me to it!

rbaksi · 06-24-2009, 06:50 PM

Yeah I have one of those phono-rca wires right now connected from the laptop to the aux in for the head unit. I know nothing about amps however. Does the amp connect to the same connector that the head unit plugs into?

EDIT:
Just found this:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/faq-...tereo-amp.html

rbaksi · 05-31-2010, 02:38 PM

SO im back for the summer again. This time I'm gonna redo the interior one more and final time. I wasn't satisfied with how it came out before and would really like the screen to be higher and to move the radio upwards in the dash. I have also gutted the interior so that I can lay down some fatmat rattletrap soon.

I just changed out the shocks with Bilsteins and did the heater hose mod. I also upgraded to LS1 style brakes.

Got the interior out

Much more to come!

T69SS · 06-02-2010, 07:19 PM

Very cool, make sure to update!

rbaksi · 06-04-2010, 12:54 AM

Got some more stuff done today!

Something nice came in the mail today, my harbor freight multi-tool. This thing is amazing. Its so useful and was really cheap too. Feels like a very solid heavy duty product.

I did some work on the dash. Its so much easier to work on outside of the car on a bench. The multi tool was used for all of this. I added reinforcements to give it better support since I cut out so much of it. I'll be using a lot more wood as a base this time around since I'm pretty experienced working with it. I removed some of the foam as well to mount the wood on to.

Eventually I plan for it to have the same general layout as that of some of the new mercedes interiors like this E550. I really like the idea of a hooded screen that will decrease glare and make the whole system look more integrated.

Also did some work on the center console. I have a touchpad that I will be integrating into the area where the cupholder was. Its used to control the carputer and I've been using it a lot and it works great especially with the preset buttons. Im trying to decide where to put the engine start and computer start buttons. Either in the TCS plate area or up near the screen.

greenformula92 · 06-08-2010, 10:13 PM

nice work.....who knew all those wires were under there!!! LOL

rbaksi · 06-10-2010, 09:52 PM

I Worked more on the dash recently. I used wood to make some structure for the shape of everything and filled it in with foam. Next I will add some fiberglass bondo and then regular bondo to carve out a shape.

Also painted the cupholder and the gauge bezel

And I'm mostly done laying the rattletrap on the floor. Still have to do the doors and hatch though.

1986IROCZ28 · 06-11-2010, 12:55 AM

man this is amazing i cant wait to see the finished product

rbaksi · 06-12-2010, 03:19 AM

More work on the dash. I used fiberglass short strand bondo and then normal bondo to create more of a shape. I decided to move the screen a bit forward instead of so recessed as originally planned. I also cut the hood a bit shorter so that it doesn't look so out of place and be so forward that it intrudes into the cabin. The foam will be cut to create a nice resting area for the screen. The new hvac vent will be just under the screen in between the two wooden pieces. I have also placed the start button on the left side near the key and under the gauge cluster and a bit recessed.

Radio face painted satin black. I can't decide if I want to make the final bezel to cover the entire thing to be silver or black. I plan on wrapping the dash with vinyl.

Finished dyeing the carpet. Here is a teaser of the before/after on just the floormats. As you can see, its quite a difference from the stock gray.

Comments?

1986IROCZ28 · 06-12-2010, 07:55 AM

looking sweet i cant wait to see this thing finished your gonna have a one of a kind ta

maroman88 · 06-12-2010, 08:57 AM

looks nice! coulda just bought black floormats tho

rbaksi · 06-13-2010, 06:05 PM

Well the whole carpet is getting dyed and I want it to match properly

rbaksi · 06-20-2010, 02:15 AM

Got some more stuff finished and did some vinyl wrapping. The carpet is back in after being thoroughly washed and dried so that the color doesn't come out. The carpet is actually much darker than it looks in the pics and is a real nice black like in the floormats picture. It is significantly darker than the door panels and has been holding up evenly.

[IMG]http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/4584/cimg2645.jpg[/IMG

Here is the dash bondo/fiberglass process completely sanded and blended. There were some small imperfections in the surface but they were covered entirely by the vinyl and glue.

I tried my hand at making double french seams using blackbird24's write-up
They definitely came out better than the stitches I made last year but there are small imperfections that I'll just live with. Here's a close up:

And I've been wrapping the dash in sections now. I finished the left of the airbag area and now will be doing the right side of the dash. This is extremely difficult and it has some small imperfections too but they're small enough for me not to notice. The material feels really great and gives the dash a nice touch already.

I was also thinking about just forgetting about the center HVAC vent and use one of these lighted radio surrounds to make it look cleaner. Does anyone know where I could buy one?

MonmouthCtyAntz · 06-20-2010, 05:37 AM

Pretty sick

BigAls87Z28 · 06-20-2010, 04:53 PM

Some pics are showing up for me, most arent.

Knipps · 06-20-2010, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigAls87Z28

Some pics are showing up for me, most arent.

yeah, idk what's up with that. They used to work

rbaksi · 06-20-2010, 07:21 PM

Ok guys I changed the image host so it should show up now. I'll change the older pics as well.

smoke_em94 · 06-20-2010, 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty

Pretty damn nice work man! It's odd seeing the radio there though, it looks a little to jammed together, is there anywhere else you could put it?

he could put the radio in the glove box

rbaksi · 06-20-2010, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smoke_em94

he could put the radio in the glove box

but then it'd be difficult to control the volume on the fly. Its much easier to use the knob on the radio and the radio is a much better quality amplifier than the computer. I thought about moving it but its really more convenient in the dash.