Discussion Thread here: http://www.fiberglassforums.com/show...898#post160898

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I have been planning this build for longer than you can imagine. I am new to fiberglass, have medium talent at woodwork and I believe fairly strong talent on the electrical/ electronics side.
I have been reading/ learning on this site for 1-1/2 years, I am asking for the experts here to help me when they can, I have great respect for the work I have seen on this board.

First off, I must acknowledge and thank Jon (HandCrafted) for this build:

My 2007 Sierra, Reworked.

That build inspired me to really get started on mine and the biggest goal I have from his build is to duplicate the finish OEM finish he brought to that Sierra. So Thank You, Jon.

First, here is the victim:



I am installing a full audio system with carputer touch screen etc. and the toughest part is trying to find space for approx. 1.5ft of box for the 12" RD Sonance sub without it looking "over the top".

Here is alot of the hardware being used:

[IMG][/IMG]

There will also be a hundred square feet of sound dampener being added during the final install.

So first, I tore apart the middle seat/ console combo to see if I could duplicate Jon's efforts on the Sierra for a sub box. As you can see the Super Duty Ford seat base is not as friendly at accepting a box built on it so that was quickly ruled out.



So it's going to be a full center console, sub box, amp rack and under rear seat wiring project.

I want the console to integrate with the dash and leave the brake controller, upfitter switches,and cup/change holder exposed.
I want to minimize MDF where possible using it mainly for the sub box and under seat trim plate. The rest I want to frame up, cloth it and glass it. I'm not sure about paint or vinyl yet,that is up for discussion.



I had to cut reliefs in the stick running parallel with the dash to get it to follow the contour
In order to contour the sticks to the floor line, I also cut reliefs and filled with hot glue to help them keep their shape:



More framing:







I used "wigglewood" to allow the negative contour as fabric would have been very difficult to stretch over a "reversed curve"



I also added contour to the top front edge of the console:



Here is a separate sub box being started that will slide into the console





The box had to be a specific width in order to hold the 12" RD sub. You'll see later it made amp fitting very tricky for clearance on the front seats:



Here is the box slid into the console:




The 2 main amps (there will be 2 small amps buried as well) will be hung on the side of the sub box and trimmed out.



Again, clearances are brutal when the seats are all the way back and reclined. I had to mount the amps on an angle and will have to try to incorporate that "look" to look like I wanted them mounted "randomly"

Here is the drivers side:



Here is the passenger side:



They were hung to the box with these:



Here is the rear of the passenger side amp - very close tolerances. I will be hanging the passenger side amp "upside down" according to the writing on it so that all of the power connections will be under the seat and all of the audio connections will be in the console reducing the chance of stray noise.
I disassembled the amp to see if the cover could be reversed- no dice:



The box installed:



Here is the rear seat wrapped and the trim plate cut. 3/4" MDF is probably overkill for the plate but I didn't want warping plus I had the 3/4 left from the sub box to use up. The console will eventually integrate with he rear seat.



Passenger side of trim plate:



Added angles to the top of the box plus the filler pieces were to added to allow a transition to the rear seat:



The framing for the under seat area is pine framing attached via bolts to the original bolt locations for the removed OEM fold out storage tray. Wigglewood was used for the perimeter sheeting:



Here is one of my challenges: to make this "wall" integrate with the floor line. This is the passenger side:



This is the drivers side:



A 1500watt inverter will be built in under the passenger side rear seat:



Here is the seat mounted to my bench and ready to be finished. I need to flush the components shown plus one more (currently in use in the truck) like the second one from the left.



I now need to focus on getting the rear seat completely finished and back into the truck. Then I will proceed with the console. I need the seat back plus that way I will have the finished dimension of the under seat area to work with when trying to tie the console in tight to it.
I have some questions on proceeding from here which I will post in the discussion thread.

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Here I have added a frame to support the fuse/ connector boxes and adjusted the height for flushing them. I also figured out the clearances for where each box is located because there will be some 1/0 cable involved and it doesn't cooperate as well as the 4 guage.



I cut a scrap piece of MDF, gave it a quick round over and held it up to one of the boxes just to get an idea of how it will look.



Not much of an update but there it is.

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Spend the evening with a gallon of Rage Gold last night. What an amazing filler. (that's what she said)

I got the front of the underseat compartment filled and sanded. There is a couple of low spots but then it's ready for a high build primer.



I continued working on flushing the distro blocks, I didn't like the look of a round over edge so I'm searching for other ideas.

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Well, I basically have the area under the rear seat finished, just a few components to move once the console is finished and a bit of trimming out later. Here is how I finished it:

After filling and sanding I shot primer at it and painted it. For now, I primed it with a gun and real high build primer but I just used a rattle can of interior paint I had left around the garage. When everything is done and I have decided on the color scheme, I want to base + clear everything. Some of it may wind up vinyl, I don't know until I see everything done.



So I layed out the distro blocks and started the 1 Gage wiring first



I used a piece of copper pipe to create a junction block for the 1 Gage ground







I also double checked the fit of the inverter. The face cracked from lack of support while detached from the seat but I need to make a trim bezel to go around the invertor anyways so no point in fixing it.



I started to add the 4 Gage wiring:



I had to route some channels in the underside of the trim plate to accommodate some of the wires. These areas will get caught on the final paint.



Here is the rack installed back in the truck. The silver box under the distro blocks is the processor which will wind up being removed along with alot of the wires you see out on the floor. This stuff will end up in the console eventually.



Most of these wires will be removed and any left will be hidden in the console as it will come Right back and make contact with this rack. Those holes you see in the front will end up being hidden as well behind the console.



Here is the trim plate installed. I will fab something up to connect the seat bottom fabric to the trim panel to close the gap where you can see the wires.



This block has a voltage readout and 4 glass fuses lit up. VERY BRIGHT. But easy to fix, if it's bothering me at night, I can just flip the seat base down. An alarm will sound if any of the 4 fuses fail.





Here it is with the seat base down. Again those 2 sets of holes for wiring will be hidden in the console when it gets installed.



While repainted everything, I will probably paint the seat base floor mounts grey to match.


So I am now ready to finish the console

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Finally got back at it.

I beefed up the framework:



Then skinned it with fabric:





Ended up with a ton of space inside for all my "stuff"



Left side:



Shape ended up decent for the wide section next to the drivers seat:

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A couple of Gallons of Resin later and several yards of mat/ cloth, I now have a shell to work with:





I forgot to get a picture of the rear tray finished, here it is before finished.

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Here is the tray finished:

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Well, finally more progress.
I ended up adding a couple more layers of glass bringing the total to 8. I spend more time on these last 2 trying to level & smooth out the flat surfaces. I learned that a fair amount of shaping can be done with the glass rather than just relying on the filler later.



I then test fitted it into the truck:







The sub box has been slid inside for fitting ( and it does with no room to spare)



I then disassembled the front middle seat to see it I could use anything from it. It looks like the storage bucket/lid will work. That will save a ton of time fabbing up something new and trying to make it look original.



The sharpie line shows where I will have to cut off the drink holder.



Then a big hole for it to fit:



Then some extra wood pieces to build the glass up to:



Here's most of the stuff that has to be cut into the console with templates made.
It really seemed a shame to peel the fresh chrome cover off the brand new Ranger CB but



Here is the layout am going with:



Here are the first few pieces cut in. More to follow.

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Yup, all is not perfect in console land.

I decided to do a temp install of the new console for my travel over the next week or so rather than waste my time piecing back together the original seat/console. It doesn't look the best but several thousand miles living with it should certainly shake the bugs out and give me ideas of how to finish it.

So I connected the rear section of the console to the main body with 4 #12 screws making a very solid connection:



Once it was in place, and I tried to run some wires under the side of it just for the temp install, I realized that the floor line of the sides turned out excellent and fit very tight to the floor, I had to lift the console so slide the wires under, there were no gaps:





Then a major bonus! I realized that the original cut off section of drink holder with padding would fit in the access hole of the console eliminating the need for me to fab up drink holders which can end up looking cheesy. All I had to do was trim some plastic from the underside which will not show.
The key here will be to integrate this piece smoothly into the console while still making it removable for access.:



I then started installing the pieces, first the power supply, hubs, etc:



Then the pieces up front. I mounted one of what will be 6 switches into the plastic cup for now just to get some ideas as well as decide if the red LED x6 will be too bright. I may have to dim them. This one switch installed for now is for "valet" on the PC.



So here are some shots of installing the rest of the stuff:







And the "end" result (at least for this stage of the game:



I did eliminate the Griffin Powermate. As cool as they are; there really isn't anywhere logical for it to placed and I shouldn't be turning down the "pre-out" voltage from the PC anyways. That just increases the S/N ratio on the audio. So the volume at this time will only be controlled from the RUX controller.


So, here's the issue. The console is now TOO HIGH for my arm to rest on comfortably. I did a short 1 hour trip each way yesterday and I could already feel the a pulling in my shoulder.

The issue is the original design didn't account for using the factory storage bucket. When I remove it and rest my arm again on the console, it feels perfect, so....

I am keeping the factory storage bucket, the look feel etc of it is very important to me. So that means I will do whatever it takes to cut the console down by about 1-2" (I haven't measured yet)

I have some ideas in my mind, I know I won't be cutting it off the floor line so I guess it's coming off the top!

Stay tuned. When I finish my trip, I will get back at it.

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