Turbine Inspired Center Console DIY

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Serj22

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So after someone posted some pics of the interior of a Chrysler Turbine car, I decided I really - really liked that center console - so much that I kind of wanted one similar to it. I was thinking of just making another standard kind of square or coffin shaped (like stock) center console now that I have bucket seats again, but opted for something based on the turbine console.

If you're not familiar with it, google it, and my idea may make a little more sense.

Obviously it's a bit shorter, this one is only going to be 36" in length and ends right between the two front seats, rather than going all the way to the trunk. Now, I don't have a floor shifter, so I opted for no shark fin, like the actual turbine has, but it will have a tube that looks like brushed stainless/ aluminum, with everything else happening above and behind it. For the turbine up front, I'm thinking either an 8" fan as a base or a really large silver/black air cleaner.

There will be two parts, which I'll hereby refer to as the substructure, and superstructure. Right now, the main body of it, which I'm calling the substructure is what I'm working on. Later when this part is complete, detailed and painted, I build the superstructure, which adds all the detailing on top and fills in the empty spaces, adds compartments, etc...

So, I started with an 8" wide design at first, that changed to 6" wide, @ the 20" rearward position and had an 8" diameter half circle, with a smaller part of the circle up front to frame the tube.



I made the base of 1/4" phillipine mahogany. (I'm a carpenter by trade).

Then I attached two basic frames to it to see how it looked in the car.



I didn't like how cramped between the seats it looked, and an 8" circle was too big for the tube. It didn't leave my any room to mount a "turbine" up front.

So like a true craftsman, I measured twice, and threw it away once.

Scrapped, onto a shape that will be narrower, I went with a 6" base up front, that changes to a 4 1/4" base @ the 18" part back.



I went with 1/4" finbirch aircraft ply this time, and opted to use mahogany for the framing above it. Phillipine mahogany is slightly soft so it was easier to plane the edges round for the next step.

I planed some sticks of 1" x5/8" to build the framing and general shape with.



I set a basic rectangle out which will have the screws in the center to hold the console down to the transmission tunnel eventually when all the compartments are made. This will also serve for holding my phone, wallet, loose change, whatever.

Then I made some more sticks to finish the base off.



I aligned them how I wanted, then got some Gorilla Glue, and set them down with it. No clamps, since this doesn't need to be held down that well, it just needs to sit still.

Then I set it on a Hemi Firepower to dry.



I went over to the hardware store and got a 16 1/2" section of 4" ABS pipe, and two 4" sections of 3" ABS.

I decided I ultimately wanted cup holders, but did not want to just cut holes in the top and go "cupholders... done" so I wanted them to be part of the substructure shape.



I gorilla glued the two cup holders in place, then screwed the 4" tube down through the bottom to hold it still and glued it as well.

I scrapped the wood framing of the tube idea and went for ABS, and figured that would be simpler, but will eventually require other work to fit the superstructure on top of this, it's a good trade off.

I set it in the car to test fit, and it fits a lot better. It's crooked in the picture, but it will look good.

Keep in mind it's just a turbine "inspired" build, it won't look exactly the same so to speak.



The spacing between the seats is a lot better too.

After I planed all the corner edges off the mahogany frames, I cut up an old white work T-shirt, and stretched it over the whole piece. It's important to trim down any corners or plane them off, otherwise they make a hard edge that you eventually have to sand off in the fiberglass or filler stage, so I just opt to deal with it now, unless you need or want a hard edge, then you leave it.



I stretched it all out and hot glued it to the bottoms of the base, and trimmed the excess. This will serve as the basic shape to attach the fiberglass matt to. This is a similar process audio builders use in custom speaker enclosures and the like and is where I started using this process as well.

Usually after this, you just lay some resin on the cloth you put down, and then let it dry, then start applying layers of chop mat. It's hard to use a full piece of woven fiberglass because it's hard to make it curve this complex. Chop is messier, and requires more sanding and filling, but a necessary evil for this.

So like I said, usually resin goes over this, but I added a step I figured out a while ago. Usually when you add the resin, the fabric sags a little from the weight, and makes the shape not quite what you want. Some people stretch a second layer of fabric over or do other things, but I add spray paint. If you've ever painted a carpet (for some reason) or used regular spray paint on fabric, it makes it a little rigid and tough, so that's why I do it.

I spray painted it with some black paint i had laying around, and tomorrow when it's dry I'll add some epoxy resin to it, add any other shaping I need to, then get prepped for glass. Then once I have a basic final idea of where I'm happy with this whole substructure, I can build the second part that will be the superstructure.

 
Very nice creative skills. I wish I had the talent to go from vision to reality. Unfortunately, I go from vision to trash can.
 
I'm loving this write up. Keep it going extremely interesting. Looking forward to the finished project.
 
Well, got a couple layers of glass laid down today. I remembered how messy and awful chop mat is, and went with fiberglass repair tape. It is just woven glass in about a 2" wide strip. It's super clean (for fiberglass) and it allowed me to touch the stuff with my hands and mold it down where it needed to be.


First I brushed epoxy over the entire thing.



That makes it so that the fabric is a bit saturated, and luckily the paint held up and it only sagged a tiny bit, but glass packed on top made up for it. I liked using the thin strips because it easily covered all the surface area. I did not cover the tops of the cup holder sections or the top of the main tube up front, since that pipe is round already, so I just went up the sides a bit with glass, this ensures I have minimal work to keep that section round on top. Glass gets little bubbles and stuff if you do it this way and it's way easier to leave it off of that spot.

I brushed resin on the back of the strip, then applied it to the piece, where it sticks thanks to the resin already being on the fabric. Then I dabbed the glass with a brush once I had them all laid out to saturate it. I laid it out about 2 layers thick, and since it's woven it should be plenty strong to start as a base.





Then you just leave it and play the patience game. It is good to babysit the piece though, and come back to it every couple hours. The ends of the glass tend to peel up or tiny strands poke out. If it's still tacky you jsut push those pieces down. If you let it dry like that it becomes a really sharp death needle and they are annoying to deal with when dry.

Bondo glass will go over this layer in a thin coating, then the whole thing gets sanded and then filled again with regular bondo and sanded.

But for now, have to wait for the glass to dry.
 
Got bondo glass over this to smooth out the epoxied fabric and some of the edges. Surprisingly the glass laid down real smooth. I like this repair tape stuff. I may use it again.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the nice smooth green bondo glass, and all I have is the bondo layer. You just cake it on, and then work it like a sculpture. I've done thin layers in the past and it just takes a long time to actually get it thick enough to start any shaping. So I lay about 1/16" of it at a time. I have this layer sanded down and more added already, but that's still wet. I set it up on a shelf for the night and will hit it with the disc sander tomorrow.

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Still a lot of shaping to do. Also the fabric in the center of the cupholders became real brittle during sanding, it got kind of shredded apart, so they just fell out, and I cut out the excess. I was hoping they'd stay because it helps keep bondo out of the hole. I need to make sure they're clean before I install the sleeves for the cup holders. There's a stainless sleeve made for RVs and boats that should slide right in, and glue down, and it also works to trim the top out real nice.

Like this:

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While I'm waiting till tomorrow to do some more body work on the substructure, I started working on the "turbine". I had the perfect things for it too. I have some plastic electric fans that were a total flop for cooling. They didn't pull barely anything through the rad compared to my steel fan. Put the steel fan back, and decided I'd be sitting on these a while before they sold.

So I have a 7" diameter one, and a 10" diameter one. I'll be making them both 7" diameter which is a 1 1/2" diameter reveal of "turbine" on either side of the tube which I think will be just perfect. I'll be painting them silver then finishing with a chrome strip of 3m stick on door trim for each blade to give it a more defined look. Then I'll add a black stripe next to each chrome piece to make it look like a lot more blades are there. Should look pretty good. Then I'll bend a piece of 1/2" x3/16" steel I have into a 7" diameter arc to trim the outside of it and glue it to the blades somehow. Should look pretty trick.

I took the sacrificial fans out of their housings and tossed the housings and motors.



Then I sanded them a bit, and hit them with some silver spray paint.



They will sit overlapping eachother and the fan blades cover up the empty space of eachother perfectly. I think this will work out well, and hopefully it will look the part when done. If not I have a couple other ideas for the "turbine".
 
I'm totally lost on what exactly your doing here.
 
Google "Chrysler Turbine car" it'll show his inspiration for this build. Some good techniques to be learned here as well.
 
I'm totally lost on what exactly your doing here.

Just stick with it. I promise it will all come together. I hope in the end it will all make sense. Here's an image for the "style" I am working with. Not the actual piece, just the idea:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2017/2885986162_703e58180c.jpg

Also this is a really professional drawing I made of what the finished product looks like in my head as of now.

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[/URL][/IMG]

Obviously it will have more detail and a lot more going on, but that's the idea.

I sanded all that sculpting mud (bondo) down, and got my basic shape dialed in without all the sagging that occured.

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Then I hit it with just a touch more. I don't want this to be too thick, as when it's all at the basic satisfactory shape (maybe minus a couple dents) then I'll be coating the whole thing with epoxy to seal. Bondo by itself just isn't very tough and durable enough to stand up to anything, so the final shape is getting sealed in.

Got that layer sanded down as well, and only had a couple spots left over to spot check and fill.



For the time, I moved on to the turbine.

I cut the larger fan down to the same diameter as the smaller so they're both a 7" diameter circle. Then I overlapped them.

I cut up some mahogany to use in the center since i know i will have to inevitably have some kind of surface to attach these to, then glued and screwed them together.



I cut the ragged end of the console off with the stretched fabric and all the leftover fiberglass off in a clean 90* cut on the chop saw, and it cut through the whole thing nice and clean. I plan on filling in the excess space with spray foam to make the whole thing more ridgid. It's worked in the past, should work again.



I cut the base of the fan off so it would sit flat, and sat it behind the console to get a look at what's going on. I think it looks pretty neat. I'm going to wrap a 1" wide piece of steel around a 7" form to get it to make a shroud around the turbine. Should look pretty good.



I added some of that chrome striping stuff you get from pepboys when you buy a Honda Civic to make it look really super cool. I put it on the tops of the blades to give the turbine some "depth".



I cut and formed a nice bridge piece out of mahogany to start the superstructure part of this build. This will serve to make a shape, as well as be a level base to start building the superstructure of the console. I glued it down in the center at the back of the tube.



I packed the underside with bondo once it was dry and sanded to make some smooth lines down to the tube.

If you're wondering why I'll continue to add wood and bondo to the glass, this is a technique my dad has shown me over time to make patterns for pieces that need to be cast in bronze, or aluminum, etc... you build the shape over and over till its perfect then send it off to the foundry. This is how we do it. It's a good functional system. It will allow you to make pretty much any shape you're thinking of in your head and wood will supply a basic or straight shape if you need it. You just have to make sure you coat epoxy or something over the final product or the top will get dinged and dented. It's sturdy though.

Got some spot putty on it now again, and then sand it off, tomorrow morning I'll be able to coat the whole thing with epoxy and seal it. That will kind of conclude the substructure part except for finish work.

 
I think the turbine cars are one of the coolest body designs ever. Too bad Ma had to destroy most all of 'em

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKumqcKuv1g"]Chrysler Turbine Cars being destroyed - YouTube[/ame]
 
Pretty sad but for what reason ? were they only Proto types ??
 
I love this more door Dart....its different, and different is kewl! I love these upgrades like this and enjoy your posts :glasses7:
 
Pretty sad but for what reason ? were they only Proto types ??

Yup. Only a few left, forgot how many. Lenno I guess has one. There's one in a museum somewhere back east. Years and years ago, the first year that the Mopar Nats was held at Indy, they had it out running around the parking lot. Sounds like a real loud "Kirby" LOL
 
I love this more door Dart....its different, and different is kewl! I love these upgrades like this and enjoy your posts :glasses7:

Thanks. I get ideas and then just kind of go to town and do it. I wanted a center console and I wanted to keep the turbine theme going - turbo in the engine bay, turbine in the cabin. :glasses7:
 
Very cool Serj. It is nice to see the step by step for potential future projects. This shows that making custom parts is actually not too bad of a task. Looks good, can't wait to see the finished project.
 
Well, did another big push on the console today for the last day of working on it for the week. I'll do a couple little things but i won't be back at my shop till monday. I had hoped to have this done for a car show on next Sunday, but weather I get it in time or not, the car is still going. I just thought this would be a cool piece to have in it.

Well I started off before leaving by setting the console back in the car to ensure that it still fit and I needed to take some contour measurements. I had originally thought of doing a carpet drape off the sides like the factory would have done, then thought that if I'm going through this much trouble, there's no point in cheaping out and to actually skirt it down to a reasonable distance from the transmission tunnel.



I marked it and wrote my angles and measurements all over it for when I got in to the shop.

I planed some 1/4" phillipine mahogany again, and cut 3 pieces to fit for skirting.

Before I attached it I realized that I never actually checked to ensure a drink would fit in the holders yet... whew it does.





It looks a little weird with the hump in it, but it makes sense when on the car.

For the passenger side I just covered the front part and skirted it. The rest I have yet to figure out my solution. I would bend a piece of wood there, but I am not sure how it would sit down that way, so I'm waiting on that one.

I drew the end of the console onto a piece of 1/4" aircraft ply, then cut it out, glued it to the console and screwed it down till it dries so I could shape it.



I drew up some "wings" and finally decided on a shape and then cut two out of some 1/4" aircraft ply. I glued them and screwed them down till the glue dries.

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I always screw stuff like this down while i glue it because it's easier than trying to clamp a weird shape like this, and it definitly holds, then you just take the screws out and fill the holes and move on when it dries.

I shaped another piece of 1/4" ply to put on top and that kind of completes the superstructure. I was thinking of going further back but I have a lot of work ahead of me to complete what I have here so far. I have to shape the front of the piece and blend the whole superstructure together so everything looks like one piece.



That part got screwed and clamped into place. Then I added bondo to the empty spots to blend. I still have to trim a bit of the plywood but it all held together just perfectly.

I went and popped it back in the car to test fit that the superstructure would not interfere with anything and that the skirting sat down nice. It looks alright to me. There's going to be minimal carpet skirt blending to do and I like that. The base skirts will be painted black so they'll be almost invisible against the carpet. Then the superstructure will be white with chrome, and the rest will be an attempt of mine to look like brushed metal.





For the brushed metal I'm thinking of sanding the whole thing down to 320 then taking some 80 gritt and making long passes in the same direction on the "metal" part. Then spraying a silver over it. Think it would work?

It's getting there.
 
I'm intrigued watching this project. Pretty cool stuff. Not sure it's my taste, but i do like seeing some badass customization, and this is pretty badass so far. I'll stay tuned for more...
 
I remember hearing about the turbine car when I was a kid, but have forgotten about it since then til now. After watching Leno with the car, I love it!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2A5ijU3Ivs"]1963 Chrysler Turbine: Ultimate Edition - Jay Leno's Garage - YouTube[/ame]
 
Well, decided to fire up my dremel and hit the superstructure and put a more finalized shape on it. After looking at various shades of bondo, epoxy, epoxy filler, and spot glaze, i decided to hit it with a primer. I picked up one intended for weird surfaces. It filled in the grain a little like i had hoped, and showed exactly where I need to keep working. It's about 80% the correct shape. The other 20 is super F'd up. Well, not that bad, but still needs work.

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I Put on some real thin bits of spot glaze, which adhered nice to the primer last night. I sanded it off with some 80 gritt this morning, and finished out the curves with 220. I had hoped this would be the last, or at least second to last spot check, but I really don't want to see any bumps or runs, cracks, etc... since it's such a small part. No one else may notice but I'll be seeing it every day and it will bother the heck out of me.

I used it to fill the grain in the mahogany as well. It worked good for that, since it kind of shrinks down into cracks.

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Also with this next coat of primer, the superstructure is starting to look all like one piece, which is what I was hoping for. The paint colors will make it look like seperate parts, but that's later. I also went and bought a can of: Dull Silver, Gloss White, Gloss Black, and Crystal clear coat.

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As you can see, I'm pretty close here (this is just the primer) and it'll be just little tiny spots to fix, then reprime, and I'll be ready to start taping and painting. I'm thinking of changing the paint scheme from my original idea.

I'm thinking the dull silver on the front turbine tube, just like I had wanted previously, then black on the skirting and superstructure, and paint the cup holder section of the "turbine" white. It's still an idea, and hard to integrate the black and white into it at the same time. You can kind of see that's the color scheme of my interior. The upholstery is all white and black, and the dashboard is brushed aluminum.

I'm also debating if the turbine tube, the cup holder area should both be silver, and the superstructure and skirting is just black... it's hard to decide.

I also found a perfect piece of metal to wrap the fan blades. I went to Lowe's and found some 1/16" aluminum stock x1" and I wrapped it around a cooking pot to make a basic circle, then worked it smaller by hand till I had to stretch it out to wrap the fan blade. Now I can trim the rear fan blades, and put another piece around the back ones. I have 6 more feet of this stuff to use too, and since it's already aluminum, I will leave it. It looks good without paint.

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I have tape around it to hold it while I glued it. White Gorilla Glue this time. It held real good, and just minimal cleanup of the glue foam to do.
 
I got the second layer of aluminum banding on the turbine and then added some chrome striping. You'd think I knew what I was doing the whole time... but I didnt...



I still need to work out a way to attach it to the final assembly.

I finished the body work finally, and laid down some color. I did the silver and white today since I could seperate them without taping over wet paint. I did three light coats of each respective color, then in about 50 minutes put two light coats of crystal clear over each as the can instructed. It came out well. Basically after this, the superstructure, trim and skirting get painted black. It turns out I got Semi-Gloss, not gloss, but i think that will work out because nothing else in the car is gloss, it's all Semi or satin.



I taped off the rest of the primer so it would still allow the black to adhere well and I wasn't just spraying over a clear coat.



It's going ok. Hopefully i got the paint laid down well and the tape tomorrow doesn't just peel it back off. I hate when that happens...
 
Well, I decided to add a little flair, as I was watching that turbine car video posted by Jay Leno and he was talking about the dash plaque that says "TURBINE POWER by CHRYSLER"

and I wanted something like that too, but not on the dash - on the piece, so I kind of recreated it, but for my specific car. It's just as cheesy as the turbine car's.

Turbine_zpsmhuu7vnm.png


I saved some stills of that video to get an idea of what the fonts looked like, and kind of found a few that matched, and made up a custom image. I printed it out on my fiancee's 31" vinyl plotter.

First I laid down a 15" long white stripe of vinyl that was 1 1/2" high. Then I bordered it with chrome striping (I love this stuff) and then printed out my two custom vinyls and put a mask on them to adhere them to the piece. I screwed up one of them while trying to remove the cuout of the "R" and scrapped it. So I'll reprint the other side tomorrow. I think it will add just that one more piece of flashyness. It also breaks up the large silver portion, which is good, because it almost seemed to bland by itself.

Tomorrow I'll also get a start on masking off the silver and white and laying down the black, and we'll see what this piece looks like.

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Dam talent and patience go a long way. It's coming along and looking great!
 
all I can say is WOW. very creative

Thanks Junkyard, and 73.

It's kind of depressing to be near the end because it was super fun.

But I had a nice hour long tape session going with some frog tape (good stuff) and paper, and masked off everything that would not be semi-gloss black.

I shot three nice coats of black, then two light clears about 45 minutes later per the instructions. (I'm finding that following the instructions on the can makes it look pretty nice actually).

20150420_154305_zpsctl2zvya.jpg


Then I removed the tape and I was super impressed with myself. The design looks pretty awesome for having never been plotted on paper really. It was all in my head as I went along.

It's nice and even, and looks like a part that may have actually been in the car with the color combo. I installed the turbine assembly with two screws in the back in case I ever had to disassemble, and have opted not to cut a pocket out or anything because why mess it up? The curves are so nice. I am instead going to screw it down by drilling a hole in the middle of each cupholder and putting two large #12 screws in there. I think that should hold it down nicely. I have it just sitting in the car for now, not attached, because I was excited to see what it looked like.

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So what do you guys think? Looks ok for some plumbing supplies and an old T-shirt and couple of radiator fans.
 
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