Shifter Console Plate- Custom Switch Panel

***Purist Warning Statement***


Pictures shown below may not be appropriate for purist viewing. Pictures may cause nausea, vomiting and/or a general feeling of uneasiness. If you experience these feelings, step away from the computer...and run...run real fast and real far. rofl

I purchased a Deluxe Shifter Console Plate from Don at OMS a few months ago. (along with many other interior replacement parts)

I've been prepping all the parts, door panels & all associated parts, floor console (power ports, cup holder & power window rocker switches), dash LED conversion, etc in preparation for the final assembly of my Mach 1. Car is very nice but is a non-numbers matching Q-Code 73 Mach 1. If it were a #'s matching car, I wouldn't have been interested in the first place.



Engine builder is "almost" complete. (12 weeks on a 5 week build) I've been bugging him almost daily... This is certainly a non #'s matching 408 Stroker.



Door panels look great. Don (Ohio Mustang Supply) gets them from a supplier that manufactures a top notch product. Everything fit perfectly. (a little patient massaging required) Supplier name is top-secret proprietary information...if I told you the name...I'll show pics of that later.

I just got finished with the mock up of a switch panel which I made out of a piece of donor camera case (an old trashed panel piece) and six 12v switches. These will control some modern amenities such as rear backup camera, monitor, acc rear light, navigation, 12v usb ports-front & rear, and fan (radiator). The two outer switches are single pole-double throw (two options for power source) and the 4 middle are normal single pole-single throw.





More to come...

Very well done! How did you do the lettering? Chuck

Dude! I dig it!

VERY Nice Job - Looks Sweet! ::thumb::

What kind of back-up camera/monitor did you get? I think you'll probably find out that the switches for them will be unnecessary. Mine wired to it's own power source that's keyed (so I don't accidentally leave it on and kill the battery), and that's it. The camera takes its power from the monitor - if the monitor's off, so is the camera. Granted, mine is pretty much a stand-alone monitor, and I didn't find any provisions to wire into the reverse switch with an "instant on" feature, but I wasn't really interested in that - if I want it on when I'm driving I'll have it on - it's not just for backing up (should help with blind spots, too).

Looks really good!

Very well done! How did you do the lettering? Chuck

Click to expand...

Thanks Chuck. I tried a few things like labels from a label maker...they had a hard time sticking to the camera case and have a tendency to want to roll up and pull away. Finally, it came to me to go to a trophy shop and have a plastic plaque made. It's silver with a black face and when the letters are cut, they are revealed in silver. $15. Now that it's size, font, spacing is saved, it would only cost $5 to have another made. The plaque itself is ridged and if cut precisely it will "press fit" into position. If it stays, and I think it will, I won't add any adhesive. That'll make it easier to change it's labels, if/when necessary.

Dude! I dig it!

Click to expand...

Thanks Pete

VERY Nice Job - Looks Sweet! ::thumb::

What kind of back-up camera/monitor did you get? I think you'll probably find out that the switches for them will be unnecessary. Mine wired to it's own power source that's keyed (so I don't accidentally leave it on and kill the battery), and that's it. The camera takes its power from the monitor - if the monitor's off, so is the camera. Granted, mine is pretty much a stand-alone monitor, and I didn't find any provisions to wire into the reverse switch with an "instant on" feature, but I wasn't really interested in that - if I want it on when I'm driving I'll have it on - it's not just for backing up (should help with blind spots, too).

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E, thanks for the compliment! I haven't purchased the camera yet but will soon. http://www.rockyamericas.com/usa/products/license_plate_ir_rear_view_camera.html

Usually power is made with a tap-in into the reverse light circuit in the trunk. (when power in sent to the reverse lights it will also power up the camera. I'm going to run a 16g power line up to the firewall, between the dynamat and the new carpet along with an RCA cable

(custom length from: http://www.cablesforless.com/Cable-Calculator-Custom-Length-RCA-x1-Cable-P6992.aspx) I'll tie into the reverse light circuit here due to it's proximity to the single pole/ double throw switch. One side of the switch will be hot all the time and the other will be hot when the reverse light circuit is closed. (trans is in reverse) It will automatically go on when in reverse but I will also be able to turn it on manually if/when needed. The green LED indicator lights above all the switches will serve as a reminder that they are on so hopefully I won't forget to turn them off. I like to be able to use these accessories when there's no key in the ignition. I think the green LED indicators are gonna look sweet with the new green LEDs I swapped into the dash. Based on info from you guys on here I've switched out the stock bulbs as seen in this diagram, which I made up, when I was immersed under the dash a few months ago.

Looks really good!

Click to expand...

JK, I appreciate the kind words!

Cool - I went with the Pyle Audio camera and rear-view mirror-mounted monitor. I still need to mount the mirror to the GPS tank-bag mount I got from Twisted Throttle.com, and mount it in the car (it's temporarily clipped onto the rear view mirror, as designed).

More details here: http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-can-t-see-out-the-rear-window-try-this?pid=231853#pid231853

Cool - I went with the Pyle Audio camera and rear-view mirror-mounted monitor. I still need to mount the mirror to the GPS tank-bag mount I got from Twisted Throttle.com, and mount it in the car (it's temporarily clipped onto the rear view mirror, as designed).

More details here: http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-can-t-see-out-the-rear-window-try-this?pid=231853#pid231853

Click to expand...

E,

I was going with the monitor which clamps on the mirror also. http://www.rockyamericas.com/usa/product...-680H.html As I looked at your pics I was thinking about the fact that my mirror is not yet mounted and your pic made me think that I might purposely glue it higher than the stock location. Is your mirror stock location...? looks really low...maybe it's just the angle of the pic...

What's the distance from the top of your windshield to the top of the glue on mount? Just had a thought that it may be easier to measure this on the outside of the windshield. If you don't mind, take a pic showing the measurement with the tape on the windshield, from the outside.

Using the monitor in the pic you posted above, how much higher could the mirror be moved up, from it's current position, while having the monitor clamped onto it and still not effect the swing of the visors?

Those tag bolt lights are totally cool. Hadn't thought about the LP light blinding the camera. Good thought. Is the "halo" the anchor point for the two sunvisors? I think you need to mount that mounting bracket right away and save me the time in figuring out whether that is the best idea!!! Would you please get on that!

E

Very well done! How did you do the lettering? Chuck

Click to expand...

Thanks Chuck. I tried a few things like labels from a label maker...they had a hard time sticking to the camera case and have a tendency to want to roll up and pull away. Finally, it came to me to go to a trophy shop and have a plastic plaque made. It's silver with a black face and when the letters are cut, they are revealed in silver. $15. Now that it's size, font, spacing is saved, it would only cost $5 to have another made. The plaque itself is ridged and if cut precisely it will "press fit" into position. If it stays, and I think it will, I won't add any adhesive. That'll make it easier to change it's labels, if/when necessary.

Click to expand...

A good sign shop, or trophy shop, with a Laser cutter/engraving machine is what people want to look for, to make these kind of panels.

The material is made by Rowmark, and comes in a lot of cap/core colors, including a camera type finish.

To save some cash, set up your drawing in Corel, since most lasers will import a drawing done in Corel, as most of the cost is setting up the drawing.

An older rotary engraver can do this type of panel as well, but you get a lot tighter cutting tolerances with a laser cutter.

Wow that is so amazing stuff to see :-D Welldon sir;-) Regards DK73

Cool - I went with the Pyle Audio camera and rear-view mirror-mounted monitor. I still need to mount the mirror to the GPS tank-bag mount I got from Twisted Throttle.com, and mount it in the car (it's temporarily clipped onto the rear view mirror, as designed).

More details here: http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-can-t-see-out-the-rear-window-try-this?pid=231853#pid231853

Click to expand...

E,

I was going with the monitor which clamps on the mirror also. http://www.rockyamericas.com/usa/product...-680H.html As I looked at your pics I was thinking about the fact that my mirror is not yet mounted and your pic made me think that I might purposely glue it higher than the stock location. Is your mirror stock location...? looks really low...maybe it's just the angle of the pic...

What's the distance from the top of your windshield to the top of the glue on mount? Just had a thought that it may be easier to measure this on the outside of the windshield. If you don't mind, take a pic showing the measurement with the tape on the windshield, from the outside.

Using the monitor in the pic you posted above, how much higher could the mirror be moved up, from it's current position, while having the monitor clamped onto it and still not effect the swing of the visors?

Those tag bolt lights are totally cool. Hadn't thought about the LP light blinding the camera. Good thought. Is the "halo" the anchor point for the two sunvisors? I think you need to mount that mounting bracket right away and save me the time in figuring out whether that is the best idea!!! Would you please get on that!

E

Click to expand...

OK - the windshield arrived with the Safelite installer with the mirror button already mounted. I thought it was low also, but I remember a few years ago, QCode351mach (Scott) pointed out that it's the factory location for the mounting point. Sorry to mess up your thread with a total yuck shot of my car, but you can see in this pic how low the mirror was mounted when I got mine:



The "halo" I mentioned is indeed the same piece of roof structure the sun visors are mounted to. It basically connects the A pillars and makes the windshield opening more rigid. Fortunately, the retainer for the sun visors mounts to the trim piece, which is closer to the glass and out of the way of where I plan on mounting the bracket. Nothing should be in the way of anything else for normal operations (like flipping the sun visor down or back up). Unfortunately, I think the monitor when it's in the 'down' position will interfere with the sunvisors when it's time to unhook and swing to the side - but again, should be just fine when it's in the "up" position. Another pic - you can see where the structure of the windshield starts at the A-pillar, and continues all the way across (not shown, but it does, trust me):



I think our monitors are made by the same folks - the remote is identical, so are the mirror clips, the buttons on the device, and I remember the same AV module as well (with the blue wire for the reverse switch, too). I think I just hooked the red & black wires (power & ground) for the camera and the monitor together so they use the same power source - that's why I only have one fuse for the both of them. Hey, it's been 6 months since I ran the wires.

I decided to go with the separate mounting because I don't want the vehicle safety inspectors to have any reason not to pass it. If there's a rear-view monitor/camera in-place of the totally inadequate rear-view mirror, they might fail it. I had an aftermarket steering wheel in my Honda Civic (because it was smaller and I could slide my legs under when getting in/out), and they wouldn't pass me because "the steering wheel was too small." Totally not even part of the inspection, but this is what I've learned to deal with in a smaller West Texas town (i'm totally convinced the guy was unhappy even having to inspect an import car to begin with).

Damn Eric...if you built your current car from the one in the pic, you did a great job!

I put antique tags on my car in PA and it now has a lifetime registration and never again needs to have a state inspection!!!

I would love to see a more complete picture of the supporting structure running across the top of the window, connecting the A pillars. You have called this the "halo." Like you said "...the structure of the windshield starts at the A-pillar, and continues all the way across (not shown, but it does, trust me)" Does anyone have a more complete picture of this Halo?

Yes - that's the same car, believe it or not.

I called it a "halo" because it pretty much goes all the way around the roof, surrounding the occupant's heads. There's probably a more technically-correct name for it.

Unfortunately, I now have a headliner in-place, so I can't get a better pic. But, when you get in the car, you can push up on the headliner and feel it out. There should be about 5/8"-3/4" of space in there before hitting the backside of the outside sheet metal, too (check to see how far the sun visor hinges stick up into the area when mounted).

My biggest issue with antique or classic tags is the restriction on mileage - in Texas, the limit mileage based on your registration type. I think Classic is less than 1,000 miles, and Antique is "to/from parades, car shows, and maintenance." I just got this thing back together, and I'm not going to let someone tell me how much or how little I can legally drive it. So, "regular" registration it is. ::thumb::