193: Friday 27th May 2011

I went and got some stock from the stationary section of my local supermarket to make up the centre console panel to mount the display and other controls. My local supermarket is huge and has everything, so I came back with a selection of coloured card, some spray glue, some glue sticks, and I had ordered some acetate sheets from eBay that came the other day. I took the panel that I had spent ages trying to paint and run a sander over it and took it all off. I didn't strip it right back, which worked to my advantage as it gave me a good keyed surface to stick to. I sprayed glue on the metal and let it go tacky for about 30 seconds, then applied a sheet of black card. I let it set for a few minutes, then trimmed it round with a craft knife. I modified the design I had before for the panel and made a reverse stripe that I printed using a laser printer onto red card. I cut out the stripe and sprayed the back of it with glue. After it had dried for about 30 seconds I carefully stuck it on top of the black card. I then got a sheet of white paper and marked the outline of the panel on it. I cut it out with scissors and then offered it up to the centre console with the metal panel behind it. Using a pencil I marked the edge of the hole in the centre console onto the white template. I took the template and cut just outside the line I had made, but I left it right up to the edges where the fixing points were so I could align it correctly on top of the plate again. I positioned the sheet and taped it through the holes to the back of the sheet to hold it in position and then sprayed glue over giving a layer of glue on the edge of the plate after I had peeled away the white template. I let this dry for 30 seconds and then applied a sheet of acetate and gripped it on all the way round where there was glue, being careful not to touch the centre as I had some of the glue on my hands by then. I then trimmed this up and cut out the holes for the controls, but I left the sheet over where the display will go as this offers protection from getting marked. Another advantage of this approach is that I can just "re-skin" it with another sheet of acetate if it gets damaged in future. The picture below shows the console with 2 of the controls loose fitted. I shall put this all back in the car tomorrow probably.