Black Beauty Project Build - 06 Ford F-250 Super Duty **1/27/18 - New pics starting on page 41**

[scooter99]

Ok, Picture time!!

So we all know how the last try failed. Mistakes, inexperience, on my part, not thinking, trying to do too much in too little of time. Call it whatever you want. I've already learned from it.

So, here comes part 2!! I think it's part 2, maybe it's 3. I've lost track already. LOL

Friday night I got busy with a Father Daughter dance, so I couldn't do anything. I took my babies to their first dance, showed them how a real man treats a lady while out, and it was a real learning experience for them. Glad I did it.

Saturday, we had some morning stuff to take care of but in the afternoon, I got busy on this. I made a template a week or so ago, that would actually replace the case (which failed already), because I got an idea based off of what someone else on here did with their tablet. I thought, damn, if I could do something like that it would make life way easier. But after the template was made, I put it up on the dash piece, and was discouraged. It was going to be a ton of work to try and make it fit. Not that I'm afraid of work, but I just didn't think I'd want to go through that.

I know, some are saying "why not go to a smaller tablet"? Believe me I said the same thing. BUT, I have this one, it is what I wanted for this project, my wife knows it, and so now it's principle. YES, I could go out and get a 10" tablet. But I'm not going to.

So why did I just go through all of that? Well the answer is because now that this thing failed, I decided, the work was going to be worth it.

I tried to sand down the case, thinking that I could just do that, make it fit, and fix what issues were caused last week. But even sanding it down, it just wouldn't work. I could not get the tablet to fit in easily. I believe the reason for that, partly, was because I did not have the dash in when I mounted the case. I think I was depending on the case being rigid enough to do what it needed to do. I think that was part of my failure as well.

So here's the new work!

The first thing I had to do was get some materials ready. For this I was going to make a template out of 1/4" MDF. I actually had a piece laying around because of a different Idea I had.

In order to make this work out, I needed a boarder that I could alter and trim and shape. So I put the tablet on the MDF and marked out the tablet outline along with a 1/2" boarder.

I got that cut out, and decided to use a forestner bit to cut out my corners, and then cut out the middle of the template.

Slid the tablet inside, and checked my surrounds, and everything looked great. The 1/4" MDF is slightly smaller than the tablet. I think the tablet is about 3/8" thick, or somewhere around that. I'll address this later.

[bsneon98]

Lol you gained the 2 you lost and I lost 2 myself this weekend.

Totally pulled a you and just walked away

I am a big proponent of just walking away. I can get very frustrated, and it sometimes turns to anger if I keep at it. I also have a don't quit attitude so sometimes it's a very difficult balance between the two. I don't want to give up on something, but if I don't walk away and let my mind clear, it's only going to turn out badly!! I've been known to chuck a hammer across a jobsite or two. I don't do construction anymore, and I'm guessing it's much less tolerable in the office if my keyboard goes flying past the managers cubicle, who sits across the office from me. So I've had to learn to really just relax and walk away sometimes.

Speaking of walking, it's time for my morning walk. As soon as I get back, I'll be posting pictures. I'm really happy with how things turned out yesterday, except for one thing that pissed me off. But there's nothing I can do about it right now.

Be back with pics very soon.

Im the same way, just have to forget about the shit and focus on something simple. My monitors at work have almost been falcon punched several times.... lol


Pictures look good man, cant wait to see how this one will turn out. Im jelly at the people who can blend a tablet into their dash.

[scooter99]

So the next thing I had to do was try and get it laid out. What to trim off of the template, where to cut on the dash, etc. So I did this using 2 sided tape.

Once it was stuck on the dash, I could draw out the lines where the template needed to be cut, and the dash. What I really want to do with this, is try and save the body lines. The creases etc that are already in the dash. This will help it look as stock as possible. I don't really want to fill all of those. That's my hope anyway.

So I got out the dremel with a cutting wheel, but that didn't last long

It was just too hard to get through everything. It kept binding up. SO I said eff it and grabbed my trusty air saw!! She's rarely if ever let me down!!

And she came through again!!

So at this point I've done nothing with the trim ring. I did some outside drawings, lines, etc to estimate where it should go. But I still wanted to see where i was at after the dash panel was cut out.

That's what this is. This is the underside of the trim piece. I used sharpie to make it easier to draw on it. The tape didn't really want to stick all that well.

[scooter99]

This gave me a chance to work on my new Scroll Saw. Worked out very well.

Here was another EFF it moment. I was trying to fit the ring in, with the bottom part of the dash still on. I just couldn't make it work, and not have issues in the future when it was going to be time to make it blend. SO I cut it out too. So here it is temporarily set into place.

That was all on Saturday and Saturday night. Sunday, I got busy after lunch since we had another full morning.

I decided this time, when I get the ring attached, that I wanted to do it in the dash where everything would be where it's supposed to be. So I had to take out the current dash and head unit first.

My daughter helped me out today.

Now we're ready to do some fitting and testing etc.

Here it is just sitting in there. I think I forgot to mention, I decided not to go with 1/2" like i discussed before. I decided to go with the 1/4" mdf and stack it. You'll see what's up soon.

A few strips and some two sided tape to hold them in place.

[scooter99]

Here you see me actually doing work. LOL Trim piece is resting comfortably between my big belly and the steering wheel. My other daughter in the background with the photobomb!

Again, just temporary.

Now, I have to admit. I got pretty damn excited when I saw this. It looks so good in there. Picture does not do it justice. It fits so well. Yes it's a giant tablet, but it fills the dash very very well.

That's pretty good, but there was definitely some fine tuning to be done to it. So I got out the sand paper and got busy.

Then, after all that was done, sorry forgot to take a picture, I got to gluing it in place. Got out my cheap CA Glue and got it where I wanted it.

Here's a shot from the back seat with the tablet in it. I love the way this looks!!

Now, that other fail. As I was putting my first dash back in, I ended up cracking in in the middle. I was so mad when it happened, but I think I can fix it for when I take it out. I'll fix it and put it away. I think I was too excited and rushing too much to get it all back in. I really need to slow down sometimes. LOL

[scooter99]

Now I have to make a back for it. So I got out that template I did so long ago, and used it for this. What I should've done, there goes the slowing down part again, was I should have just routed out a new piece from this trim ring. Oh well, just means a little more work for me.

Then back to the MDF

and we now have a back piece.

Still had a bit more trimming to do on it, but I got it to fit just right. Worked out well

Another test fit. This is where I figured out a fix for the thickness issue. The double sided foam tape puts the tablet in the mount exactly flush. It is damn near perfect. So, I'll keep this in mind when I attach the two pieces. That's coming up.

But first I have lines to address. In these next two pics you'll see what I mean.

In this one you can see the lower left side, the line thins out there.

Same with the upper right side.

I think the cuts on the dash were tweaked a little bit. But I got it sanded down, and it's looking really good now. I'm happy with it. The reveal looks pretty consistent all the way around now.

[scooter99]

After I was happy with the reveals, I thought well no better time than the present to put it together.

So I cut out some small strips of double sided tape to put all around the back piece.

marked them so that when I go to glue it, I don't glue where the tape is at. Just to prevent messes.

And transferred them onto the back of the front piece too.

To glue it together I'll be using some of this Gorilla Glue 5 minute epoxy.

sorry blurry picture, I was in a hurry but wanted to get a shot of the epoxy on it.

Peeled the tape off, and stuck it together.

Then I used a ton more around the whole unit onto the dash piece too.

That was it for Sunday.

[scooter99]

After letting it sit overnight, i checked it this morning. Looks good.

On the bottom of the unit, I used gorilla glue. That's what the white foamy stuff is. It foams as it dries to 3 - 4 x's the size.

You can see here, it came through to the inside. No problem, it cuts with a knife. I'll clean that up, and some other spluge spots on the inside. Then I'll address the rest with body filler.

Now onto the other stuff. So the way this dash sits, it's a curve. I went through this before too, but I had more room to work with. So now, my issue is I have two high sides and a couple of high corners, and the bottom to deal with.

This is the left side, and there's not much I can do here, I don't have room. SO I may have to just fill it at an angle and just deal with it, I don't know.

This is the right side. The right side has more room, and of course as I do, after I had it all glued and epoxied I figured out I could've probably put some relief cuts in it and made more of a slope out of it. But, then I looked behind it, and all the screw ports for the HVAC vents etc are behind there and that would've caused an issue too.

SO I think what I'll have to do is just fill it at an angle from corner to corner and just live wit it as being part of the contour of the dash.

Then there are the corners. This whole bottom will need to be sanded in the corners to get down to the dash piece and worked so it looks decently like the rest of the dash. I'll get it close, and I think I'll have to put it back in the truck and body fill it so it blends well.

I thought I had a picture of the top corners, but I don't. It's basically the same thing. They'll have to be sanded down to match the dash piece, before I fill the sides.

So I have a lot of body work and filling and details to work on, but she's definitely on her way. I'm very happy now, compared to where I was last week.

Thanks for checking it out. Hopefully I'll have more this week. A little at a time.

[scooter99]

I forgot to mention, one of the things that I'm very concerned with, is getting the dash back in place. The dash doesn't fit around the steering wheel and the gear shift very well at all. That's partially how I broke the other dash panel. What I'm concerned about is the twisting of it, and having something crack on the tablet area. So I'll have to address that later. But it's in my mind already. I may figure out how to make this a dual panel. Maybe I could cut up the body line seam, you know the one I WANT TO SAVE LOL, and I can see about making it two pieces. I just don't know how it'll look.

Ok that's all. More to come! lol

[Wood]

Progress looks great bro!! Makes me wanna tackle one!!

But I'm done spending money on this car lol