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

[_paralyzed_]

I'm loving your attention to detail.

[scooter99]

Thank you!!

[bsneon98]

Cant wait to see how it turns out!

[scooter99]

Well, I knew it was bound to happen. Things were going too well.

I had a minor set back last night. I sat down and my electronics station last night to set up the servo motor with the arduino. I got it all set up, and all ready. Got the program put in from the arduino library to do a sweep on the servo motor, and it wouldn't upload. I kept getting errors, saying it wouldn't communicate with the arduino, and protocol errors, etc. So after messing with it for an hour and a half, I decided that I'd just get another one. They're not overly expensive, around $25 on amazon. So I walked away from it after that. The new one should be here by friday and I'll mess with it over the weekend.

My steering wheel controls should be here today. So that's a positive.

I will get more done soon. At this point it looks like it'll be over the weekend though.

[scooter99]

Ok I have a couple of pictures for you guys.

First up is the Ampere Audio JM-1.

Thanks Kyle. Threw some stickers in there! Funny guy with the Fi stickers! LOL

This thing seems small. Seems smaller than the BitOne, but it's been a while since I had one of those in my hands, so maybe I'm trippin. But this works out well for me. I'm working on money right now so I can order a second one.

Next piece is the DC to DC converter I ordered for the door lock actuator. This one converts the 12v signal to a 7.5v signal. I tested with a 5v one, and it wasn't strong enough, so I figured that somewhere in between would be good. I couldn't find a 6v, so this will have to do. If I use it. I should get my new Arduino today, so if I can get that to work with the servo motor, then this may not be necessary and I'll throw it in my box of goodies that I accumulate my good ideas I don't use in, HAHA!!

Finally, these babies came in yesterday! These are the replacement steering wheel controls. Well, not necessarily the replacements, but I got it so I could use these to work on, and then replace them in the truck when the tablet goes in. So I'm not driving around with holes in my steering wheel.

Let's take it apart and see what's up.

First to take it apart, it's a simple as removing the two screws on the back. They're a torques bit screw. I can't remember off the top of my head what they are. I wanna say T30 for some reason, but I think that's a big one. Sorry. There are two of them, one you can see, and one that was behind the sticker on it. I don't know if that sticker is on them all, or if it was because I got mine from a yard on ebay. But whatever, there are two screws. Remove them and the back literally comes off, no tabs, nothing else.

Basically the same screws hold the board in there too. That should just lift out as well.

At this point, it's apart. I needed the buttons out, since that's the part that's going to get cut out. So those just press out from the inside out. There are a couple of snap hinges in there. The pink bumpers will most likely come off. Just FYI. Then you're left with this.

[scooter99]

Next let's see how it fits. Remember I decided that the outer aluminum right was going to be removed from the set up. It's not a necessity for the remote to be held together. Plus it allows me to fit the remote within the area I wanted.

Here you can see I don't have to dip down into the lower HVAC buttons.

That's pretty much right up as high as it can go. Not a problem, since it will all be epoxied and body worked.

And it's about as centered as I can get it and still has a little bit of room on the sides.

An overall areal shot!

My next concern was the board and how it would be worked with and the depth of the remote itself. As you can see in this picture, the remote is the same depth as the buttons. I think that will work out well. It's actually shorter than the full depth of the buttons with the pink bumpers on them.

My original plan was to actually cut the board out around where the HVAC controls were at, so as to leave them in place and create space for the remote up top. But then after looking at the board, I discovered this is not going to be possible. I almost thought I couldn't do the project. But I had hope since the depth was within what was already there in the buttons. At worst case, I can remove the buttons on the board to add depth. This way I'm not destroying the board and still will be able to use the HVAC buttons.

Plus this is the back side of the board. As you can see, there's no way to cut it.

So, at this point, I'm feeling promised. This shouldn't take long to put together and body work etc. It looks like this will work out.

That's it for now. More this weekend.

[Pasta Prime]

that looks great! is rage extreme really much lighter than rage gold? Ive only used gold and its a world of a difference than 3m's bondo.

I love that Rustoleum filler primer. always have some on hand

I think so. It sands lighter. Just has a different feel to it, in my opinion. Fills cracks, lines, pinholes, a bit better. I can smooth it out with my finger instead of a spreader when I need to and when I try to do that with gold, it's just thicker and seems harder to work like that.

I think anything is better than bondo anyway, lol.

Yeah it's good stuff, I stocked up a bit. I'm sure not enough, but i'll get more if I need it.

Scott, looks killer as always.

Reading through your novel there a few pages back seems like you have just a little bit of work to do.

Look into flocking for your doors if you are scared to paint also

Yeah, just a little bit. LOL That's ok it'll be worth it when I'm done with it, you know, NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!!!

I have done flocking before, I did it in the civic trunk amp rack, and the sub enclosure.

It's not that I'm afraid to paint, I'm just not sure my mind will allow me to deal with it if it's not perfect. And I don't want some shiny bullshit either. I hate that look. Just my personal opinion, but it drives me crazy. I want a duller, leathery type finish. I'll probably just pick up some SEM color match paint and finish them that way. Or I'll pay my buddy to paint them for me, he owns a shop.

That actually brings me to another dilemma I'm trying to deal with. I actually, and I may be one of only a few, like the subtleness of the Ford Lariat Woodgrain features. I have it on my current dash, and the doors have a top on them that has it. I think that's all that's in the truck. Oh no the center console, but that's going away. Anyway, I'm set up now to paint the new dash black, but I would love to figure out how to get it back to the OEM Woodgrain look. I don't know why, I just like the thoughts of it. I've been looking and looking and looking and I can't find much on it other than the plastic press on crap.

So I'll just stay black for now. Maybe it's not a dilemma, just more of a want than a dilemma.

Ok give me a few minutes I have more pics to throw up here.

Have you looked into hydrodipping? Not sure if the woodgrain can be done, or done good for that matter but maybe an option.

[killallblue]

i like that remote idea i have been thinking about the same in my jeep for my ipad

[scooter99]

Have you looked into hydrodipping? Not sure if the woodgrain can be done, or done good for that matter but maybe an option.

Yes actually that's exactly where I was going. But I haven't heard back from them after sending pictures. I'm starting to get a bit irritated. I don't do well with laggy customer service. I emailed him the first time, boom response in less than 24 hours. We talked, he said send me some pictures and I'll get right back to you with a quote, and I've heard nothing since. So we'll see. I've never done it before, so I don't know how to do it. Although there are videos out there that show it and it looks semi simple to do. Seems like it's all in the way you dip it over the film and how much activator you put on. But we'll see. Maybe it's worth it to just try and do it myself for a fraction of the price. I just have to find the film.

I'll wait this week and see if they respond to me or not. Then I'll make my decision.

i like that remote idea i have been thinking about the same in my jeep for my ipad

What's funny is I just stumbled upon this one day by chance. I had an email pop up from Youtube that Soundman had a new video up of amplified. What's funny about it is I don't have them on a notification so it was kind of random. But I went and watched it and it happened to be the one where he was using this remote for his. He's also using the optical toslink calbe and was able to make it raise and lower volume. SO I said, I want one. Got it and hooked everything up as a test and it worked with the toslink out. So I'm very happy about that. I haven't started on the mount yet though.

I do have some other pics of the weekends work though. I'll post up now.

[scooter99]

Ok, so it was a frustrating, semi productive weekend for me.

To start out I didn't even get to anything until Saturday afternoon/evening. I don't have pictures of this part, but I printed out a few different relay diagrams off of 12volt.com.

The first one was a reverse polarity diagram which I knew would work with 2 momentary switches, but I don't want to use two switches. I want one switch.

So the other ones I found were latching relays.

This first one is a "Latched on/off output using a single momentary negative pulse - positive output - no diodes" diagram. What I wanted was to be able to hit the switch once, activate the actuator to push out, and then hit it again and have it pull back in. This seemed to be what would do that. Of course I'm not the smartest with relays, so I'm kind of taking a shot in the dark here. I just have a bunch of relays so I knew I had enough to test it out. Well it worked, sort of. I got it to push out strong with the first button push, but then it wouldn't come back as strong as it went out. So I messed with it a bit more, trying to figure out what it was doing what it was doing, and then I started to smell something. I felt the motor of the actuator and it was HOT. I didn't get it off fast enough and it blew. SO that was one down, good thing I have two. So I tossed that diagram out.

The second one I tried was essentially the same thing only it was a Positive pulse - negative output, instead of the other way around. I got it all hooked up to test it, and it was just the opposite. It would retract strong, but would extend weak. I even flipped the wires and I think it changed the direction of the strength. I don't recall now. But one direction was strong and the other weak. The difference was, the motor didn't get hot this time. So I saved this actuator.

But I was pretty much done after this. My brain was fried trying to figure it out. I've pretty much given up and decided to just do the reverse polarity relays and have two buttons. I know that works. I tested it and it works.

So unless anyone has any input on the first two or something else I could do to have one switch, then I'll just go this route.

I went through some google searches looking for a particular tablet mount video I knew existed and I could not find it. It was a blackberry playbook in the dash of an accord. Figured I'd be better finding it through google than searching my 15 some odd pages of subscriptions to find it. Well after nothing on google I went through all the pages of my subscriptions and ended up finding it on the last god damn page!! But come to find out, they've been banned, and it looks like all of their videos and photos have been removed. I figured out some stuff just reading though so that's good. It got me pointed in the right direction. I do specifically recall though that they only had one switch button, like a momentary switch. So that makes me think it's possible, I just don't know what the hell I'm doing.

That was Saturday night.