A Little Work on the Upper Console

Yesterday I started to do some work on the Upper Console. So far I only have the one set of buttons I ordered from Jupiter Electronics but I figured I might as well install them just to get a good start on that little project. The buttons from Jupiter are awesome, beautiful workmanship and they look great. I cut my hole for the buttons and test fit them into the console to see where I would be sitting as far as tweaks goes.

Because of the available space for mounting I was truing to figure out a good way to make these buttons more mountable.

I had a fair amount of that "Lexan" Plexiglas left over from installing my 2 TV Dash Electronics so I figured maybe I can use that to make some kind of mounting system. I cut strips that were about just a hair under 1/2" wide by about 2 1/2" long, sanded them down until they fit securely between the electronics board and the top of the buttons mounting plate, I slid two strips one on each side of the button rows and then bolted them together.

 You can see in this closeup view how I have my strips of Plexiglas set up along the length of the electronics buttons board. This set up prevents the whole buttons assembly from just simply dropping out through the hole cut into the console.

Now I have not gone out and test fit the upper console in place yet so I'm not sure what kind of space is available inside of the console between that and the head liner. I guess I should do that just to get a heads up. I will do that today to see how it fits for one things and to see if I can make a better determination of available space. For all I know it might turn out to be a snug fit and all I might end up needing is a piece of foam rubber between the head liner and the back of the buttons assembly. If not then I'll see about perhaps fiber glassing in some mounting brackets similar to what I did on the 2 TV Dash underside.

I also created a piece of plastic black trim for over top of the buttons to make them look a little more finished. The plastic came from the top of an old VCR/DVD combo unit that no longer worked so I scrapped it for parts and the plastic shell or housing has come in handy for little projects like this. Once the buttons are secured in place I'll simply Contact Cement this plastic trim to the outer edge of the buttons assembly.

I can't wait to get the other switches for the upper console.... figuring out what to wire all of the various buttons up to is going to be fun ;)