Interior - Center Console

As you can see in the image to the right the ZF auto shifter sits quite high on top of the already raised tunnel. Behind the shifter is the new Lokar hand brake also. I needed to design a custom center console to incorporate these two components as well as the A/C controls, new air vents, cruise control buttons, shift light and power window controls.

I had seen the design of other consoles which came up under the dash and thought I could do somethign similar. Below is a pic of how the original angles were calculated with a box and tape measure.

Over several weekends I managed to follow this process;

I mocked up a dummy center console with foam and polycarbonate folding it with the use of a heat gun
I test fit to the car and noted my learnings
I downloaded TurboCad and leart how to use it through Youtube vids
I desgined up the final centre console, had it laser cut in 4mm aluminium then folded

Below is the design I created within TurboCad (Yes ironic its called TurboCad).

I am really happy with the result. Ultimately there is one panel which will run from under the dash all the way through to the back of the front seats. There will be 12 small square tabs welded on the underside of the console and these will be slightly recessed from the edge. These tabs already have pilot holes cut and will eventually be drilled out with nutserts added.

2 MDF pieces were cut for the sides which will be covered in leather also. These will have countersunk holes (under the leather) that line up to the nutserts mentioned earlier. These will allow me to bolt on the side panels, adding rigidity as well as keeping a similar design to that of the door cards.

I will use a totally new shifter boot to match my custom shifter surround. The top shifter surround will be anodised black with stainless countersunk hex bolts.

There is another plate on the underside of the console and these will sandwich the leather shifterboot.