Interior and Sound from scratch

[cris_blitz]

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I bought a short wheelbase fiberglass beach buggy some years ago,
and got a lill tired with the interior and sound installed by the previous owner.

This is how it looked like before :

A grey painted ordinary wood panel with some gauges and an old radio.
and a few beige carpets travelling around on the floor :



Notice the hard to read speedometer at the left side of the steering wheel,
the gold painted tunnel and foot end, and the ugly nuts that hold the body to the chassis :


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[cris_blitz]

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The rear didn't look very exciting either.
A grey carpet over the hard fiberglass back seat.
Only good to let the wind twirl around and give you a cold neck while driving :


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[cris_blitz]

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So I decided to make a lockable trunk for the back seat area.

With a little help from my dad, I created this thingy from multiplex wood panels :







It might look easy, but it sure wasn't
There's not even 1 straight side in the back of the buggy,
and I didn't want to bolt it on the body, so, it needed to be a perfect fit.
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[cris_blitz]

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Covered with some foam and strong black immitation leather,
thanks to its conic shape, the result fits like a glove,
no screws, bolts or nuts needed







Instead of a rock hard unused rear seat, I now have a very practical lockable trunk in the back.
No more cold wind playing in that area, and a good excuse to keep the neighborhood kids out of the buggy
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[cris_blitz]

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Removing the old wooden dashboard panel,
and the reminders of what once was the original fiberglass dashboard,
revealed the pre-historic electrical wiring and dito fuses.







I think I can consider myself lucky this spaghetti never caught fire.
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[cris_blitz]

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Time to get creative ...

Making a design with MDF board :

The 1st attempt





I wanted to give my dashboard some "depth",
that's why I came with the idea to install a mushroom style center console for the gauges.
But it turned oyt the mushroom was too wide, and would steal too much of my leg space. (i'm 6ft 2" tall)
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[cris_blitz]

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The 2nd attempt





With the speedo and the rpm meters vertically instead of horizontally alligned,
I could make the mushroom smaller and keep more leg space.
The row with gauges right in front of me really looked nice,
till i put the steering wheel back in,
and realized i wouldn't be able to read half of the gauges.
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[cris_blitz]

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The 3rd attempt







Keeping the mushroom smal, and adding some more symmetry,
by giving the console with switches at the left side of the steeing wheel,
exact the same dimensions as the glove box on the passenger side.
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[cris_blitz]

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While waiting for the carbon fiber, aluminum, immitation leather and carpet I ordered,
I made an L shaped fiberglass cover to hide the bolts and nuts that keep the body on the chassis.







Meanwhile also testing if I could fit speakers in the corners in the front.
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[cris_blitz]

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The carbon fiber arrived (the real stuff, not some glue on immitation).

I started with the switch panel console and the glove box door :



Putting epoxy over them




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[cris_blitz]

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Sanding them







The bottom picture shows there's more epoxy needed.
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[cris_blitz]

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More epoxy, more sanding, more epoxy, more sanding, and fine sanding,
then they looked like this :






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[cris_blitz]

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Same thing for the center console mushroom :






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[cris_blitz]

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Meanwhile I already made the muschroom fiit on the rest of the dashboard :




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[cris_blitz]

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Covering the chassis tunnel wit black carpet,
and shaping some aluminum to serve as a foot rest,
+ another strip to fit under the emergency brake handle :
(the boot was taken from a BMW E30)






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