SheepShagger
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2009
- Posts
- 453
I've been wanting to do this for years, but knew how I wanted to do it would be a real pain so kept putting it off. Since my headliner needed replacing, I finally bit the bullet a few months ago and started this project.
I wanted overhead console to hold my switches / gauges and provide a little storage. I also wanted it to be as high as possible and keep the sun visors fully functional (ie work on both front and side).
Build it from 1/4 baltic birch ply. Around the mountings I laminated 2 layers together for extra strength, and 3 layers on the front side lip. Again to keep the rigidity their but keep the overall thickness down. I matched the curve of the windscreen on the face of the console for aesthetics. To get all the curves correct around the A pillars, windscreen & roof it took many templates and countless times fitting and removing.
Next was the sun visors. Since the factory mount is angled their is no way to use the factory visor bolted to the overhead console, if you want to use it for the side window as well as windscreen. Although you can play with it enough so that it would works for the windscreen only. I played with making the part of the console the visor mounts to angled, but decided that would look like crap. Also cutting a massive hold in the console so I could use the OEM mounting location with a spacer, but again didn't like the looks of that. So I ended up making my own mounting brackets for the visors. In pic below you can see I removed the circlip that holds the spring, then threaded the visor bar so I can set my own tension on the spring. This now allowed me to make my own mount, that was simply some tube welded to a plate. Their is also a brass bushing I machined for the inside of the tube that way when you rotate the visor it's nice and smooth and it won't ruin the sun visor tube. This was first test fit.
Once I chamfered the edges and painted, looks just like stock.
Next was switches and gauges. The switch panel is simply sheet ally with holes cutout for the Carling switches. The gauge panel is perspex with some gauge rings stuck to it. This allowed me to angle the gauges down and to the left. Then both painted with stone guard paint to get a similar texture to other plastic parts in the van.
Then onto covering. I used leftover headliner material for most of the console, then some black marine vinyl for the high wear areas.
For mounting, I made 3 brackets. (one by each sun visor mount, and one in the center). Used rivnuts into the roof cross braces. Again, lots of weird angles to get a perfectly flat mounting area.
Then all finished and installed.
I wanted overhead console to hold my switches / gauges and provide a little storage. I also wanted it to be as high as possible and keep the sun visors fully functional (ie work on both front and side).
Build it from 1/4 baltic birch ply. Around the mountings I laminated 2 layers together for extra strength, and 3 layers on the front side lip. Again to keep the rigidity their but keep the overall thickness down. I matched the curve of the windscreen on the face of the console for aesthetics. To get all the curves correct around the A pillars, windscreen & roof it took many templates and countless times fitting and removing.
Next was the sun visors. Since the factory mount is angled their is no way to use the factory visor bolted to the overhead console, if you want to use it for the side window as well as windscreen. Although you can play with it enough so that it would works for the windscreen only. I played with making the part of the console the visor mounts to angled, but decided that would look like crap. Also cutting a massive hold in the console so I could use the OEM mounting location with a spacer, but again didn't like the looks of that. So I ended up making my own mounting brackets for the visors. In pic below you can see I removed the circlip that holds the spring, then threaded the visor bar so I can set my own tension on the spring. This now allowed me to make my own mount, that was simply some tube welded to a plate. Their is also a brass bushing I machined for the inside of the tube that way when you rotate the visor it's nice and smooth and it won't ruin the sun visor tube. This was first test fit.
Once I chamfered the edges and painted, looks just like stock.
Next was switches and gauges. The switch panel is simply sheet ally with holes cutout for the Carling switches. The gauge panel is perspex with some gauge rings stuck to it. This allowed me to angle the gauges down and to the left. Then both painted with stone guard paint to get a similar texture to other plastic parts in the van.
Then onto covering. I used leftover headliner material for most of the console, then some black marine vinyl for the high wear areas.
For mounting, I made 3 brackets. (one by each sun visor mount, and one in the center). Used rivnuts into the roof cross braces. Again, lots of weird angles to get a perfectly flat mounting area.
Then all finished and installed.
