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Dave, they both look awesome! Do/will they have all the associated mounting points (ie, as the OEM has where the clips are near the top)? Will you show the rear of both as well? Love to see them finished/installed, just to see how they look. If you get a second XF, you can have both options. I happen to like the one where the switches are on the console, it just looks 'sexier'... Of course, at our age, sexier isn't as much a consideration (then again, we do LOVE the XF as a sexy automobile!).
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The MK1 version uses all the OEM attachment points, two screws and the clips with the cutdown ashtray module using the four OEM screws. The sleeve is held in with four screws in the top surface so that the head unit weight is carried by the console frame only.
The MK2 version uses the two screws and the clips and is held in place further by rather sleeve flange. Again the weight is carried by the console frame. It is very solid and the gear shift bezel fits under the main bezel and held in with the OEM screws.
The armrest bezel is the part I am most pleased with, the buttons are well recessed and it looks neat, other attempts at this do not look so pleasing to my eyes anyway. It was quite tricky to make and fit together, plenty of trimming, routing and filing. The two main parts held together by the close fit for cementing together.
I will add photos of the rears.
Last edited by onehundred80; Oct 27, 2019 at 02:42 PM.
The MK1 version uses all the OEM attachment points, two screws and the clips with the cutdown ashtray module using the four OEM screws. The sleeve is held in with four screws in the top surface so that the head unit weight is carried by the console frame only.
The MK2 version uses the two screws and the clips and is held in place further by rather sleeve flange. Again the weight is carried by the console frame. It is very solid and the gear shift bezel fits under the main bezel and held in with the OEM screws.
The armrest bezel is the part I am most pleased with, the buttons are well recessed and it looks neat, other attempts at this do not look so pleasing to my eyes anyway. It was quite tricky to make and fit together, plenty of trimming, routing and filing. The two main parts held together by the close fit for cementing together.
I will add photos of the rears.
Quite the labor of love there Dave! You should buy a second car and have each one installed. OR, maybe save the one you don't use for a spare if something happens to the first one. You did a GREAT job!
On this floor mat the carpet is separating from the rubber base. I sprayed generic aerosol contact glue on it and and that kept the carpet in place for a couple months but its come off again. Does anyone have an idea what kind of glue I can use to keep it attached permanently?
On this floor mat the carpet is separating from the rubber base. I sprayed generic aerosol contact glue on it and and that kept the carpet in place for a couple months but its come off again. Does anyone have an idea what kind of glue I can use to keep it attached permanently?
Might try using the spray adhesive type for re-attaching headliner material to the support board.
I sprayed my double DIN bezels, MK1 and MK2 versions with primer coats, which showed where some further filling is required.
Really looking forward to seeing the finished product installed in the car. Very nice DIY mod, Dave!!! Much more than I would have undertaken. Attention to detail is amazing!!
Here in the Midwest most of us unfortunately need to park our Crossfires during the winter Although I have a heated garage at my house I am fortunate to have a friend and fellow Crossfire owner who has a Motor Condo only 10 minutes from my house. It is a climate controlled environment kept at 60+ degrees all winter Last year was my first year storing my Roadster here and it went back again today for the winter months It is parked along with his 2 SRT's I drove it 8275 miles this year since the beginning of April.
Very nice and very nice of him letting you store it there. But of the 3 i like the crossfire the most, but we wont tell him lol. Although his 2 are very nice also
Progress so far. Still a lot more wiring to do
Some of you may remember a while back that I built a tablet into my center dash and an LCD into my gauge cluster. Over the past month, I decided to upgrade both so I can better integrate the two together and with the car.
I have the new tablet installed for the most part and just need to make a couple of more pieces. After that, its just painting and some cosmetics.
In this version, I also made a spot that I can stick my phone into (the slot under the left side of the tablet). When the phone is in this slot, it will wirelessly charge so i dont have to worry about having my charger cable with me. I originally integrated the wireless charger into my center console where the cup holder used to be but I didn't like my phone sticking out there since that is where I usually rest my arm. The two USB ports do connect to the tablets interface but also support quick charging for devices that are plugged in
Dont mind the mess, this is just a rough fitment right now to make sure everything will mesh together as well as a couple of modifications in progress. If your curious why the ignition key cylinder is empty, I converted the car a while back to a PKE system that has a push to start button where the key hole usually is. No I didn't steal the car A rough fitment of the new tablet. Dont mind the mess. I have a couple of projects going on all at once
Behind the scenes of the touch screen if you are curious. I wired two high gain wifi antennas directly to the tablet to allow me to connect to it easier than the last version I had which was using the stock antenna. Since this picture, I have also added a bigger heatsink for the processor and a GPS patch antenna rather than the original one built into the bezel of the tablet.
The board in the red box is a DC/DC converter which replaces the tablet battery so I dont have to worry about it blowing up on hot summer days. It outputs 4.3V at up to 15 amps to help satisfy the tablets hungry needs at times when multitasking on a bright sunny day. There are also 10 farads of super capacitors under the DC/DC converter to help with the battery drop when the car is starting. This was somethign that bugged me witht he previous install that is now hopefully fixed. As of right now, If I cut the power on the tablet, It will run off the capacitors for about 10 seconds before it cuts out which is more than enoguht time for the car to start. The usb C connector you see to the left will be going to a 10 port high powered usb hub that supports quickcharge for items plugged into it. I used this one on my last install and it worked well so I decided to use it again. I usually have a joycon, sdr radio and DAC (which goes into the original infinity amplifier) connected to it as well as the arduino that connects to the network I previously installed in the car. This connects with the other controllers as well as the new gauge cluster I will be putting in with this. All of the 3d printed parts in all the pictures such as the brackets and area under the touch screen have either been printed out of carbon fiber infused poly-carbonate (grey/black parts) or PTEG (red/white parts) to ensure they withstand the summer heat. The old brackets on the previous install held up extremely well so I decided to go this route again. To glue everything together where needed, I am using Loctite AA349 UV cured adhesive. Although it smells at first, this stuff works amazingly well.
This is my progress as of last night with the gauge cluster integration for the newer control boards I am using. As you can see in the lower picture, the LCD does stick out but it still fits in the dash. There are barely a couple of milometers to spare on the corners. The green board on the left is a can bus to USB converter that will communicate directly with the software for all of the data I can retrieve on the C canbus. The red boards are optos which take the 12V otputs from the things such the indicator lights and allows the to interface with the microcontroller on the black board which is 5V tolerant. As for the fuel level and temperature, I plan to tap into the voltage feedback from the resistive values they produce to get a reading. I left the original LCD's on to help in troubleshooting and to verify the odometer if I ever need to (even though I would have to remove the LCD to do so)
This is the gauge cluster running with random data being fed into it. I will be adjusting the scales such as max RPM's and max MPH when I finally have it installed
Testing the LCD with random data
For the final install, I have a new piece of Plexiglas that I laser cut to go over the LCD install of the one you see that is cracked. I just dont want to mess it up before its time to install it.
As of right now, the entire system goes into a deep sleep and only pulls about 30-100mA (fluctuates depending on what is going on) when the car is off after 15 minutes. I will also be building in an option for long term storage which will turn mostly everything off so I dont drain the battery
I can happily say that this time, I am taking plenty of pictures and making diagrams so once I complete it and get it up and running, I will mostly likely post detailed information. I meant to do this the last time but didnt have enough pictures during the process and didnt want to rip everything back open to take them. Once I confirm it works, I will definitely create a thread this time. Stay tuned!
Progress so far. Still a lot more wiring to do...….. …….For the final install, I have a new piece of Plexiglas that I laser cut to go over the LCD install of the one you see that is cracked. I just dont want to mess it up before its time to install it.
I can happily say that this time, I am taking plenty of pictures and making diagrams so once I complete it and get it up and running, I will mostly likely post detailed information. I meant to do this the last time but didnt have enough pictures during the process and didnt want to rip everything back open to take them. Once I confirm it works, I will definitely create a thread this time. Stay tuned!
Today, I drove my Crossfire around town and looked for a Veteran to honk at.
I will always cherish my 4 years after high school. Wearing the uniform gave me so many things that I still have to this day. In that time I stood on the shoulders of many good souls.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Be vigilant and become part of this fight. And call yourself a Veteran.
Over the last few days: 0-40 Mobil synthetic oil change and fleece filter, Did 8 way passenger power seat upgrade, detailed cockpit and treated all leather, Was going to remove rockers but had a challenge with removing the rear jack pads, so removed all the fasteners and detailed the rockers on the car, wiped down undercarriage, suspension and subframes. Washed and treated convertible roof. Put up on stands and removed tires and wheels. Taking wheels inside to do rim raspberry repairs over the winter. Covered it up with car cover and left battery connected. Decided to start and run once a month while up on blocks. Can hardly wait for that first balmy spring day!
Over the last few days: 0-40 Mobil synthetic oil change and fleece filter, Did 8 way passenger power seat upgrade, detailed cockpit and treated all leather, Was going to remove rockers but had a challenge with removing the rear jack pads, so removed all the fasteners and detailed the rockers on the car, wiped down undercarriage, suspension and subframes. Washed and treated convertible roof. Put up on stands and removed tires and wheels. Taking wheels inside to do rim raspberry repairs over the winter. Covered it up with car cover and left battery connected. Decided to start and run once a month while up on blocks. Can hardly wait for that first balmy spring day!
i was gonna sit mine on blocks but cant decide where to position the blocks can you plz explain hkw you did yiurs
Today, I went out, started at it some, fantasized about driving it, then ripped it apart some more
Then I started the reassembly process of my two month journey. It probably would have been a lot faster if I devoted more time to it but life happens. I ended up taking off two days giving me a 4 day weekend so I can hopefully finish my cluster project once and for all. Im fairly confident I have everything wired that I will need besides hooking the side indicator lights back up on the gauge cluster (which will hopefully be tomorrow). After that, I will be starting the re installation process of my dash and center console. Everything is communicating for the most part and to the point to where I can use it to drive and do the rest of the programming/setup in my free time.
Below is a quick bench (floor) test preview of how it operates. Still more work to do but I am finally making some good progress! The components I am shorting to turn the indicators on are optocouplers. They isolate the 12V circuits from the 5V logic. As you can see in the video, I added capacitive sensors behind the bezel for the headlights. I wanted to have some buttons to hold me over until I put my new steering wheel in but I didn't want to make anything permanent that would cause damage (drilling holes for buttons). They will control things such as the view of the cluster and the trip reset buttons. As you can see, the screen is pretty bright (to the point to where it is washing out the camera). I have added a brightness control that will dim the display at night so it wont hurt my eyes. Im still debating if I want it to sense off the headlights or an ambient light sensor I have installed. Im leaning towards the ambient light sensor because I sometimes drive with my headlights on during the day and I could see that causing issues in direct sunlight and the screen dimming
When I was your age, a modification was dropping a small block chevy and a 4 speed or turbo glide into a '30's vintage car and maybe adding an independent suspension. Go real crazy and chop a top 4 inches. I admire and am amazed at what you are doing. I guess you are the new breed of "street rodder". I wouldn't know where to start! Now I am basically a wash, wax and wrench guy.
From: Key Largo FL . . . The fabulous Florida Keys
Re: What did you do to your Crossfire today?
Originally Posted by rbracy10406
below is a quick bench (floor) test preview of how it operates. Still more work to do but i am finally making some good progress! The components i am shorting to turn the indicators on are optocouplers. They isolate the 12v circuits from the 5v logic. As you can see in the video, i added capacitive sensors behind the bezel for the headlights. I wanted to have some buttons to hold me over until i put my new steering wheel in but i didn't want to make anything permanent that would cause damage (drilling holes for buttons). They will control things such as the view of the cluster and the trip reset buttons. As you can see, the screen is pretty bright (to the point to where it is washing out the camera). I have added a brightness control that will dim the display at night so it wont hurt my eyes. Im still debating if i want it to sense off the headlights or an ambient light sensor i have installed. Im leaning towards the ambient light sensor because i sometimes drive with my headlights on during the day and i could see that causing issues in direct sunlight and the screen dimming
Re: What did you do to your Crossfire today?
Dave, they both look awesome! Do/will they have all the associated mounting points (ie, as the OEM has where the clips are near the top)? Will you show the rear of both as well? Love to see them finished/installed, just to see how they look. If you get a second XF, you can have both options. I happen to like the one where the switches are on the console, it just looks 'sexier'... Of course, at our age, sexier isn't as much a consideration (then again, we do LOVE the XF as a sexy automobile!). 
Re: What did you do to your Crossfire today?
