It was time for a little maintenence!

[robszx2sr]

im sooooooooooooooooooooooo jealous congrats i tried to buy the parts while i was stationed over in germany but it was to expensive so i just settled for the clock in the dash which was also expensive the clock alone ran me 250 euro!!

[SVT2RS]

Made some install progress. Missing a bracket for the rear bench to be complete, and waiting on hardware for center console as well. But here's a few pics to give you an idea of what she looks like.

[kipp]

damn those seats look good in there man. good job

[robszx2sr]

are you going to hook up the push button start from the center console??

[ZX3autoxtasy]

pure sex.

[SVT2RS]

Originally Posted by robszx2sr

are you going to hook up the push button start from the center console??

Eventually yes, but I have some other things I want to attend to first. The green button from Ford has a really great feel to it btw, a very well designed push-button mechanism imo.

Yesterday got the front part of the console hooked up. Just waiting on some hardware to finish the rear attachment, but went ahead and bolted on the Sparco ebrake handle. I'll definitely need a shorty shifter and a few more things to finish up the interior, but it looks amazing so far!!







Haha, it was pitch black last night when I finished, I might try to get some better pics in more light sometime, but here's the idea:






The silver, black and blue on the RS seats matches PERFECTLY with the exterior colors, it's redonkulous.

[j20000]

Looks awesome man!!!

Headlights and RS steering wheel and you're set.

[SVT2RS]

Making some strong progress on the custom vent gauge holder. I really want to finish with something that looks stock, so I'll have to make another one with slight changes, but so far, it looks do-able to squeeze two cobalt 2 1/16 gauges into a single vent. I'll be keeping the vent face over them to again retain the stock look in the interior.



I certainly need to work out a few details, like how much of the metal ring I want exposed from the vent cover. Plus once the fitment is complete, I should be able to curve things out for a smoother look.



Nothing is fastened together yet, it's just snuggly snapped together for now. My goal is to be able to easily pull the gauges and vent pod when I need to for cleaning and maintenance, so nothing will be permanently afffixed and I'm reusing most of the stock Ford connection snaps from the original vent housing to bypass having to glue or plastic weld where possible.



I'm waiting for the second cobalt gauge to arrive in the mail to really see them side by side, but again, I'm confident I can get them both quite nicely fitted into that single vent slot this winter. Once I replace the plexi-glass with some stronger plastic and paint it matte black, I think it will really blend in well and not stand out too much. I also need to cut a few angled rings to adjust the gauges to more directly face the driver.

Those cobalt autometer gauges REALLY match the RS speedo and tach almost to perfection.

[SVT3658]

Holy crap there's a hand living in the dash!!

Your car is freaking amazing, but I'm kinda shocked you don't have a short shifter by now with all the other stuff you've done

[SVT2RS]

Originally Posted by SVT3658

Holy crap there's a hand living in the dash!!

Your car is freaking amazing, but I'm kinda shocked you don't have a short shifter by now with all the other stuff you've done

The hand is stock, so I guess it gets to stay

Haha, I have a long list (including a short shifter) to complete in this winter's projects. Thanks for the compliments!

[CheckMyVitals]

Beautify job so far. Last thing needed to tie that all together is some kind of black gauges to replace the SVTs.

You going to shave out the adjustment wheel on the face or leave it there?

[SVT2RS]

Originally Posted by CheckMyVitals

Beautify job so far. Last thing needed to tie that all together is some kind of black gauges to replace the SVTs.

You going to shave out the adjustment wheel on the face or leave it there?

I'm not sure what to do about the SVT auxillary cluster, I kinda like them, and they certainly keep the hints of a "stock" interior alive, so we'll see about what happens to them. As it stands, I'm going to keep the wheel on the vent to mirror the other 3 functional vents and to not draw additional attention to the new cobalt gauges.

[CheckMyVitals]

Yeah, tough decision.

I personally would be shaving the wheel to not have a nonfunctional wheel sitting there. Looks damn nice to have silver, or gloss black bezels, and I don't think anyone would be able to see that they wouldn't be stock. I think it'd look great to get them all smooth, paint them silver, and shave the wheel outta this one.

[cobrawannabe cdw27]

I say set up brackets and hinges and make it rotate the guages! Hell, you've got all winter

[CatMostFeared]

looking good just get a stock bezel off ebay and I'll do you a glass job for a oil pressure and anther gauge or we can do one like mine
http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_i...0022_large.jpg

[Apex clipper]

Crikey! I've owned a FRS for 6 Years...and I'm impressed.

Nice one fella...

[SVT2RS]

Originally Posted by CatMostFeared

looking good just get a stock bezel off ebay and I'll do you a glass job for a oil pressure and anther gauge or we can do one like mine
http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_i...0022_large.jpg

Good call Cat, I've always liked that gauge cluster of yours. If we can find a way to keep the illusion of a stock interior alive, I definitely know you're a good source for quality!! Currently I'll be content with just these two extra ones to monitor the supercharger, but when I add more, we'll be in touch!

Originally Posted by Apex clipper

Crikey! I've owned a FRS for 6 Years...and I'm impressed.

Nice one fella...

Thank you! It's been a fun project to slowly build over the last few years. There are 6-8 people actively assembling with RS exterior panels now, perhaps a few more will pop up soon.

Any pics of your own baby? Well the FRS at least

[Apex clipper]

Originally Posted by SVT2RS

Any pics of your own baby? Well the FRS at least

6+ Years and still besotted.

http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q...llection-1.flv

[SVT2RS]

Made some more progress on the custom vent gauge holder tonight. Got her in for a test fit. It still needs some adjustment left,right,top,bottom... but it is more or less coming along how I wanted it. Once the angles and fitment are to my liking, she'll get a nice smooth fiberglass enclosure to fill in the spaces, then painted black to match the dash and other vents.

[WRCwannabe]

the boost gauge matches the rs cluster very well

[silverbulletst170]

I think this is the pod your looking for

http://www.nomadracing.com/catalog/p...roducts_id=481

[silverbulletst170]

Here also

http://www.autospecialists.co.uk/Per...tegory-52.html

[STiUNDEAD]

I swear those seats are hott. Ill trade you some STi seats Youll have STi in your RS and Ill have RS in my STi! Looks fantastic though.

[SVT2RS]

Originally Posted by silverbulletst170

I think this is the pod your looking for

http://www.nomadracing.com/catalog/p...roducts_id=481

Originally Posted by silverbulletst170

Here also

http://www.autospecialists.co.uk/Per...tegory-52.html

Yea, I've seen those before, plus CaysE now owns a similar vent designed holder. While there are these similar gauge placement vent holders for sale various places, none of them look stock in my opinion. I wanted to make something that will blend in perfectly with the rest of the stock* interior, and a recessed, driver angled gauge pod doesn't exist to my liking that meets that criteria. Hopefully the end product will really be set apart from the others commercially available.

Originally Posted by WRCwannabe

the boost gauge matches the rs cluster very well

Yea, I am really pleased with the Cobalt faces, the oil temp one I have matches perfectly as well. Certainly a nice coincidence that it also has the silver bezel which matches the other RS interior accents as well.

Originally Posted by STiUNDEAD

I swear those seats are hott. Ill trade you some STi seats Youll have STi in your RS and Ill have RS in my STi! Looks fantastic though.

Haha, I'll be getting my own Sti seats soon enough, they come with the car I'm picking up after my degree (a 2007 Aspen white w/ gold BBS wheels). I've enjoyed your cars many photoshoots, are you on some of the Subaru/Scooby forums as well?

[j20000]

You NEED an RS steering wheel!!!