07 AC Controls
I may have pictures this week - backside (the hard part) is done, fitted, and works. Now we just need to set up the front side and cut it up. We may actually do a couple versions, since the front side is a lot easier.
Oh, and it looks like we will be using fiber-optics for the lighting - can't skimp on quality you know...
Oh, and it looks like we will be using fiber-optics for the lighting - can't skimp on quality you know...
Me too. Been waiting on their version. Hope it is solid circle like
a few others i've seen. Dont really like the shape the originals are but the solid circle looks best in my opinion. Also to have the light in red or blue would make really above all others.
Any idea about price point.
Want the manual boot skirt to.
a few others i've seen. Dont really like the shape the originals are but the solid circle looks best in my opinion. Also to have the light in red or blue would make really above all others.
Any idea about price point.
Want the manual boot skirt to.
All I can say is...
Wow.
I am very happy with them - just finished running some prototypes today. They are "in the raw" at the moment, and we need some special inserts to add a radius to one spot on the piece to make it flow better appearance-wise, but the overall look is really nice (of course that's my opinion, biased as it may be).
The first design I did I wasn't 100% happy with, it was good, but not great. This design I think really hits a strong balance between modern car and hot rod for looks, and it goes well with our other pieces as well.
It is not a solid circle design - that was tried as well, but it needed to be too tall to be functional - I was thinking along the lines of a home stereo volume **** with a ball dimple where the light goes, but it didn't work out here - it would have needed to be about another 1/2" tall, and then starts being too "much" in that area of the car. At what I thought was the right height, they were not very functional, especially for people in winter driving with gloves on (not that it happens here in FL, but we do try and design for it.)
I have to clean up a few of these a bit, but I will get pictures of the prototypes up this week.
As to colored light inserts - you can, but... the LED's the factory uses are green, and so any colored fiber-optic you add will distort the color towards the green spectrum. I'm waiting on some clear samples to come back from the fiber-optic supplier, and then can play with them, as well as the diameter of the light (from 1.0-4.0 mm) to see what works well at night without being over-bearing.
Price point - we're doing our best to keep them under 50.00 retail, although each set is currently running around 1/2 hour of machine time alone, no material, tooling, finishing, plating, etc... added into that, and although the cutters are pretty much "off the shelf" there are I think currently 12 different tools in two machines to make this happen - definitely more involved than the 05-06 ****.
Our version of the 05-06 piece will be along soon too, and will from the outside look the same as this piece, although it obviously will mount differently to the shaft assembly. Hope to be within about 10.00 of our contemporaries regarding price to stay in the game on those.
Wow.

I am very happy with them - just finished running some prototypes today. They are "in the raw" at the moment, and we need some special inserts to add a radius to one spot on the piece to make it flow better appearance-wise, but the overall look is really nice (of course that's my opinion, biased as it may be).
The first design I did I wasn't 100% happy with, it was good, but not great. This design I think really hits a strong balance between modern car and hot rod for looks, and it goes well with our other pieces as well.
It is not a solid circle design - that was tried as well, but it needed to be too tall to be functional - I was thinking along the lines of a home stereo volume **** with a ball dimple where the light goes, but it didn't work out here - it would have needed to be about another 1/2" tall, and then starts being too "much" in that area of the car. At what I thought was the right height, they were not very functional, especially for people in winter driving with gloves on (not that it happens here in FL, but we do try and design for it.)
I have to clean up a few of these a bit, but I will get pictures of the prototypes up this week.
As to colored light inserts - you can, but... the LED's the factory uses are green, and so any colored fiber-optic you add will distort the color towards the green spectrum. I'm waiting on some clear samples to come back from the fiber-optic supplier, and then can play with them, as well as the diameter of the light (from 1.0-4.0 mm) to see what works well at night without being over-bearing.
Price point - we're doing our best to keep them under 50.00 retail, although each set is currently running around 1/2 hour of machine time alone, no material, tooling, finishing, plating, etc... added into that, and although the cutters are pretty much "off the shelf" there are I think currently 12 different tools in two machines to make this happen - definitely more involved than the 05-06 ****.
Our version of the 05-06 piece will be along soon too, and will from the outside look the same as this piece, although it obviously will mount differently to the shaft assembly. Hope to be within about 10.00 of our contemporaries regarding price to stay in the game on those.
Here we go... :)
As promised, the first couple of pictures of the 2007+ A/C **** replacements. Be aware that these are "raw" photos - the parts have not gone for polishing / anodizing, etc.. this is how they came off the machine.
Dis-assembly of the head unit is required for installation, but we'll put together some good step-by-step directions to get it done without too much hassle. These are not "stick-on" covers, as I just don't like going that route if there is any way around it, especially on billet parts like this.
We'll probably start production in the next week or two to get these rolling for everyone. Our 2005-2006 pieces will externally look the same, but are not slated to start production until after the first run of 2007 pieces is done.
As always, opinions are welcome.
Dis-assembly of the head unit is required for installation, but we'll put together some good step-by-step directions to get it done without too much hassle. These are not "stick-on" covers, as I just don't like going that route if there is any way around it, especially on billet parts like this.
We'll probably start production in the next week or two to get these rolling for everyone. Our 2005-2006 pieces will externally look the same, but are not slated to start production until after the first run of 2007 pieces is done.
As always, opinions are welcome.
Looks really good!
It's just that "dis-assembly of the head unit" sounds rather involved?
I do like the looks though!
It's just that "dis-assembly of the head unit" sounds rather involved?
I do like the looks though!
As promised, the first couple of pictures of the 2007+ A/C **** replacements. Be aware that these are "raw" photos - the parts have not gone for polishing / anodizing, etc.. this is how they came off the machine.
Dis-assembly of the head unit is required for installation, but we'll put together some good step-by-step directions to get it done without too much hassle. These are not "stick-on" covers, as I just don't like going that route if there is any way around it, especially on billet parts like this.
We'll probably start production in the next week or two to get these rolling for everyone. Our 2005-2006 pieces will externally look the same, but are not slated to start production until after the first run of 2007 pieces is done.
As always, opinions are welcome.
Dis-assembly of the head unit is required for installation, but we'll put together some good step-by-step directions to get it done without too much hassle. These are not "stick-on" covers, as I just don't like going that route if there is any way around it, especially on billet parts like this.
We'll probably start production in the next week or two to get these rolling for everyone. Our 2005-2006 pieces will externally look the same, but are not slated to start production until after the first run of 2007 pieces is done.
As always, opinions are welcome.
It all depends on how hard they are to install. Dis-assembly of the head unit?? I really hate taking stuff like that apart, seems to always get a rattle when put back together. LOL. But we will see. Hope that is comes with some very good instructions.
It's not that bad - I did it in the den when I received the head from Ford in about 20 minutes, no instructions. It takes a mini-torx bit, that's about the worst of it, otherwise it is pretty straightforward, like replacing lights in an old-school instrument cluster.
We'll do a step-by-step write-up as usual with photos for the instructions we put in the kits, and post them in PDF to our website before we start shipping / setting them up for orders.
One thing to mention - there is going to be a radius on our part not shown in those two images, to help "blend" the stalk with the body - we needed a special cutter for it and didn't have one handy, but I'll post a couple more shots as soon as it comes in and we cut some more samples.
We'll do a step-by-step write-up as usual with photos for the instructions we put in the kits, and post them in PDF to our website before we start shipping / setting them up for orders.
One thing to mention - there is going to be a radius on our part not shown in those two images, to help "blend" the stalk with the body - we needed a special cutter for it and didn't have one handy, but I'll post a couple more shots as soon as it comes in and we cut some more samples.



