Project 'radio blackout'...... done!

[danieldenham]

Well this has been fun.

I will try to write a full guide if people are interested.

I did it all at home with a some sandpaper, a few spray cans and some vinyl sheet.....


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[telum01]

That looks great! I like that is has a more dull shininess to it than the piano black, kind of a restrained glow.

[W1111AM]

amazing job, wow sir! Lots and lots of time an effort put in this !
You have changed the graphics, made your own... Can we see a close up (at night and during the day)?
Thanks for sharing

[spitandpolish]

Looks fantastic, a full write up would be great pls.

[jonby]

agree, looks superb. top effort

[ds2000]

That looks really good.

You're radio on button has been stuck back on upside down

[Neil1300r]

Top effort, but needs metal knobs for the radio / stereo controls.

[Zod]

ds2000 said:

That looks really good.

You're radio on button has been stuck back on upside down

It's the volume knob, so it turns.

[danieldenham]

Some close-ups as requested. The zoomed in camera makes the dust and imperfections much worse than reality!

[danieldenham]

Sadly, I've just deleted some of the photos I was going to post to show progress.... sorry.

1: Remove radio.
2: Unscrew both keypad units, clock and buttons
3: Remove aircon controls by turning each knob to vertical and pulling, then unscrew from back.
4: Carefully, up clip top and bottom half of each keypad


5: With p1500 wet & dry, sand each button and the area around the aircon knobs:
6: With a vinyl cutter design and cut out new icons then transfer them to the buttons & main unit.


7: Spray black
8: Peel vinyl stickers


9: Spray clear lacquer
10: Re-assemble
11: Relax

Edited by danieldenham on Saturday 4th October 18:50

[J12KJR]

Fantastic effort and result you must have the patience of a saint and the hand of a surgeon

[Impasse]

That must have taken HOURS!

[danieldenham]

ds2000 said:

You're radio on button has been stuck back on upside down

I love the idea that having spent hours taking the buttons out, the icons designed, cut, put in exactly the right place, sprayed and finally reassembled, you might think that I would put one button on backwards!

As mentioned above, it is the volume knob and so it turns!!

[W1111AM]

Thanks for posting the close-ups, great applause for your commitment and attention to detail! fonts and scale of numbers have a big impact. What font did you use?
I bet the positioning of all vinyl's was a challenge for centralising. What was the hardest part of doing the exercise for those looking at this, thinking about doing the same?

[danieldenham]

W1111AM said:

What font did you use?

"Century Gothic" which is the font Aston used.

W1111AM said:

I bet the positioning of all vinyl's was a challenge for centralising.

Not really as I made each icon in a box, exactly the same size as the button. Then you simply line up the button with the box, press down and peal off the backing:

For the aircon icons, I cut a circle the same size as the knob and used that to line things up:

W1111AM said:

What was the hardest part of doing the exercise for those looking at this,

Getting the vinyl cut!! I bought a vinyl cutter especially for the job and working out how to use the software, then drawing the icons took me ages!!

W1111AM said:

....thinking about doing the same?

PM me if you want. I'm happy to 'print' out the icons again with the new cutter, if you are happy to contribute a little to the costs.


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Edited by danieldenham on Tuesday 7th October 18:35

[W1111AM]

That is a quality posting Sir, thank you very much for your great work

[GingerMunky]

That is properly impressive!

[Barnezy]

Wow you really wanted a black dash! Good job!

Let's hope grey doesn't come back in to fashion anytime soon

[Stuc77]

Hi I’m new here, looking to do this on my vantage, are you still able to cut the vinyl?

[crispyj]

That’s some quality work. I am interested in a set too.