Ok, I lied.
I decided to slow down the progress pics to show why it takes all damn day to build what might seem like little more that two bars and some screen to cover it.
The bars were bent some while back after I decided to shi tcan the original console that was integrated into the dash. The caveat to building a console that "floats" is that it will to a certain extent expose any mount structure, or wiring, or the shifter itself if it is built too high. Built too low, and too much of the shifter handle would be exposed. I said earlier, that the design criteria is to have the shifter ball hover about 1/2" over the mesh substrate.
So that is what happened first. I bent two bars, and made a couple of straps that I tacked on the bottom to hold the bars at a certain width apart so that I could fit them to the tunnel. Once that was done, I built permanent mounts at the front and back to hold the "console" at a set height above the floor.
Once I got that stone in stone so to speak, I removed the console so that I could weld the support ribs that the mesh will sit on.
The support rails are made up of that same expensive assed cold rolled 1/4" x 1/8th inch junk I use on top of the mesh as trim. That stuff had to run dead in the middle of the center of the bars, which meant I needed a jig to hold the rail in place while I welded it. Nothing special, I was able to make up some wood spacers that did the job nicely (but it still took the time and tools (which I just happen to have) to do).
Once placed under the bars I was able to tack the rails in place.
* note the pile of tools growing.
Again, easier said than done, the bends at the ends of the bars angle inward, so that meant that I had compound bends in those support rails to hand form while I was tacking all that crap in place.
Once that was done, I trimmed the excess off w/ a cutoff wheel, and started the arduous process of drilling and tapping (how many holes do you spose?)..............
a bagillion holes in top of the trim steel so as to sandwich the steel mesh between the top and bottom. (Each rail got 13 holes actually) 26 holes in total. 26 holes that had to be drilled, and tapped, then the top had to be drilled one size larger, and countersunk to allow a 4-40 machine screw to pass through and recess flush into the top piece. Of course as my luck goes w/ taps, I broke the piece of s hit off while on the 12th hole on the one side.
*** Note to self......taps are fragile! quit trying to use a weenie little puke of a tap as a lever to "shift" the mesh when you can't get one of the stinking screws into the hole.
***** Second Note to self. Buy more than one tap.
I didn't even bother trying to go to Home Depot looking for a 4-40 tap, so I marched along, and went about fitting the bars back into the car to get the hole for the shifter handle cut out.
I just eyeballed where the shifter handle wanted to come through, which was fairly easy considering you can see right through the mesh, so I marked it and cut out the rectangle that is the shifter handle.
The ball was almost the cause of another meltdown though as it had to be drilled out, and tapped up to the 1/2-20 size of the shifter. You'd think that I'd know that aluminum, and steel are potential gall points, but for whatever reason, I chose to screw that dude all the way down on the shifter w/o the benefit of any anti-sieze when I fitted it the first time. Now that I needed to remove it, you could tell that it was in fact gonna sieze on the handle. So I removed the console, removed the shifter, sprayed some WD-40 in the ball, and started the slow process of working it down the threads. I managed to get it off, but it took some threads with it. I retapped the hole, put the shifter back down, put the console in place, and laid the mesh in place. I applied some anti-sieze to the threads of the handle, and screwed that dude on there.
What's still missing from the console are the two cupholders, and the Dakota Digital gear position indicator, which is a little square piece of billet aluminum w/ red letters on it. (Like I needed to spend 250.00 to know that I'm in reverse). I'm also gonna have to extend the slot to allow the shifter to move back and forth. That resulting hole will mandate that I create some sort of 1/8th-1/4" thick piece of alum trim plate that will finish out the slot, after which the shifter ball will look like it is right on top of the console after that.
Of course the trim isn't installed in the pic either, but you can see the holes on the one side that were drilled up until I broke off that stinkin' tap. Even the freakin cupholders are custom, hand built things in this car,.......I doubt it'll ever get done.