FTO AUSTRALIA

Mitsubishi did have a CF option for the centre console, it's a stick on template. It is a very rare option.

Well there you go. Learn something new every day.

i find it very hard to believe its from the factory.... i mean, u can buy those stick ons... howd u know some guy in japan didnt stick it on before u bought it???

The brochure thens to suggest there is one. I have one of the aftermarket stick ons and it is not a perfect fit. This looks as though it fits better. Blondy, does the cf go all the way over the top of the console, or just as far as the 2 gauges???. Also, does it also cover the slight camber around the stereo (looks like it does)???

man i like the pc project. would kick ass , better than any other ice set up. wonder how much it would cost to do something like that

SchumieFan wrote:i find it very hard to believe its from the factory.... ???

It's listed in the Mitsubishi brochure as an option see link above.

SchumieFan wrote:i mean, u can buy those stick ons... howd u know some guy in japan didnt stick it on before u bought it???

Because the quality of the Mitsubishi option is much better and it looks different to the stick ons, it's not a sticker it's very thin plastic that is stuck on using double sided tape.

dstocks wrote:The brochure thens to suggest there is one. I have one of the aftermarket stick ons and it is not a perfect fit. This looks as though it fits better. Blondy, does the cf go all the way over the top of the console, or just as far as the 2 gauges???. Also, does it also cover the slight camber around the stereo (looks like it does)???

No it doesn't cover all of the top part of the centre console only about 10mm it just has a small lip that goes over the top of the gauges. Yes it fits the camber fine.

well cool

Just had a bit of a go at the broken one I have. Seems to plastic weld rather well. Most types of plastic dont actually melt, they peel away from each other rather than joining. The plastic the console is made of does melt though. I have a hot knife attachment on my Soldering iron and it seems to have done a pretty good job of rejoining the bits (the one I attacked was broken in 3 places).

Heres a picture

.

This ones thinner than normal because some bright @#@@##$ that had it before me was too lazy to fit the stereo correctly (just decided to hack the console instead). If you look closely, you can see where it was broken. Seems now to be of a similar strength to what it was before it broke. Bit of a sand and fill and its good as new (well not quite, but good enough).

is it the same shape on all models?

Yes, same on all models.

Well i'm off to buy body filler tomorrow (bondo) and have at it. But I'll stop by jaycar first and try to buy the same sort of attachment for my soldering iron. I'll still need the bondo to get it all flush, but i'd like to have it as strong as possible, so i'll weld the plastic first.

Have a think about a little fibreglass on the back as well, just to give it sone extra strength...

Alright, I have wax and grease remover, car filler, a bunch of plastic utelnsils, sandpaper and a broken surround in front of me. I'll be taking photo's as I go

f**k, this isn't fun. This isn't fun at all.

1. Clean all the pieces with wax and grease remover. Be very careful in this part, it's easy to forget how freaking fragile the piece is. Mine started snapped in about 5 pieces, ended up in 8.

2. Weld the pieces together using a soldering iron, make sure the joins are strong enough to handle the pressure of body filler being applied.

3. Apply body filler.

More to come.

Just an update, it's all in one piece now.

After this round of filler dries i'll continue sanding her up.

sounds as if the danger is nearly past....

Sort of =P It needs more work on the filler, cause it went too thin on one bit and cracked with an attempted fitting. It didn't snap though cause their is lots of filler in the back.

I snapped off the two tabs either side of the stereo, i figure it was a good idea. Broke one off accidently and could of reattached but decided to take them both off.

The bottom part looks great so far, top end still needs a lot of sanding/shaping work.

It's been a few hours of work put in so far, and the big test will come when it's time to paint the thing.

I want to use vinyl dye because it gives the best finish, but I don't know how it will take to the filler. So i'll test it out first on a bit of scrap with filler on it and see if it soaks in. If not i'll have to prime + spray paint which I wanted to avoid because paint can crack and flake, vinyle dye won't.

Here's a few pictures for now, once it's all done and if it looks good i'll do a proper write up, post it on complete FTO.

Car Filler


Wax and Grease


Pieces =)


Soldering Iron Join stage 1


Soldering Iron Join stage 2


All Together Now


Pocmarked Surface for High Adhesion



Carfilller Mix


Rear of the Carfiller joins


Where i'm up to Now

looks ok. you got pics of how you plastic welded it? techniques etc? what does the tip look like for the soldering iron? and last question... how come there are a whole heap of holes on the joins?

Yeah i'll get some more pics up later + proper instructions.

Basically i just placed the pieces together and lightly applied the soldering iron, it's only a 18watter, very low power. Stuck like glue, but the joins only thin so it isn't *that* strong.

There's holes in the joins because after I did my first one I found that it was really easy to "peel" the filler off, it wasn't adhereing to the flat surface. So using the soldering iron I did very small craters, the filler loves that sh*t.

ahhh... i see... then i guess a bit of sanding and paint and she'll be looking a whole heap better!

Oh, and interesting fact for anyone attempting this. the surround over the ciggie lighter is metal.

Be careful when sanding.

I wanted to use vinyl dye on the bastard, but now cause theres exposed metal i'm going to have to use normal spray paint. Alternatively i'll sand off all the black paint, get some silvo polish and shine her up! It would look great with a metal FTO insert to go where the ciggie ashtray is.