I had some free time at work last week and after stumbling across an article on this site about how to make cup holders for our third gens it inspired me to make some of my own. I made them out of aluminum but I am contemplating getting them powder coated or painting them black to match my interior. I think they look good as aluminum but I can't really make up my mind. Any suggestions? The quality of the pictures isn't that great, they were taken on my cell phone.

I found that rustoleum textured paint looks alright. No one has ever even noticed the difference in the texture between it and the stock interior.
Here are my crappy cell phone pics, http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/el...es-now-no.html (New gauges, now no dash lights) make your cell phone pics look pretty good, right?

that looks very nice! it's too bad you couldn't weld the cups to the top plate or epoxy them together to eliminate the need for bolts. Is the top plate thick enough to countersink the bolt with a flush head? I'd go black with it, probably the textured finish that gregsz-28 suggested.

I agree on countersinking the bolts and maybe doing a texture or black powder coat to blend in a little better.

Looks great!

The top plate is not thick enough to countersink the bolts.
When I was designing it, originally my plan was to make to make it so that each cup holder would have a lip along the top edge and just rest in place but if I was to do it that way the diameter of the holders would have been significantly smaller and not been able to fit any practical size cups in them.

Not sure if you know what I'm saying, its rather hard to explain

I get what you're saying. did your lathe not fit a larger diameter stock, or was it just not available to you at the time? what is the Inside Diameter of the cupholder you made?

The inside diameter is 2.875".
It fits a large iced cap from tim hortons perfectly. I drink those religiously so I wanted to make sure those fit comfortably. It will fit a medium size beverage from any fast food place. I didnt have a supersized cup to test to see if those fit or not.

I made it on a cnc vertical milling machine. Thats how I was able to put the chevy logo on it as well.

To do it the way I originally intended I would have lost too much space from the lip on the top edge plus the side walls of the cup holder would have been a factor as well. There is only limited room to work with.

Based on the limited space available, I think the way I made them is the best way. Welding it would be the next best option but this way was more cost effective.

If I leave it aluminum the black screws contrast it well. It looks much better in person than it does in the crappy cell pics.

Looks damned good, you might try using a thicker piece of stock for the top, then make a relief cut around the outside of the back to let it sit down flush with the top of the console. Then you could countersink it and flush the heads of the bolts so that it looks factory. I know that is a little simplified, but I've been considering something like that in 1/4" lexan and routing the back like above was the solution that looked like it would work the best for me.

Here comes that inevitable question... is it something you would produce and sell ? Better yet, do you have the exact dimensions or a saved file that someone could try this themselves (if they had a CNC ) ?

....go for black powder coat.

These look pretty good. I like them. Only because my interior scheme is different I am thinking stay with the aluminum look.

You could always scan the stock plate into your computer and open it up for editing for exact dimensions instead of measured dimensions.

I don't know if it would be practical to make and sell them? I think we charge somewhere between $50-75 per hour for machine time(im not sure of the exact #). I think it took me around 3 or 4 hours to make that one. I could cut that time down and probably do it in about 2 hours if not less, if I really wanted to...the 1st one always takes the longest.

I should still have the file at work, I dont imagine anyone would have erased it.

The only real flaw to the design is my radio sticks out kinda far so it interferes with the cups slightly. I havent looked into seeing if I can get a kit to keep my radio from sticking out so far. Now that i think about it, I could probably make something at work.

I'll try and take a good picture this weekend if i remember and if i get around to it with a digital camera.