Dashboard, instruments, steering column, pedals, seats, centre console, door cards, and seat belts are all finished. Each item was a project in itself, taking months of work to carefully prototype and perfect hundreds of separate parts.
The interior for the Gallardo has been such a great project in itself, and there were plenty of challenges along the way. How to create a decent looking steering wheel from foam board or card board? How do I make the instruments? How do I build the seats and capture the form and materials of the real thing? These and more were design challenges I had to work through.
For me, the design challenges are what makes scratch building so enjoyable. For example, initially I had no idea about how I was going to make the steering wheel. I was worried there wasn't going to be a way to make a steering wheel that looked half-decent from the materials I was working with. But after plenty of thought and some experimentation, I found a process that worked. First I cut a small ring from foam board, then I would carefully bevel the edges with a craft knife, then finally paint it matte black. The end result looks great.
To create the speedometer, tachometer, and other dashboard instruments, I used photos of the instruments from a real Gallardo. In Photoshop I edited the images to be the correct size for the model, then printed them on photo paper. Once cut out and glued in place in the dash board, they look just like the real thing.