Customizing a non-rally dash for aftermarket gauges

[dutch]

looking good    I`d love to see it all installed...should be nice & clean   

[Mickm]

Ok, I just received my abs printed gauge sleeves.

These are .100" thick with a lip for mounting the gauge and a lip to match up with the oem abs plastic dash.


This is a isometric view of one of the four smaller gauges.

Here it is lightened in photoshop to give a more accurate visual representation of the part.

Here's a side view of the same sleeve.

Here is the smaller gauge installed.

This is the speedo/tach in its sleeve.

The gauges fit so well they simply click into position and the SpeedHut securing ring tightens down very nicely. Initally, I am very pleased
 
If you look closely you can notice a continuation of small flat faces around the sleeve which I did not put into the design but the printer added. In person they actually look pretty cool and add somewhat of an oem flavor.

Next I will trim the oem gauge panel to the desired depth and fit the sleeves. I'll post pics when that is done but I was excited as the looks of the printed parts and wanted to share.

Cheers!
Mickm

[ToxicWolf]

Looks great.   

[dutch]

sweet!   I really like the way the surface looks.  Very different from lathe work. 

[Mickm]

I thought I would share a  pic of the first gauge I have mounted in the oem panel with the abs printed sleeves.

I had to lighted the photo just a tad as it was too black otherwise.

Here's what it will look like from the back.

I will post the entire panel once I have completed it. Hopefully, by the end of the week.

Thanks,
Mickm

[ToxicWolf]

Looks great. Keep 'em coming.   

[brads70]

Looks great. You could paint the raised bit silver like stock. 

[Mickm]

I finished installing the gauge sleeves today.

I had to trim the oem sleeve twice. The first time there was a small portion of the "half moon" opening at the bottom and it did not look right so I trimmed it back to the tangent edge of the eclipse.
I will have to take the temp and gas gas out of the car to put in this panel to show how it looks with all the gauges. I'l try to do that tonight and show the finished product tomorrow.
I think it is looking pretty good thus far. What do you think?
Cheers!
Mickm

[ToxicWolf]

Looks fantastic.   

[brads70]

Looks great! 

[soundcontrol]

Very nice! What did it cost to print the sleeves? Are the quality of the plastic good? Is it a harder plastic or can it bend some?

[Mickm]

Thanks for the kind words Wolf and Brad

soundcontrol, The company I work for is a member of SEMA and therefore we can get parts printed thru them. I am told all we pay is material cost.
It cost me $120 for the 5 sleeves. I simply made the 3d models, saved as .stl. files and emailed to them. About a week later the parts showed up. They are .10" thick and thus very rigid. After I cut the sleeves off the oem panel I was faced with the overhang of my sleeves being held off by the fillet at the base of the oem sleeve at the dash. I simply chucked my abs sleeves up in my lathe and turned down a internal chamfer that allowed my sleeves to fit perfectly atop this fillet.
I did not try but I do not believe you could bend the printed sleeves.

As for the quality of the printed sleeves. I would say it is excellent! I want to give credit where credit is due, going this route was initially ToxicWolf's idea. I was going to make the sleeves from fiberglass. I am confident Wolf's idea was by far the better approach.

I will share something I learned during this process in case anyone wants to use this approach. I did some research as to the best method of attaching/gluing my sleeves to the oem abs dash. I found out the best approach is to use the material from the oem sleeve that I cut off. Trim it into very tiny pieces, place in a plastic paint cup and cover with acetone. The acetone will dissolve the tiny abs pieces whereby making a thin paste. I laid the oem dash on my work bench (face down), placed the printed abs sleeves in place and secured with a metal bar secured by an set of eagle beak pliers. Then you simply brush on the acetone/plastic paste where the two join and in a matter of a few minutes, they are secured. The acetone/plastic paste works like a plastic welds and actually fuses the two pieces together rather than just gluing them. I though this was very cool. It worked perfectly and did not leave any residue on the front of the gauge panel.

I had to work very late so I did not get out in the garage last night to remove the two remaining gauges but I should be able to tonight. Pictures tomorrow hopefully.

Cheers!
Mickm

[Mickm]

I have been asked to post a pic of the dash with the gauges I have out of the car so they could see what the sleeve looks like with and without the gauge.
So here are a couple

Here's the front from a somewhat headon view

Here's a view from the back. If you notice the area where I painted the plastic mixture looks almost exactly like the original. Maybe they used the same method back in the day???
My plan is to paint the original ring's outter face silver and apply a carbon fiber overlay.

Cheers!
Mickm

[crash340]

That is all looking really, really good, love the idea, as the factory facia is only a cosmetic cover, will the mounting points be strong enough to support it correctly without lossing shape or breaking the tabs once the gauges are in place etc, or are you planning on using the alloy gauge housing to support it somehow?

[moparman82]

Looks awesome man!  How much to print me a set?