My Gauge Pod Concept
 

I think there is a serious lack of options in the way of gauge pods for those of us with NAV. A-Pillar pods are ugly and ricey IMO, but I like the placement of the R-magic unit. Except the gauges look terrible, as they are not recessed and the panel is expensive and takes months and months to get.

So I'm going to make my own. Below is a layout, using a couple dip can lids and some play dough (hey, it does its job!!). The lids are the exact diameter of the gauges I plan to use, 60mm Defi BF's (the outer diameter is slightly larger however, 2-5/8") The play dough you see brings the face of the new panel flush with the rest of the dash (as the ashtray door is recessed quite a bit), and the gauges will be flushed into the compound curves and lie flat on an imaginary plane. The r-magic pod has the gauges slightly cantered out, which I don't like either. The look I am going for is similar to the way the shifter ring (which is a flat plan) is flushed into the plastic over the transmission tunnel (look at the way more of the ring is exposed on the sides as opposed to front/back). My pod will be similar with more of the gauge bezel exposed on the outsides that the insides. My model shows this perfectly, but my digicam batteries dies so I was only able to snap off one pic. :( It's sat for a few days, since the cracks you see from the drying

I originally planned to just fill the volume where the play dough is with bondo, sand it perfectly flush with the dash, drill two 2-5/8" holes and mount the gauges on a flat piece of thin plastic behind the door. I'd also grind off the little tab used to lift the door. I did some reading on bondo though, and it doesn't look like it's the best option. It appears as though it would be too difficult to sand flush, which is a key factor in making this thing look OEM. I considered scrapping the entire OEM ashtray and making my own panel from fiberglass, but then I would lose my mount points. If anyone has used any sort of resin that's easy to form, doesn't dry insanely fast, and is easy to sand. Please let me know.

Then comes the problem of matching either the piano black finish, or the rough ABS black finish of the rest of the interior. I know a few people have had sucess getting close to matching these with COTS (that's commercial off the shelf for you non-engineers lol) products. I tried a search, but it's hard to tell what really works just by a picture.

Any input anyone has on this project would be greatly appreciated. Ideally, if this works out well, I'm going to look into having these injection molded and will sell them on here through a vendor or group buy.

...also kind of OT, but how well do those defi BF's in red match the OEM gauges at night? I'm still on the fence about white vs red.

um im lost on your thing but bondo isnt too hard to sand IMO its just time consuming...

Have you seen what Robin Yang has completed?

http://www.hi-impact.org/ryang/modif...x8_custom.html

It's looks well thought out, and I would buy one in a minute :D

I'd like to do that, but you can't fit 60mm gauges in there :(

This is the greatest thing i have ever heard...
"The play dough you see brings the face of the new panel flush with the rest of the dash"

In all seriousness, where is this gauge pod supposed to sit, ash tray?

This looks really great, but not very safe. You really have to take your eyes off the raod to look down at these.

that contraption is the ashtray assembly, so yes. my goal is to have it flush. go look at your ashtray door, it is recessed between 1/4" and 1/2" from the surrounding dash.

and having gauges in the car anywhere is yet another potential item to take your eyes off the road. the car isn't going to be set up in a manner that requires my constant attention to these gauges, but i'd like to be able to keep an eye on them if necessary. the defi's have a warning light and buzzer, as well as logging so really I'd never have to watch them at all on the track. also having them up in my face near the windscreen is a little too fast & furious for my taste. plus I like the security of someone looking in my car and seeing mostly stock, and not a pillar full of gauges which just cries "help yourself to whats under the hood"

Can you elaborate on this? Bondo is used to smooth dented body panels and done right you can't tell it's been puttied. If you look at the bottom part of my unpainted shot you'll notice the bondo feathers nicely. (Note: real "bondo" is actually cheap quality. If you go to an auto repair supply shop you can buy stuff that's much higher in quality where the filler is a fine powder.)

One option might be polyurethane resin. It's a two part plastic resin that will set in about ten minutes. May not be suitable for this application but check out http://www.hi-impact.org/techniques/urethane.html for more details.

You're going to mold the entire ashtray? I think it would be better to mold a replacement ashtray cover that uses the stock "ears" to latch on top and glue to seal the bottom. Customers would have to cut out the inside of the ashtray of course.

From what I've seen in other threads the Defi gauges look like an exact OEM style match. Do a search and you should find pictures.
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this IS pretty cool:

http://www.hi-impact.org/ryang/modif..._custom_4c.jpg

Thanks for the compliment. :) Unfortunately the amount of time required to fabricate one multiplied by my day job hourly rate probably isn't commercially feasible.

True, but you're not supposed to take your eyes off the road in a turn. On track days you have time to safely look during the long straight and in traffic when you're stopped at a light. As epitrochoid mentioned there are idiot lights/buzzers in case something goes seriously wrong.

Actually I think you can. Picture an image of the ashtray looking at it dead on from the side. Now imagine the flat plate inside the ashtray where the gauges fit. The steeper the angle of that plate relative to the ashtray's opening the more height you gain to fit a larger gauge. I hope that makes sense. The only concern at that point is the steeper the angle the greater the chance the gauge will hit the car body underneath. You'd have to double-check clearance with the gauges you want to use to make sure.

Going back to your original design, I think the best way for you to accomplish it is by molding the ashtray cover. Cut the center tab off and bondo that area flush with the rest of the cover. Cut out the gauge holes, insert dip can lids and bondo them in flush. When you make a fiberglass mold, include the side ears so the top will be attached securely.

Keep us informed of your progress and end result. It's always nice to see people working on custom projects.
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I'd love it if someone would produce something like that....

well, I read a review on someone that had filled a few holes in a computer case with bondo, and said it "took all bloody day to sand". I know bondo looks perfect when sanded, prepped and painted properly, which is why I rather this over fiberglass, which IMO is unecessary and too hard to smooth. i have alot of body work tools at my disposal, so if it takes some power to sand it down, I've got it. I think bondo would give me the best, smoothest finish though.

I'm getting the Defi BF's even if I don't go through with this project, because I think theyre the best gauges. I'd like to have something unique that I created to show them off too if possible. If there were good 52mm gauges on the market, i'd consider hiding them away like that.

when i was tossing around the injection molding idea, i considered molding only the lid, as it would be much much cheaper. but then the buyers would have to cut their own ashtary up, and some people dont want to do that. if I did have it molded, it would just be the "lid" and whatever is necessary to get it to mount at the two bolt holes and the two set pins on the top.

have you thought of doing something like that?

Back from the past - I never got anyone to find how Mazda did this. That photo is from a JDM Mazdaspeed Version One car. That's FACTORY - not aftermarket.

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-multimedia-photo-gallery-6/mazdaspeed-navi-gauges-44297/

hell, if i could i would. but like nemesis said, no one's found an easy way to do it without a carpc and a can reader.

Would you still love it if it cost $250 or $300?
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I would buy one for $250 - I can't keep any of my money in my pockets lately it seems :)

I'm struggling where to mought my Innovative AFR gauge right now.

me too...i think the ability to montior AFR is necessary for us, but none of the gauges seem to fit with the interior...I'm considering a pod to mount above the rearview mirror to house a wideband gauge, boost controller, and maybe a remote radar detector display or something. devoid has a setup similar to that...looks real good.

not as much as if it was $100 or less :p

ok, so I think I've found my solution... low-density polystyrene foam. it's similar to what the shape surfboards from by hand. It's pretty rigid, but it sands nicely and is made to soak up the fiberglass resin. I'll flush the panel by hand, drill the holes, and the lay a layer of fiberglass mat over the foam and wrap it around the OEM lid to lock it in place. only problem I forsee is accounting for the thickness of the fiberglass when shaping the foam.

now i just need to find someone that will give me a small piece of the stuff for free lol..most places want a minimum order of $250!!

As long as you love it just enough to fork over $250, that's all that counts. :D
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Now I could be totally wrong on this. But I've always heard you can't use a styrene based foam becuase if you look on the ingrediant list of polyester resin, the primary ingrediant is styrene. Therefor the resin will eat away/dissolve the foam.

Go to a floral shop and get one of those big green foam bricks.

thats what i was trying to think of! lol a floral shop!

Unfortunately that stuff is very porous and structurally quite weak. If you're going to use foam you really need a high density one with small, closed cells. Epitrochoid, look at these foam boards and consider either the pink foam (medium density) or carv-it 50.
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