anybody ever do fiberglass

[diesel4me2]

as in gauge holders? i went out this morning to get some pics of my wts light setup and my speaker area on top of the dash had fallen down. what a great time for another project. so i made a new gauge holder. how does it look?

 

[dyoung14]

nice

 

[argve]

better save yer mold because you will be making more as soon as folks see this post...

 

[F350farmboy]

You have some patience I can see....I could never make anything good from 'glass.

2 thumbs up!

 

[sle2115]

You are quite the craftsman!

 

[david85]

Please tell me that you kept that OEM 80-86 dash clean of resin

Looks good though, if you could make that into a mold, I think this is a much better idea than a pillar mount pod. I could make something out of aluminum sheet, but it would never have the flowing curves that composite allows.

Would you guys really like to have a dash top pod like this? Wouldn't be hard to make a production mold.

 

[Darrin Tosh]

You're Insane! Pretty sure it will be as nice as the rest of the truck!
Very Cool!

 

[RLDSL]

I love the design. However, unless that's bad lighting, it looks like you have air pockets in between the three pods on the left when pointing up. If you leave it like that ,it will be very brittle and it will eventually crack.

 

[OLDBULL8]

Nice looking job! Looks like it is a permanent mount. Neat.

That 92 truck I bought has a 3 gauge pod in it, don't look home made. The truck is a Centureon Conversion, wonder if they made it as part of the conversion, the pod is removable, just sets on the dash. Haven't seen anything on the market like it. Was looking for a dash mount 3 for my 90. I'm in the process of making a 3 pod for myself.

 

[riotwarrior]

Hey great one that is, I like the design. What size guages does it fit? I am working on a 4 x 2 5/15" A pillar pod for 90 style. If all goes well I'll make a mold n can make units too.

I thought about a dash pod but my ham/scanner and cb external speakers are there....hmmm maybe time for a overhead console to mount the speakers....more on dash...hmmmm

 

[diesel4me2]

thanks guys, my first attempt at "glass", went better then i thought it would. still need to let cure, sand, apply another layer, blend, and paint.

I love the design. However, unless that's bad lighting, it looks like you have air pockets in between the three pods on the left when pointing up. If you leave it like that ,it will be very brittle and it will eventually crack.

i saw those, that was the first layer, i don't know why it did that? open area under them at that spot?

I like the design. What size guages does it fit?

there odd ball size gauges, bigger then auto meter 2 1/16 smaller then there 2.5 (they came with my air system), the two on the ends are for my arb's front and rear, middle three are front- left and right(dual needle), tank pressure, rear- left and right(dual needle)

 

[RLDSL]

thanks guys, my first attempt at "glass", went better then i thought it would. still need to let cure, sand, apply another layer, blend, and paint.


i saw those, that was the first layer, i don't know why it did that? open area under them at that spot?

Basically yes. It looks like you tried to lay up too much resin at once. you need to have everything with a supporting base right under it for the glass to lay up against or you wind up with an air pocket like that. Since you alredy have the pocket and the hard resin underneath, you can build it up carefully now by puncturing each of the pockets and filling them in with a few progressive layers of resin till you top it off and get a smooth finish that you can sand off clean.
I worked my way through high school out in California fixing surf boards in a previous life

 

[ddec4me]

I have been kicking around the idea of doing something very similar lately. I was thinking something along the lines of removable from the dash to make wiring access a little easier. Yours appears attached or is it just sitting there for display purposes?I am impressed with how nicely the actual guage cups look almost looks like it was done using a mold of sorts. I installed guages yesterday but used a cheesy shucks mount till I build something myself. Please keep the pics coming I am truly impressed and would love to see the finished product.

 

[Dsl_Dog_Treat]

Daaaang Chris, you da man!

That's gonna make a nice addition to an awesome ride!

 

[diesel4me2]

thanks for the complements guys

Please tell me that you kept that OEM 80-86 dash clean of resin

apparently you don't know how mad my skills are or how bad my ocd kicks in on projects like this

Yours appears attached or is it just sitting there for display purposes?I am impressed with how nicely the actual guage cups look almost looks like it was done using a mold of sorts.

permanent mount. the gauge cups are a combo of pvc pipe and a metal fixture that fit my odd ball size gauges. standard autometer gauges fit perfectly in, i believe, 2" pvc pipes. don't quote me on it though.


pic time, second skin applied and cured. air pockets cut out. first application of body filler in anticipation of final skin