Thanks heaps guys. It's coming along. Rego? Ah yeah that was my bad... Got my dates mixed up a few months ago so no. Probably going to get the whole car reengineered and blue slipped at the same time.
Next project coming to a close. I like this "do one thing until it's finished" approach, it works well. As many of you know gauge placement in our cars is a pain in the ass. There are very few places in the interior that are open for "clean" installations and there's no way I'm just going to screw holders on top of the dash. Here's my last install which honestly wasn't bad - looked slick, placement was great for visibility but two things bothered me considerably. The first was that if a globe ever blew - dash out. Secondly the simple premise of cutting a whole in the dash and tacking something on top just didn't sit well with me. Looked good in the end and the holder fit surprisingly well but it still irked me. When the dash came out for rewiring/seam welding I started weighing up my options. As an alternate option three gauges mounted in the din slot makes for a great use of space (who needs two din slots?) but I didn't like how low down the viewing angle is. So I put together an idea, checked/measured thrice for feasibility and... busted out the grinder. Here's the idea: relocate air con vents to upper din slot, mount gauge holder in initial place of air vents, fabricate new ducting to suit new vent placement and bob's your uncle. The gauge holder I selected was much smaller than the air con vents, so in order to minimise work required I cut the vents from a spare doner piece. All plastic welded up here and ground back. Both sides of the join were plastic for the most strength. With the vent center beam cut out and small trims to either side of the gauge holder all pieced together. The gauge holder itself is from 300 Degree and is designed specifically to fit in the lower din slot of a LHD Z32. It's odd that out of any design on the market this is the one I ended up with, but it's the exact design I was after - and it's also plastic. I was hoping to weld it in too, but no dice. I don't know which plastics weld and which don't but this one just didn't want to play ball. While the gauge holder specific was pretty much fixed, the height placement of the vents was very deliberate in order to try and avoid big open spaces on the trim piece. The holder was fixed in place with copious amounts of epoxy, then filler added and shaped to uniform the appearance. It's great not having to worry about moisture or (relevant) vibration when considering your filler! Something I failed to anticipate was having to close off the dips to either side of the holder - filler strips (they looked like saxophone reeds heh) were made up and epoxy'd on before being welded on the sides. I was hoping to keep the strength of the original structure supporting the gauges in place, rather than cut out the plastic below. Few rounds of filler, a bunch of sanding and voila Bloody satisfying eyeing off perfectly smooth feathering from filler to base material after a whole lot of sanding... also gives you an idea of how consistant a finish plastic welding with a regular soldering tip gets. A flat welding tip would get much better results. Few coats of high fill then some regular primer and here we are. Quick shot showing the gauge angling towards the driver. Might add a set of spacer rings to point them more level if necessary. Very conveniently (and rather awesomely) the factory vent that bolts to the rear of the bezel can un-clip and split in two. It will then bolt on to each single channel in the new location separately, like it was designed that way. The ducting to these two vents will have to be made up once I have the dash back in the car. Plenty of instrument clearance; Quick mock up with three gauges I had handy. There was about 10-12 hours in total for this project. Not too bad and nice and leisurely all carried out while sitting down Fair to say I'm pretty chuffed with the result. Well worth the effort. -A
Very nice, going to feel really good whenever you glance at the gauges in that position and think 'yep, i did that'.
Looks really good anti. Only issue I for see is getting a nice finish on the finished part. IMHO, that's where all the custom jobs fall short, the final finish isn't up too scratch.....
Thanks G! You're right Ross, that's why I only went so far as to prime the finished result. I'll get it professionally painted to make sure it comes out top notch. As for the finish, I am currently undecided - OEM satin black would of course look the part, but a big part of me wants to have it coated in genuine carbon fibre. the real stuff, none of that vinyl or hydro-dipping fake crap. I've wanted to splash some real CF around the interior for a while now, and the recent sale of my seats means I'll soon be ordering my dream replacements, complete with CF backing. the TK Recaros never even made it into the car...
Anti, Love it, could you give me a little insight on the method your using to plastic weld? you're having some great results! Josh
surround looks awesome man well done mine had been done prev similiar. top section same , but i still left middle section for headunit and bottom one holds the ecutalk nice work man
Thank you for the compliments guys, glad to hear it. Been a long time but I have a minor update. New work schedule has been beyond hectic and until today I hadn't even sat at my computer in days. I did a test fit of the gauge holder in my buddy's car and wasn't entirely happy with something; the meter faces aim at almost a 45* angle (same as the dash angle obviously). I figured this would be the case (thus the test fit) and resolved to pick up some angling gauge rings. I told myself I'd do it right and not just cheap out and slash cut some PCV pipe. All said and done god damn do I wish I just cheaped out and slash cut some PCV pipe. The Autometer rings I ordered were too thick to be spaced as closely together as required by the 300 Degree holder. This of course meant thinning them out using my lathe (35 year old corded hammer drill equipped with a 50mm hole saw slathered in masking tape and clamped in a bench vice with the gauge holder jammed onto it. Apply sand paper and earmuffs as necessary); Clean up as necessary with a linisher ($40 belt sander clamped in 40 year old smaller bench vice); Before, after Rotating the gauge angle relative to the trim piece meant carving the face of the gauge holder into a slight ellipse. Not a fun thought considering the angling rings deliberately weren't molded in to increase positioning. Luckily the gauge face lip was wide enough to cover this when fitted without the rings. Fitting nicely but too much protrusion. It irked me how much the angling rings detracted from the smoothness of the holder. Que the shortening. Done and dusted. 3 hours of work (on and off) and by **** do I wish I just slash cut some PCV. Just recently I picked up a new daily that I've been putting most of what very little wrench time I have into. Very short to-do list on this that I'm getting out of the way ASAP so I can leave it alone unless I'm going somewhere and revert to time dumping the Zed. Been wanting one of these for years and good to get back on the road with something housing some haste. I'm doing a an after market tail, low exiting shorty pipe, carburetor rejet/dynotune and a few other bits and bobs. Nothing crazy. In other news my Tommy K Recaros have been sold and gone to their new home (never even made it to the car) and my dream seats ordered and paid. No show yet but it shouldn't be too long. They are carbon fibre backed VeilSide VSD1-Rs. I have always wanted these, picking up the Tommy Ks simply because they were offered to me as a straight swap for my OEM SR2s. Also swallowed my discontent and ordered a set of Jun 264/9.5* camshafts. They're pretty god damn overpriced (1.7k delivered) but can't be beaten. Pretty much past the point of no return anyway. Lastly, landed this for a song. Haven't sorted out my oil cooler yet (two or three considerations currently) but this will mount well in my driver's fender well along the frame rail; the new route for the cooler plumbing. Should be back on the Zed regularly in a month or so. Doing the best I can with the free time I have for the moment. -A
Nice job on all fronts. Again your car will be a collection of mad shit. Not a fan of the 350z thing on the dash though. That centre panel is boss nice work.
