GimpyCivic

Well I borrowed my friends camera again to get the pics I needed off (I really need to buy a digicam )

A couple people wanted to see my HM guage bezels.. so here ya go. I decided to do this after I saw a mustang with its AC/Radio removed and bezels in place. He told me he got them for eguages.com, but i looked and they were 20.00 A PIECE!!! Totally unacceptable for a piece of plastic. So I went to my local plastic vendor and luckily they were CLOSED odd as that might sound, because as I was doing a uturn in their parking lot I noticed out back there was a SHITLOAD of scrap abs of all sorts! So I dug through it and found a few big chunks of that swank glossy ABS with the protecting paper still on it! Cost: $0.00

1.) Heres what I started with. The paper on top is the template I came up with after measureing the inside of the radio bezel to a SNUG fit. The wood is the wood template I made using the paper, incase I ever wanted to make another one for someone. The bottom is the piece of 1/4" shiney ABS I then rotozipped in the vice off the wood template. I put the rotozip bit so high that the dull part was against the wood and only guided off it.



2.) I then holesawed some 2 1/8" holes in the wood equally spaced apart and mocked it up in the car... looks like it should work!



3.) Masked the ABS and wood template to each other and used the drill press to make the holes. NOTE: I ended up having to make a second one, always holesaw from the paper side of the ABS.. the heat ***** up the side you want to look decent.



4.) A nice snug fit on the guages, and I bracketed them in. It would be damn hard to have all 3 level i must admit. However i was lucky and i wanted the water guage spun so that 220 degrees was straight up... about the temp where I started to get somewhat concerned





5.) All at home in the dash! The bezel is really snug in there, but to make sure they dont pop out I use a piece of backstrap (like what you'd use to hold a stereo in) and strap it to the dash rail behind them. They aint goin anywhere. The marks you see on it are just finger prints, the ABS itself is a balla-black-gloss.



And there you have it.. about 20 minutes of work and you have yourself a nice lil guage bezel. I like this more than A-piller pods because.. i dunno.. I just don't like anyone to see anything that attracts attention to the car be them ricers or thieves.

I also have one made up for where the AC controls are. EGT and boost will sit up there, and bottom will have water temp, oil temp and oil press. Also some idiot light LED's will be on there for VTEC on/off, and when my water injection is on (the ECU will control my water injection). I just slid those in there for this post. I dont have the AC controls out yet though, so I cant show them. I'll add a post to this when I can/do.

beerbongskickass

Very nice write up. I was unsure of where to put gauges in my 5g also, but you just inspired me to make my own custom ----. I dunno about taking my cd player out though. I would defintely like to see some pics when your other gauges are installed too.

GimpyCivic

Ya, I can understand not wanting to ditch the radio. However this DX will be for track whoring and street terrorism. Hard to hear the radio over open downpipe

leed

lol, Im still rolling with the stock radio in my CRX. Dont use it much, the window is always down anyways. Turbo noises are cool...

Nice cluster BTW.

beerbongskickass

Are the 2 vents right in the middle above the heater and A/C controls only for A/C? I was cranking my heat earlier and it didn't seem like nearly as much heat was coming out of them like the other vents. That's where you putting your other gauges right? I don't have A/C so I might just have to put mine there also.

MakAttack

A/C is for wussies. Soldiers ride around with black leather interior, no a/c and in 100 degree weather.

beerbongskickass

I wish I had A/C... I am a wussy

GimpyCivic

I dunno why yours arent blowing air, thats weird. Maybe the flapper inside the airbox isnt moving right. They should only be putting out air when the 'vent' button is pressed... reguardless if AC or heat is on.

To answer your question tho, the guages will be going where the controls are. I have NO ac or heat on this car anymore.. its compleatly removed now, so those buttons/*****/etc are only just taking up space as I see it.

I'm told auto meter makes a pod that will fit where the vents should be though... so you might wanna look into that if you intend on keeping your heat.

miss-piggy

I have A/C and i wouldnt want it any other way. Humidity sucks!. Oh, by the way, anyone that needs plastic for something like this PM me. ill sell it to you cheap. whole big sheet or ill cut it to size for ya. www.newheremes.com for different colors and ---- and then PM me and ill tell you if i have it in stock. im not ordering it if you just want a 3x6 piece though. :P

MikeJ-2009

Wow, that's cool. I would maybe do a slight angle cut on the top and the bottom and see if I could get the gauges to face slightly upward. That looks sweet though. I bet there's a way to mount the gauges in there and have all of them facing straight. Cool ----, though.