Digi Dash Mount Fab

[vex]

Got the fuel level gauge in today so I decided to mock it up to verify that I need to move the gauge over a little bit. Here's what the gauge looks like:


I like how the LED and colors came out. Both the buttons and the gauge have the same blue and red color.

Here's the gauge without the illumination:


I think the gauge could stand to come towards the IQ3 by about a 1/16 of an inch. What do you guys think?

[chibikougan]

It does look a little sad all alone over there. I would have to agree.

[vex]

I did an in-car mock up and found out a few things.

You'll notice I still haven't moved the fuel gauge over any (that will be coming here shortly). This is also with the picture taken in my field of vision or in other words directly in my line of site of the IQ3. The angle looks spot on to me.


This is my attempt at getting the view of where my eyes are. Of course this is not a 1:1 translation, but you get a good idea of the visible angle and what not.


Now this is where it starts to get a little aggravating to me.

You can see the cut in the vinyl. But the issue isn't with the vinyl wrapped surround. Watch what happens when I push the dash bezel to it's proper location:

Looks absolutely perfect right? Well... The fix is going to be harder than it looks and I would definitely appreciate some input on how to go about it (will be coming in another post).

Here's a view with the steering wheel, just to ensure everything is easy to read, easy to get to, and at the proper angle.

[vex]

Similar to the picture above, this one is taken where my eyes would normally be.


You can see my thumb is still holding the dash in the proper location. This is because of the following issue with the in-car dash itself:


Note the broken mounting tab. That is the only thing keeping this dash from looking absolutely perfect. I am open to suggestions on how to repair, replace, fix, or otherwise make it better than a broken piece of plastic. The other side is just as bad:


My thoughts on how to fix those tabs is to use some epoxy and some plexi-glass that I have coming to build up virgin material. Mark where the holes fall on the dash and drill the mounting hole. I would then place a metal clip to sandwich the plastic and secure the bezel to the dash. What are your thoughts? Good? Bad? Alternate?

[vex]

The dash underwent a major re-design: The dash is no longer a complicated two piece assembly, but is now a simple 6 piece assembly (see attached for better understanding). I have moved the turn signal locations down and out, moved the buttons closer to the IQ3, moved the fuel gauge closer to the IQ3 as well, and re-arranged the attachment points for the rivets. The result is an easier to produce dash (as in you could probably build this in your garage with some sheet aluminum or steel and a few tools), which I shall be doing this weekend .