73-87chevytrucks.com
73-87 Chevy _ GMC Trucks => Interior & Equipment => Topic started by: scorpion on February 24, 2013, 12:01:15 pm
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I've been using some Black 1" HDPE for other projects around the shop and noticed the other day that the surface texture is similar to that of the factory cluster panel ('74 chevy) and wondered if anyone has made their own using plastic before. I've searched the net and can't find a single thread about anyone doing so which surprises me. Anyone here ever heard of someone doing it before? Seems it wouldn't be that difficult only time consuming. Thanks.
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I would think the time involved to cast your own plastic cluster would not be worth it, unless you plan on going into production and sell them.
Moulding plastic for 1 piece would be very time consuming.
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I'm not sure this is allowed.......might get an email from Kapt. I am not selling this, just letting you know that I have a cluster housing out of a '73 that has a bunch of broken tabs. If you pay the shipping, I will give it to you. If you had an extra, maybe you could mess with it and not worry about messing your other one up. Just a thought.
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I would think the time involved to cast your own plastic cluster would not be worth it, unless you plan on going into production and sell them.
Moulding plastic for 1 piece would be very time consuming.
Actually I was considering machining one out of 1-inch thick plastic sheet. I originally purchased it to make some end mill trays.
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/25/eje7avun.jpg)
And the texture I was referring to.
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/25/ge9ejyre.jpg)
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I'm not sure this is allowed.......might get an email from Kapt. I am not selling this, just letting you know that I have a cluster housing out of a '73 that has a bunch of broken tabs. If you pay the shipping, I will give it to you. If you had an extra, maybe you could mess with it and not worry about messing your other one up. Just a thought.
Thanks for the offer but I should be able to get measurements off of the one I have in the truck. I should have to do anything destructive to it during the process.
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I'm also a machinist, and that's a great looking end mill tray!
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I'm also a machinist, and that's a great looking end mill tray!
Thanks, I got tired of alack of organization in my tooling drawers and expensive end mills and taps moving around. Decided to do something about it when I ended up with some left over cutting board material.
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/26/aqy9y5y9.jpg)
And the tap drawer...
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/26/yveqaduj.jpg)
So the idea is to machine a dash cluster out of this material. Probably make it out of six pieces and glue them together to make an assembly. Guess no one has seen it done before which surprises me a little. I always have difficulties thinking that, in this day and age, there can be new ideas still. Lol
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Gotta love them Stanley Vidmar cabinets! I have 5 and there such an awesome way to organize things.
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I haven't considered it out of plastic, but I think you would have to do it out of one piece, depending on how you plan to attach them.
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Gotta love them Stanley Vidmar cabinets! I have 5 and there such an awesome way to organize things.
Diffidently the best chests I've had. Wish they were easier to get your hands on used. Seems like everyone knows to grab them when they surface. Gotta be lucky.
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I haven't considered it out of plastic, but I think you would have to do it out of one piece, depending on how you plan to attach them.
The angle change between the center, left, and right of the cluster is the challenge. I figure, at bare minimum, it will have to be three pieces. Not sure how that will look. I almost have all of my gauges so I might try it on one section to see how it turns out. I think the biggest issue would be scratch resistance. Plastic sheet like this is essentially cutting board so it will scratch and gouge unlike the hard plastic of a factory dash. I guess I could use the stuff to machine inserts for the factory dash.
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Are you talking about making a gauge cluster or the bezel?
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There is also and offset on the left where the lower gauges are stepped in.
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Are you talking about making a gauge cluster or the bezel?
Sorry, referring to the bezel. Got the gauges. Lol
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There is also and offset on the left where the lower gauges are stepped in.
Yeah, that's why I was thinking that something like this (obviously an over simplification)
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/28/yzudy8eg.jpg)
Could be three pieces
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/28/enyqy7yp.jpg)
Or 4, 5, or 6 pieces
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/28/3a2aqa6e.jpg)
The benefit of smaller pieces is that making any one piece would be less involved to machine, easier to replace/change in the future (add a switch or need to move something, I mess with only one of the pieces), and would make mistakes easier to fix (if I blow a piece while machining, I don't have to remake the entire dang thing).
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You need a third piece on the Left side. The gauges arent in the same plane.
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You need a third piece on the Left side. The gauges arent in the same plane.
I know the gauges are tilted up slightly in the bezel...I'll have to go sit I front of mine.
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K, trying to figure this out. There are two planes that you may be referring to.
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/03/butamuge.jpg)
Checking the vertical plane, the top and bottom pieces aren't perfectly in the same plane how ever the delta is negligible. Maybe less than 1/8" of daylight at the arrow which trims out to nil at the bottom.
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/03/agururaz.jpg)
I doubt if you were referring to the face of the bezel but I checked it for giggles. Bottom s 20-degrees.
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/03/nedy8enu.jpg)
Top isn't quite that. More like 16-degrees. The measurement could be slightly off for the top because of the fancy woodland camo sticker that's on it.
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/03/a6evu2yg.jpg)
Either way, I doubt if I'd have a problem if I machine the parts in the same plane. It's unlikely that the plastic bezel is perfect anyway. The way it mounts would hide any inconsistency. Think I good there. Is there another one I'm missing?
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I need to get a new dash pad too. When looking around, it appears that (1) many aren't satisfied with some of the alternatives (2) the ones that are good are the OEM pad and the pad sold here for slightly less (3) an alternative is to sand and bondo fill the one I have.
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/03/uze6y6av.jpg)
Option 3 intrigues me because that means there's no great reason why, if I'm already going to make a custom bezel, I have to stick with the given pad and dash layout. I'm thinking I could increase the cluster size and take it out if the passenger side. I would need to relocate the one vent but that shouldn't be a problem. Something like this -
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/03/da8enyze.jpg)
Doing so would allow me the luxury of promoting the stereo up to the main cluster like modern vehicles. It would also allow me to add a gauge or two to the right of the Speedo/Tach assembly. I haven't worked out the cluster layout yet but the added space would be desirable.
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The actual cluster where the gauges mount are on different planes.
(http://www.captkaoscustoms.com/temp/tach-fuel.jpg)
(http://www.73-87chevytrucks.com/techinfo/Dakota/gauge_compare.jpg)
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The actual cluster where the gauges mount are on different planes.
(http://www.captkaoscustoms.com/temp/tach-fuel.jpg)
(http://www.73-87chevytrucks.com/techinfo/Dakota/gauge_compare.jpg)
Oh, right. I think they're like that because of the viewing angle for the driver. I can machine the plastic for the auto meter gauges at a slight angle so they have the same angle if I want. Guess ill have to make one of he panels and see if I like it or not. It wouldn't be much more complicated. Just a setup change.
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Id be interested to see what you come up with
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I'm gathering the parts I need. I'm shooting for starting in a couple of months. I've got to get my trans swap done first so the truck is running again.