Dash Vent Gauge pod
 

Edit: purchase link : r53 gauge pod on shapeways purchase link

R53 dash vent gauge pod: polling interest

Anyone interested in an R53 gauge pod for the dash vent?

I designed one up that replaces part of the mechanism for the factory vent piece.

It is static, does not swivel, and has no ability to "block" the vent port like the oem twist knob.

This is just the first prototype (final will not be in black)

Final will still be 3d printed, but out of nylon. (black) and laser sintered.

Should be fine for those purposes (a gauge pod)

Attachment 194207

Attachment 194208

Attachment 194209

Thoughts?

Oh!

I should mention, Shapeways (where I decided to have the part hosted for purchase) has the part costing ~$25 out of SLS black Nylon + shipping

Still in Beta, so if you buy it now, there are no guarantees if it fits or whatever, as I will be receiving my two in mid March (away on business till late march so I saved some dough and selected the longer delivery time so the pieces were ~$17 ea. )

R53 Mini Gauge Vent Pod. - Part 1 (9TNLBMVCK) by Daley_Engineering

should show a picture of how this installs.

You will need to un-clip the factory swivel mechanism and pop this one in.

part may take some light sanding for fit (I will find out when I get mine)

And should you break your vent getting it apart, you can always just glue it in place...

When you buy new vent pods (from ecs) it includes the vent and the housing that this slides into.

Attachment 194206

They came in!

Perfect fit for these innovate gauges!

so first a few shots as they came in the mail.
did't have to touch them up or anything, they just installed as-is. :D

Attachment 194180

surface detail
Attachment 194181

you could always sand and finish these, but I didn't see the point.

Attachment 194182

OD of gauge to OD of mounting ring
Attachment 194183

one of the two clips that needs to be un-done.
Attachment 194184
I unclipped these by wiggling in a small, sharpened (slighly) flat head screw driver until between the gimbal housing and the gimble mechanism until it was in just far enough to pry ever so slighly, and then eased the gimbal out of it's housing.

Did it one side at a time. Thankfully the gimbal is flexible enough to make this easy-ish (if you are careful.. if not you will crack the housing)

donor housing:
Attachment 194185

if you can get an edge of the adheesive peeled up, the foam comes off fairly mess free and pretty easily. took less than 2 minutes / gauge to clean them up.

Attachment 194186

Mount installed:
Attachment 194187

just slides and clips right in place.

gauge installed and back in the dash
Attachment 194188

side profile:
Attachment 194189

and showing the air path

Attachment 194190

TOP job!

Any chance you could send me the design file? I have access to a 3d printer myself.

sure thing.

You should be able to download it from Onshape as I made it a public file.

I would suggest you make it out of nylon and SLS though.

I had no luck with ABS prints - smaller detail than a fortus 400 MC could handle

And on a polyjet the part was too brittle and I had max temperature concerns.

let me know if this link works or not.

you can setup an onshape account for free (if you are a small user)

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/ee...cdce74ce7bb5fb

:thumbsup:

I'm the mechanic in my circle of friends, I'll send my buddy with the printer the link, he's the tech guru, let him see what he can work out. I might order one anyhow, that's a great price.

Nice work, soccerbummer. We decided to try printing one up too. It's PLA, not SLS nylon like the shapeways one you got, but I think it came out really nice. Both of our R53's are not here today, but we'll try installing one soon.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...d5a016744e.jpg


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...93afa7ab57.jpg

If it is cool with you, soccerbummer, then I would be glad to print and ship them for $20. Black is an obvious choice but I have every color under the sun in PLA.

-=Kellen

I don't mind. haha!

If there was a massive market for them still I would sell them, but I don't think it is large enough to worry about that. haha!

If you would like, send me the face OD of your gauges, and the gauge housing OD, and I will adjust the size of that ring so they line up nicely (if you care about such things)

If you are happy with it as-is, then no worries!


Side note: The factory housings are made from ABS plastic.

Should they crack where this new piece is supposed to go in when you remove the gimbal, you can "glue" them back together with acetone, some light pressure, and then let it sit overnight.

Just put acetone onto the joint seam (use a small syringe if you have one. The acetone will actually melt the abs!) and then push the two sides of the crack together. Make sure the acetone gets into the joint crack.

After you have it lightly held together for 24 hours you should be able to clean it up with a little piece of square metal. (some of the melted plastic may have squished out ever so slightly, but it usually scrapes off pretty easily... I used a metal spoon this time I think...)

Post up pictures of how it goes!

-Brad

Looks pretty decent.
We have a FDM machine at work (Fortus 400 MC by Stratasys), but I didn't think some of the detail would come out as nicely as my minimum z height was .005" for that machine, and we usually have it on a .010 slice.

Let me know how the install goes! I just went with the SLS for the dimensional accuracy of the lock tab and the thin fins on the side of the housing.

Oh, and note: the spars on the gauge will be at ~°45, so you will want to clock your gauge before you install everything behind the dash ;) :lol:

I ordered one from Shapeways early last week and surprisingly it showed up super quick! So far the mount looks nice. I'll post some pictures of it installed once its nice enough out to work on the car.

Any update? Pictures of your install?

Happy with it?

Any questions?

Just to make things a little easier, the vent can be removed without removing the dash. Just follow the instructions on the first part of this link.
http://www.p3cars.com/content/pdf/r53-car.pdf
After removal, the gimbal section can be removed as per the instructions in this thread.

Hi you got one in stock ?
I am interested and wondering if this will fit 60mm gauges ?

Ok, I'm definitely interested in getting one of these puppies! Does anyone have detailed instructions on how to install a mechanical boost gauge, I may have overlooked it during my search. I especially need instruction on wire routing with this mounting location.

Are these still available? How about the cad file?

you just have to drill a hole in the vent. I did it with forsner bits, and that is what i would recommend.

use judgement, needs to be far back enough that the wires wont have to kink at a funny angle getting through.

if you want seals, then you also need to plan accordingly with grommets. You can get them from mcmaster.

holes also need to be large enough to fit whatever ends need to go through them (duh) and as for wire routing... it comes out under the dash? Sorry. Dont know how to help you here. You run it like you would run any other wire. Avoid things that it would inhibit movement of, and zip tie them out of the way? I like to use adheesive backed cable tie bases to mount onto flat surfaces, and zip tie edje clips for next to thin pannels, and fir tree clips of holes are available or you feel like drilling.

sorry, but at this point, cutting into factory components that is, i think some self guidance, judgement, and hand skills are needed. It should be fairly self explanatory, and if its not, it may not be something that should be attempted.

if you have done mechanical and electrical plumbing and problemsolving before, this should be a cakewalk.

if not, its a good place to learn. Think through steps kèeping the finished product in mind the whole way. When drilling, treat it like a firearm (what is behind your target?) And plan your wiring rout.

i also suggest removing the knee tray? Whatever the thing that flips doen under the dash is called. It comes out with some fenageling and makes working under the dash easier.

yes. Look at the shapeways link.

I have these exact rings installed in my vents and i'm very happy with them!
Still have the possibility to use the AC/heater and have one of the most OEM-like looks without any annoying pillar pod madness.

They're also top quality, so i can recommend them to anyone :)

Let's see those things!

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...266f1356f8.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...9ac7b2655f.jpg

As you wish :)

These pics were taken with the install, but i'm too lazy to walk outside and make a new one 😜

Damn it, I like that...

Yes, i really love it, at night it's really nice when the gauges have the same red/orange background light.
The only thing i'd like is the Mini OEM style trim: white background with black characters instead of the way it is now.

I could also change the existing speedometer and rev counter to GP style and leave the boost gauge as is :D it would involve quite some work...

Hi everyone,

Maybe a bit late to reply on this post, but I just saw this on instagram and started googling and it got me here.
The link to shape ways isn't working anymore... Could you maybe if you do still have it though, send me the .STL file? I have a printer of my own and would love to ad this to my R53!

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Mitchell Brinkman