[Super_Dave]

Progress has been made on the Speedhut Gauge Install.

The Speedhut gauges are a tad smaller OD than the poor NVU gauges. Had I not modified the dash bezel for the NVU gauges, I might have been able to retain the OEM inner silver ring. I might try it on another bezel in the future.

Given the size difference in the OD of the gauges, I modified the dash bezel gauge openings by grinding away the inner lip I left for holding the inner trim ring I was going to use. I was not happy with how the ring edges fit inside the openings, as well. So, I decided to mount them from behind.

After the inner lip as ground away, we hand sanded the inner profile through three grits. Before final finishing of the dash bezel, we will sand one more time.

I filled the back of the Dash Bezel, surrounding the four system gauges, with 5 Minute Epoxy. After setting up for several hours, we sanded the epoxy, and the gauge housings, level with the dash bezel outer perimeter.

The we started laser cutting acrylic holders for the system gauges; making minor adjustments along the way. The goal was to provide enough flexibility to install gauge pairs and allow 360° holder movement to center the gauges in their respective holes.

We also had to make a half circle relief cut to clear the bezel mounting boss. The decision was made to do the relief cut on both the top and bottom gauge holder, making for a more universal fit and eliminate accidentally putting one holder in the wrong location. Once you start epoxying in the holders, you can just go back and redo it.

It took about an hour to test fit and re-cut until we had a fit that was acceptable. In the photos, we have the holders held in place temporarily with double stick tape. The edges are not perfectly lined up but will be in final assembly.

Once mocked up, you can see the gauges fit well and look great. The top of the gauge bezels are flush with the top of the dash bezel, which is the look we were after. We did get some minor sanding scratches on the dash bezel, which look worse that then are, and refinishing the dash bezel will take care of the marks.

We are ready for the final gauge holder processing. We will cut them from .125" Acrylic, and paint the backs with gloss black. The black will show through the clear front, making it look like black acrylic. Once the paint is dry on the back, we will cover the back of the gauge holders with vinyl to protect the paint from scratching off.

Then we will install the gauges and epoxy each holder to the back of the dash bezel. This is where filling the back of the dash comes into play. We needed something for the holders to lay against and the gauge housings were too thin to accommodate any holding technique, let alone provide any adjustment, so filling the voids with epoxy gave a much larger surface for the holders to lay against. We are toying around with laser cutting holes for small screws in the holders and screwing the holders to the epoxy filled back. It would give more options in the case we ever wanted to replace the holders due to damage, or color changes... etc.

Excuse the blurry photos... not sure what happened there. We did try using expandable foam around the two center gauge holes, but in the end, once the outer hard surface was removed, the foam was way too soft to be of any use. So, you can see the dams we are installing, to hold the epoxy around the ribs that are lower that the gauge housings. Once the epoxy hardens, we will repeat the same process from the system gauges and create and install an acrylic gauge holder for the Speedometer and Tachometer. From there, we will refinish the dash bezel and call it good to go.