3d printed gauge pod for the Metro vacuum gauge

[Daox]

This past Christmas, I got a vacuum gauge for the Metro. I am finally getting around to installing it 3 months later.

I wanted to put it in the corner of the gauge cluster, and that would work really nice. But, I would have had to hack up the bezel, and I didn't want to do that. So, here is my solution. I may still tweak the position a bit (by making a new pod). But, for a rough draft, it came out pretty good I think.

Here we have the pod printed out. It is very simple and pretty quick to print which was nice. The far / inside of the slot is recessed to provide clearance for the screw head.





Here we have the gauge fitted into the pod.





I reused one of the two bezel screws to mount the pod. Ideally, I'd like it a bit further to the left. I may reprint a new one with the gauge offset from the mounting point to achieve this. The picture is a bit deceiving though, it doesn't cover the speedometer as much as the picture shows. It does cover up the fuel gauge, but you can see around it if you try.





And, here the gauge is installed.

I haven't hooked it up yet because I'm missing a 1/8" female npt to 1/8" barb fitting and the local store didn't have one in stock. I also have to wire up the lights so I can see it at night.

[MetroMPG]

3d printer = Star Trek replicator! Earl Grey, hot.

How are you going to route the vacuum hose?

[Daox]

That is a good question. I'm hoping to be able to sneak it between the bezel and gauge cluster, then through an existing grommet in the firewall. That would make it a nice clean install. The wires would do the same.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by Daox

That's right, we EcoModders do not need to look at the fuel gauge

[spacemanspif]

Nice! Good lookin piece, Tim.

[gone-ot]

FUEL gauge watching is not manditory with ECOMODDERS...it's strictly optional!

[Daox]

Haha, thanks for the laugh guys. It is a lot of fun playing around with this printer.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

FUEL gauge watching is not manditory with ECOMODDERS...it's strictly optional!

What, you don't navigate with a stopwatch and a map?

[Daox]

Its time for gauge pod mk2! I just picked up a little voltmeter that I want to add. I'm adding it because I want to keep an eye on my voltage since I run an alternator delete, and pretty soon I'll be adding an electric water pump. That stuff combined with winter and just general regard for my batteries life make me want to add the gauge. Yes, I can use my scangauge, but I've found that its about .4V off and that is annoying to me.

Here is the voltmeter. The display is roughly 1/2" tall by 1" wide. I didn't want a huge hulking gauge at all.





I decided the easiest thing was to simply print a new pod out for myself with the voltmeter slapped on the side. Here is the first go around with it.







I slapped an image of my dash into my model to figure out the angle I needed to rotate the voltmeter cutout since the pod doesn't sit horizontally, but at an angle. When I did this I realized that hey, it would be a lot less obstructing to put the voltmeter on the left side. So, I'll move it over and update then.





Sadly, my printer is currently down for maintenance. One of the wires to the heated bed broke and I need to fix it. But, I'm just killing time on lunch at work at this point.

[oil pan 4]

I think you might need some solar panels and an MPPT type charge controller.
My genasun isn't even rated to be used with a single 10 watt panel but its working. On cool days it holds the battery at about 12.7 volts. The optima battery liked to sit at about 12.2v even when the alternator was hooked up before I started adding solar panels.