A
afholderman
Guest
I purchased a set of mini gauges from partsnmore.com a while back and just went about mounting them up. They came with a basic mounting tab that could be bolted into place of the stock gauges, which I have seen others on this site do before. I personally was not a fan of the look, they stuck out to far for me and well, looked like universal gauges bolted into the stock location. I spent yesterday fabricating up a quick mounting plate and thought I would share a few pictures. I used 22gauge steel sheet that I picked up from the hardware store. I had originally planned to line the edges in door guard strip to finish them, however the strip would not conform to the tight curves. I am going to try to get a hold of some more flexible hose and try that out.
Here is the template I made and the design traced onto the steel. I used snips to cut out the blank. You can see some relief cuts in the photo snipped in there to help cut around the tight corner. I left the tabs long so that I could trim them later.
I clamped the sheet between two scrap pieces of steel and bent the tabs over. I then used a delrin hammer to sharpen the edge
Here you can see the piece after bending the tabs.
The gauges I purchased have one threaded post coming out of the back that serves both to mount and to attach the cable. There are flat spots on the top and bottom to keep the gauges aligned. I didn't take a picture of the holes, but I just drilled them out small and used a round file to widen them laterally.
Here it is mounted up, I painted it flat black to help it blend in with the triple clamp. I had a few stainless acorn nuts around so I reversed the bolt and put them on top to dress it up a bit.
Overall I am happy with the resulting look. The gauges are brought in much tighter and have a more dash like look versus looking like a few gauges hanging out in the air. If I can't get something around the edges I may just flatten out this piece and use it as a template to recreate the design in a thicker material.
Here is the template I made and the design traced onto the steel. I used snips to cut out the blank. You can see some relief cuts in the photo snipped in there to help cut around the tight corner. I left the tabs long so that I could trim them later.
I clamped the sheet between two scrap pieces of steel and bent the tabs over. I then used a delrin hammer to sharpen the edge
Here you can see the piece after bending the tabs.
The gauges I purchased have one threaded post coming out of the back that serves both to mount and to attach the cable. There are flat spots on the top and bottom to keep the gauges aligned. I didn't take a picture of the holes, but I just drilled them out small and used a round file to widen them laterally.
Here it is mounted up, I painted it flat black to help it blend in with the triple clamp. I had a few stainless acorn nuts around so I reversed the bolt and put them on top to dress it up a bit.
Overall I am happy with the resulting look. The gauges are brought in much tighter and have a more dash like look versus looking like a few gauges hanging out in the air. If I can't get something around the edges I may just flatten out this piece and use it as a template to recreate the design in a thicker material.