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Brad D's Laser cut hvac and gauge panel


The Infidel

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I saw one of these the other night and I was amazed at the quality of it and to just have it. The OEM panels are getting harder and harder to find in useable shape and some of us need more gauge location options. I personally refuse to use a gauge pillar pod, or screw one into my dash. I did a search and found the creator but he has long been inactive on the forum, nor could I find open published CAD files for the panel. So I contacted him using the email system on the forum (which I thought was a long shot!) and he replied. Brad provided me with the CAD files and the ok to publish them on the forum for everyone else's use.

 

I want to give a big thanks to Brad for passing on the files to the community again years later.

 

I hosted these on rapidshare, its the only place I could think of that would allow me host these for free and be able to upload the whole file. If anyone here has a better suggestion, im all for it! Im not very CAD savvy and the files are in DWG format so I went to download.com and grabbed DWGTrueView program.

 

Two Gauge Ports, HVAC Tracks, Radio Slot

http://rapidshare.com/files/337339983/ZCON_UPDATE.dwg

 

Two Gauge Ports, HVAC Tracks, Three Gauge Ports (NO RADIO SLOT)

http://rapidshare.com/files/337340603/ZCON.dwg

 

Also Brad mentioned that the HVAC controls need to be spaced out 1/4 away from the back of the panel. Which can be done with washers or with making a spacer out of plastic.

Edited by The Infidel
Update.
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I am curious to see this and tried to download it, but rapidshare gives me an error. You should be able to upload them to the downloads section and it will be hosted on hybridz site.

 

What program can I use to open this CAD file. Windows reports that it can not open.

 

Any help.

 

g

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Im not very CAD savvy and the files are in DWG format so I went to download.com and grabbed DWGTrueView program.

 

 

Should answer the how to view the file's questions :mrgreen:.

 

 

Thanks for going out and getting that information, I may put it to use here soon myself when I order my new set of gauges...

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Here's a preview of the 2 gauge design. I couldn't download the 3 gauge design due to Rapidshare being too busy.

 

The files are only 39Kb. If you have trouble hosting them, please email them to me and I will serve them off my website.

 

If you put them in a zip file, you can attach it to a post here, just like you attach images.

preview_thumb.jpg

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Just downloaded both CAD files. I know nothing about CAD, but I sure like this design. Anyone here ready to talk to the designer and begin producing a few of these. If the price were "right", I jump to my PayPal right now. If the price were really "riiiiiight" I'd grab three.

 

One variation on a theme would be to drop the cuts for the stock HVAC and provide a finisher for Vintage Air HVAC cable controls.

 

HeliArc small spacers on the back and be ready to go.

 

G

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Just downloaded both CAD files. I know nothing about CAD, but I sure like this design. Anyone here ready to talk to the designer and begin producing a few of these. If the price were "right", I jump to my PayPal right now. If the price were really "riiiiiight" I'd grab three.

 

One variation on a theme would be to drop the cuts for the stock HVAC and provide a finisher for Vintage Air HVAC cable controls.

 

HeliArc small spacers on the back and be ready to go.

 

G

 

Wouldn't welding them on possibly show through the panel to the front side? I think you could glue them on with epoxy or something... or just wedge them in when you screw it down.

 

Shouldn't cost too much to have this made by any machine shop with a CNC machine/laser cutter/etc....

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  • 5 months later...

Has anyone had these made for them, I was considering doing them in a plastic material, however a local cnc plastic cutter (probably the only one) can only do them in acrylic which I dont know how it would handle to heat, and can only cut them in 1/8" or less. An interesting thing however is he can do them in a variety of transperant acrylics, this could be for those who like clear computer towers possibly?

 

Anyway I wanted to use some material other than metal or wood, which I think narrows it down to plastic.

 

Any thoughts?

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Acrylic sounds interesting, and it can be cut with a router or most any decent rotary tool. I wonder how well paint would stick to it. Acrylic can be bought from places like McMaster for some DIY fun!

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Wow, I REALLY like this idea. You know what would be perfect is one of those panels, but instead of a cut out for the stock radio, a cut out for a retro sound unit:

 

c1cce8f365e0073401168ba4693ce159.jpg

 

http://www.retrosoundusa.com/products/details/id/63

 

I have resorted to the two pod gauge pillar :( But, if this piece comes into production, I will definitely be taking out the pod and placing the gauges in these locations!

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I just printed out the files in a couple templates and will hopefully mark it out and cut in in plexi this week.

 

My setup will be different, as I'll have much push button start, profec, and wideband in the middle instead of the HVAC, as I'm not running any... I'll post pics when I have something worthwhile to show for my playing around... I was going to just measure and make one myself, but this may definitely save time there.

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