The Top DSM Community on the Web

For 1990-1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, Plymouth Laser, and Galant VR-4 Owners. Log in to remove most ads.

Please Support STM Tuned
Please Support STM Tuned

Bezel Fabrication

This site may earn a commission from merchant
affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

nlzn

15+ Year Contributor
353
4
Feb 7, 2006
Louisville, Kentucky
So I was thinking about making my own little custom radio bezel (SBR wants like 40+) and Ebay ones are like 15.. but I had some ideas.

I was gonna use a thicker plastic.. but can't find a source that sells sheet plastic locally. I could use sheet metal but I didn't feel like polishing it. I found some lexan but It was in 1/4" thickness and I don't have a saw to cut it handy.

Has anyone ever tried this before? I was considering just brushing fiberglass jelly on some type of backing (aka cardboard, letting it set then painting it.)

Afterwards I was going to measure and cut for my cd player, AFC and then take a circular saw for the Wideband guage. (think its 2 3/4th in. diam)

Anyone have any tips that has more experience working with fiberglass before I start?
Thanks in advance
 
I have used acrylic plastic for many projects around here but I have only found clear or smoked and you an see through both. Anyway I use a fine tooth blade on a vairiable speed jig saw and take my time to cut through it. Doing that and cleaning it with a file should give you the results that you want.
 
You may also want to try sign shops. ie. Fast Sign, Signs Now ect. I have gome to them before and they just gave me scraps of plastic sheets they werer just going to throw away. That is what I made my guage pod and switch panel out of. Now if youre not picky about the colour (like me) its even better. This is what I made out of it. Nothing flashy, but it was what i wanted, its what I had in my mind and it came out good I think. it came red so I just shacker can painted a flat black.

Started out like this

You must be logged in to view this image or video.


Made it out of a template I cut out of cardboard

You must be logged in to view this image or video.


Transfered template to plastic

You must be logged in to view this image or video.


Painted it, drilled the holes. Mounted the guages & switches and this was the final product

You must be logged in to view this image or video.


Now I know its not going to win any cars shows by a long shot. But its functional, it works and I am very pleased with the way it turned out. After all, this is a race car here nothing more.
 
By the time you buy the resin, mat, sandpaper, body filler and paint to properly make a fiberglass (anything) it would be world's cheaper just to cough up the 40 bones, or if money is the problem the 15 for the ebay one.
 
I was going to take some steel and measure out the holes for my car and make it were the CD player (pioneer) will be on the bottom.

I wanted my boost, water temp, and Wideband guages down there.

I hate the A-Piller plus it gets alot of looks.
 
I tried to make a bezel for my 1g.

Well I used that clear lexan you were talking about, and an electric jig saw, it takes patience, you have to do a little by little. Or else your cuts will re-weld them selves back together because of the heat of the blade.
You have to be gentile too, I had a perfect bezel cut, and I had to cut out the inside part of it, and I ended up cracking it.


So my advice... Good luck.
 
Well Iowa doesnt have pressed plates anymore so I think im going to use an old plate off my 90 and use that.
 
I use elmers 1/4" foam board (Walmart) for most of my non structial projects it s cheap, easy to cut, and can be glue'd easy. I then lay 2 layers of FG cloth on. Also to help hold the FG cloth in place I spray 3M super 77 on anything that has sharp corners.
 
I'm going to post some pictures next week.
I always wanted to get good @ painting and fabricating. I was taught to prep and paint, now to fabricate!

I'm going to fool around with a fiberglass mat this week and see what I can do. Then I'll ###### drop a lot of money learning how to carbon fiber :)

It's not about whats cheaper for me in reply to some earlier posts. I just like making stuff :)
 
i got pretty lucky when i made my gauge bezels for under the radio and for the center vent. i am a cnc programmer on a cnc laser cutter! :thumb: my profile pic show them. needless to say, i have made a few things for my car.;)
 
i got pretty lucky when i made my gauge bezels for under the radio and for the center vent. i am a cnc programmer on a cnc laser cutter! :thumb: my profile pic show them. needless to say, i have made a few things for my car.;)

Holy jebus how many gauges do you need?
 
I got mine done. I will take pics of it and show you.

But basically I took my spare radio outer peice and cut the centre section bar out of the middle. sanded it smooth the I took my liscense plate (dont tell the state of iowa) but I measured out the amount I needed for the stereo. cut that amount off and made it flush with the back of the outer peice.

Then I drilled out the hole for the gauge sanded the hole smooth then I painted it black.

Once the paint dried I took some water weld (jb weld product) its a puddy that you nede (sp) until it's one color. I put the plate on the back side and used the water weld and put it on the edges so that it doesnt go anywere.

It looks pretty cool, the only problem is when I was putting the deck and the 3 miles of wideband wires back in it got hung up on the little dowel in radio din.

I will get pic of it up tomarrow. Its not 100% but not bad at all.
 
My car came with some aftermarket head unit, so there was just a blocked space where the rest of the stock radio goes. I removed the plastic which was blocking this, and replaced it with a piece of plexiglass I had cut using a tablesaw and a holesaw, and had painted black. Fits in perfect, no screws or adhesive required, holds 3 gauges (just enough space) and is really easy to wire up for lights on the dimmer switch as you just tap in off the cigarette lighter wires. Doesn't look too terrible either :thumb: If I can get access to a camera I will try to post up a picture or two
 
this was taken with my blackberry but its not 100% done.

but you get the idea

You must be logged in to view this image or video.
 
Well, here's the one that I was working on. I'm still not finished (ran out of body filler), but it should be ready for paint after another coat and some sanding.

I set the mounting rings in at an angle toward the driver, and fixed them in place with JB Weld.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.


You must be logged in to view this image or video.



Then laid a couple layers of fiberglass cloth soaked in resin.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.


You must be logged in to view this image or video.



And this is how it sits with a thin coating of body filler and some sand work.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.
 
Wow, that looks like it will turn out really nice!!

Always been curious, about gauge pods that go into the vents, just wondering if that would block all the air coming from the center vent? or would you put something behind it to block the airflow? Also, would you need to cut a hole somewhere to run the wires/lines out of the vent?
 
99gst racer that looks like it'll be great in the near future. Is that an extra center piece or are you living on the edge?


stefanOst where's your pics man?!


ah I don't have a camera!! my sister took it when she moved to japan.

i'll try to borrow someones, see what i can do :thumb:
 
Support Vendors who Support the DSM Community
Boosted Fabrication ECM Tuning ExtremePSI Fuel Injector Clinic Innovation Products Jacks Transmissions JNZ Tuning Kiggly Racing Morrison Fabrications MyMitsubishiStore.com RixRacing RockAuto RTM Racing STM Tuned

Latest posts

Build Thread Updates

Vendor Updates

Latest Classifieds

Back
Top