Gauges in center vent

KristianShuttle

Hi! New to the forum here.

I am wondering if anyone have done a gauge pod that replaces the center vent in a wagon? I have searched the forum, with no luck finding a post on it.
It is important that my interior stay OEM-looking, and that would be the perfect spot for 3 gauges, without it looking to far from stock.

If you have, please do a little write-up on it. Pic would be great!

Thanks!

greenteagod

Well, here in Texas we need the center vent.

I guess a mod like this would depend on whether you're wanting to retain any vent air flow at all or just have it be completely blocked off. Both of which wouldn't be too difficult to do.

Pop out the vent and see what room you have to work with first of all. Then what I'd do is cut a piece of cardboard to size that can be pressed back as deep as you need things to go. Then mask off the entire inside and surrounding area with some masking tape or painters tape, whatever you happen to have. Then I would get some fiberglass resin and some thinner fleece material. Paint the entire masked off area with the resin and press the fleece into it. Then saturate it with more resin, then do another layer of fleece, depending on how thick of fabric you were working with.

Alternately if you don't want the back closed off you can forgo the cardboard in back or just not put material there. Just have it in place to prevent resin from running down into the duct work.

That should give you a nice box that once dried can pop out and you can work with it as your enclosure. Then I'd just lay out a flat piece on a piece of plexiglass and have it cut to about the size you want to make a face plate. I'd probably do this twice the thickness to give the gauges something solid to clamp to.

If you did the box open at the back you can put your face plate in and resin it in place. Then sand as desired, fill with more resin, resand, etc. Just to get it as clean or dirty as you'd like.

Also for doing the face plate, you could possibly have cutouts around the gauges, and that way would be able to retain some of the vent operation itself, at least be able to flow air. Which can sometimes be a nice thing. That's entirely at your preference though.

I've done similar stuff for putting smaller speakers in areas.

Me personally if I were going to be doing a gauge pod I'd simply fab up something custom for the dash. Granted that would require drilling through the dash for your wiring so that would be a pain if you ever wanted to undo it. But that's beside the point.

Welcome to the forum.

Dj Hentai

Not on a wagon, but I have done so on my minitruck. Pic below.

ABS plastic, resin, a lot of sanding, hole saws, and lots of paint. The above pretty much covers the process.

I also blocked off the vent hole behind them. This makes the side vents pretty... enthusiastic when the blower is on full.

They're effective still. It's not as nice say as having the air coming at you from both directions, but it works. The gauges clear the interior vent tube (with the cap) with a little room to spare. Having pulled apart my dash in my wagon as well, I believe that you'd have the same amount of space to work with as I did in my truck. You'll want to cut back the vent tube and cap it off though. Otherwise, the air you're still trying to use is going to take the path of least resistance, which is going to be the gaping hole behind the gauges you just put in.

greenteagod

Not sure if it's available in your part of the world but 2" PVC makes for a good friction fit of 2-1/16" gauges. I've used that as housing before.