diyautomods.com

Materials and tools
Resin and hardener
Body filler
Pillar gauge holder
Crazy glue
I didn’t want it to look like there was just a gauge stuck on top of my steering column, so I decide to do something custom.* It’s pretty easy to make if you have some ability to work with fiber glass.* I got a used steering column trim since I didn’t want to ruin the only one I had, you can get one of these off of www.car-parts.com.* After that, I searched ebay for the cheapest pillar gauge holder I could find, I found an Impala gauge holder for about $15.*

* * Once I had all the parts I began the project.* The first step was taking the gauge holder and cutting it so it was just the gauge pod it self, for this I used a Dremal with a cut off wheel.* Once you have the pod separate you need to find out where you want to mount it.* If you put it in the middle it may block the view of the gauges so you may need to put it to the side like I did.* Since it came from a left hand pillar it sat naturally better on the left side.* Now that I found the location I secured it in place using crazy glue.
*
After the glue was dry I took some fabric from an old t-shirt and spray glued it to the areas that had gaps from the pod not touching the column.* I then cut away the excess fabric and prepared to fiberglass it all together.* I used generous amounts of fiberglass resin to avoid having to Bondo any imperfections.* After 3 coats of fiberglass resin with some sanding in between, it began to take shape.* If you prefer you could just smear body filler in here instad of using fiberglass, but then it begins to get heavy and has more chance of cracking in my opinion so I chose the fiberglass meathod.

With most of the rough sanding out of the way, it was time for some filler primer to get a better idea what need to be cleaned up better.* I used a flat black filler primer, to fill the little scratches.* This color was almost an exact match to the color of my steering wheel.* After I got most of the scratches filled I used a gloss paint to help add texture to the column so it would match the rest of the car.* I only speckled the gloss paint so it built up a* texture.* While the gloss was still wet, I sprayed a few light coats of the flat black primer over it.* This gave it a look similar to that of stock.* The last thing I did was test fit the gauge, depending on the pod and where you mounted, some trimming of the underside may be needed.*