I was probably just fine with the current vacuum-formed ABS panel, with mounting backing and aluminum insert I created a couple of years ago, but with just enough time on my hands and a new found new hobby called Fusion 360, I thought it would be nice to have a single piece gauge panel that was more consistent than heated plastic and required NO trimming before being prepped for finish.

Well, here is what I came up with.





The outer rim should be able to take that horrible rubber grommet or something similar like I used on the formed ABS, the mounting deck for modern 3-3/8” and 1-1/16” is 1/4” thick so nice and sturdy and of course, the aluminum insert I used for the formed ABS bezel will work here so those unique Ford arrow turn signal indicator lamps will still be present.


I had a prototype made and tested fitment was 100%. I did need to fix a few items on the back side but that was for structure and not appearances.

I hesitated from creating this in the past because of cost of hiring an engineer to reverse engineer the original Ford Bezel, but luck was shinning on me the past few months and I found a person with this ability who has the passion and desire to make things for folks that do not exist without treating each product he produces as a retirement asset. LOL.

Here is the image of the prototype in my ‘57. Look closely you can see the formed ABS panel and gauges tucked in behind during the test fit.



I have ordered a few more prototype pieces with my added structural changes. I hope to share those with y’all in a couple weeks. Hopefully these will be in full production by year’s end. Stay tuned.

 

Looks really good!

 

Did a bit more model work and had new prototypes made. I believe these are now Spot On.

I have new gauges arriving soon and will throw some in and see how it looks with the aluminum insert. I am thinking of painting the bezel black, the aluminum insert red and going with WHITE Marshall Instrument gauges with SS rings.

I’ll post pics soon.

 

You do nice work!