Speedometer Glass restoration

[Cyclist]

My old vanettes speedo glass has been faded , bubbled and cracked  since I bought the vehicle and it kept getting worse

 and i've tried to find a suitable replacement for a while with no luck. 

Recently the glass cracked apart  in two in middle and it looked terrible. Vanette C22 dashboards rare to find and one bugger asked 45K for a heavily warn out one.

I could not spend that much for the glass and two air vents (  except those , the existing dashboard is fine) . 

 

So I decided to make a glass myself and it came out very nice. 25010M is the part I made. 

total cost : Rs 400/= ,only thing I bought was a piece of transparent plastic board from a number plate making place.
here are few pics I took while doing it, only took about and hour for that whole job. 

I feel like an ass when I think about the time I wasted stopping at every breaker joint I see where ever I went. 

Sorry for the lack of extra details , but this is too easy for anyone to get wrong. If anyone needs more details please PM . 

1. Removed front part of the cluster, and cracked glass is fixed with a piece of duct tape  to take measurements for the new one. 

2. Lay the glass on the plastic board and draw the outline with a pen

3. Cut the straight lines with a help of a steel ruler and a paper cutter. We dont need those small extrusions around the glass since we are going to duct tape it to the frame and hot glue it. Just cut straight. Cutting the plastic board is bit difficult using the paper cutter, put cuts on both sides before applying gentle pressure to break the glass - just like glass cutting, but put marks on both sides. 

4. smooth out the edges with a angle grinder. 

5. it has a small curve along two sides, use  the angle grinder to grindout the plastic to get the previously marked shape

6. The original glass has a convex shape , no need to worry , we can use the frame around the dashboard to push the glass to the speedo cluster to get that shape,
( I tried to use the hot air gun to bend the plastic glass after warming it up and messed it up once  - dont do it) 

7. Drill out a small hole for the trip meter reset . 

8. keep the glass on the meter frame and duct tape it. dont try to bend and close the gaps on the right and left sides. duct tape the top and bottom only. Use hot glue on places where the clip were before. Use it generously . 

9. Fix it to the dashboard , tight in the screws well - and thats it! 

Looks just like new. 

 

Edited March 26, 2018 by Cyclist

[Davy]

Good job! Well done! 

[iRage]

OMG !! This is fabulous !!!

[john cooper]

DIY at it's best, good job mate.

[ajm]

Good workmanship. Will it also work in cases where the meter has a curve both horizontal and vertical direction?

[Cyclist]

7 minutes ago, ajm said:

Good workmanship. Will it also work in cases where the meter has a curve both horizontal and vertical direction?

I doubt that mate, the plastic board barely bends on one axis ,

but with the support of  the frame , it might can curve as you want given the curve is not that big.  give it a try   ?

[gNaveendra]

I appreciate the work!

I have a concern on using the hot-melt glue for the interior parts of a car.

Won't it melt if parked directly in the sunlight?

[Davy]

1 hour ago, gNaveendra said:

Won't it melt if parked directly in the sunlight?

You can get hot glue rated for different temperatures. The regular crafting grade hot glue can withstand about 50C from memory. So if you're concerned about it melting, the best is to get sticks that are rated for a higher temperature.

I personally think it wouldn't matter in this case because the entire mechanism is tightly secured to the dashboard. The glue itself isn't under stress because it isn't carrying any weight. 

[Sampath Gunasekera]

Great job mate. Many thanks for sharing it.

These plastics boards are  commonly known as Acrylic sheets.

It is a plastic type called PMMA  - Poly(methyl methacrylate)

For suit with your bending, you can choose a sheet with suitable thickness (different thickness sheets are available in the market) .
You can easily buy them from places like Shanthi Plastics, Jeewa Plastics or Subha Plstics.

Search google. You can do many more things with Acrylic sheets.

 

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by Sampath Gunasekera

[Cyclist]

16 hours ago, gNaveendra said:

I appreciate the work!

I have a concern on using the hot-melt glue for the interior parts of a car.

Won't it melt if parked directly in the sunlight?

Actually the hot glue is to fill those holes left out by the plug things the original glass had, the duct tape and mainly the frame is holding the glass sandwiched in place, so even the glue melts - it will not affect.  cheers

[Cyclist]

14 hours ago, Sampath Gunasekera said:

Great job mate. Many thanks for sharing it.

These plastics boards are  commonly known as Acrylic sheets.

It is a plastic type called PMMA  - Poly(methyl methacrylate)

For suit with your bending, you can choose a sheet with suitable thickness (different thickness sheets are available in the market) .
You can easily buy them from places like Shanthi Plastics, Jeewa Plastics or Subha Plstics.

Search google. You can do many more things with Acrylic sheets.

 

 

Wow, this is gold, thanks a lot Sampath , this will come handy for next project im planning. 

Will create a separate DIY thread for it.