Lotus Europa Instrument Pod

thingiverse

An instrument pod to replace the original vacuum formed part that's probably well past it's life time. I've added a 4th position for the 3 lamps in the middle for the trip odometer reset knob... Sometimes, classic automobiles can be improved upon:) The parts can be cemented together using a mixture of scrap plastic and acetone. This is a better, 5 Piece unit that will fit tighter into the wooden dash than the original single piece unit done in 2012. I've experimented with various printings from .010mm at 100% fill to .020mm at 30% with 1 shell for the instrument bucket. The latter seems to produce the most consistent surface for the bucket while the light bar in the center looks great printed face down on the surface at .010 mm. It comes up glossy which offsets the receding linear surfaces surrounding the instruments. On mine (photo), I stopped the light bar print before the last layer was started. The cross pattern looked good to me. It loosely matches the pattern of the interior leather. There's also a template that fits my dash opening. If it's not the correct size on yours, adjust the print size accordingly. Instructions The instrument bucket is half of the pod so it will need to be printed twice. The mounting brackets are handed so there are 2 of them. The center portion is printed separately. Mixing up a small bottle of ABS scraps with acetone makes an excellent adhesive to put the parts together. After 2 years of heavy customization, I hope my car will be done by fall. The "Patch" file is used to reinforce the 2 halves of the bucket. Cement them (with the mixture of ABS & Acetone) to the sides of the bucket underneath the ridge used to fix the supports. Before wasting ABS and finding out ti doesn't fit your dashboard cutout, print the template to check if this will fit your car. If yours varies by more than .062", modify the print accordingly.