Great work. Looks cool!

 

That is excellent work. I like that the printing layer has a close texture to the dash.
I also like that you were able to fit in a half din sized unit and made it look very factory. This is something I would considered for a Sony ES unit I was considering.
Unfortunately it is sad that mobile and interior bits for this car has fallen by the way side for rat builds with beat up interiors. Keep up the good work.

 

I like the idea of the navpod, particularly the single-din; but in the end I think I like having my single-din down low. I'm trying to minimize the distractions!

 

When I'm done with the Navpod, I'll be making a new center console similar to the Midship Garage where it moves the moves the double din slot higher and lowers the climate controls. From what I've seen for anyone who purchased their Center Console from Midship, it looks like it'd be a similar time to design my own and figure out extensions needed etc..

I have this habit of upgrading my project vehicles to have many of the luxuries of newer ones lol.

 

In for one if your planning on making them

 

Did you happen to hear back on buying one of the navpods? I'm looking to get one too.

 

Great work, looks like it fits very well! I want to try this myself if you have an oppurtunity to share the files

 

Definitely good work. I was expecting a true single din height, but realized this was single din in that the guts is just slim single din. The face is still Double din sized. More interested in a true single din, but also wonder how things are mounted and then the wiring to the radio.

 

I would be interested in that. I was not too happy With the finish and price midship garage was asking. I hope you make one that looks less custom more factory looking. I think you are talented based on your NAV pod pictures.

 

Yeah I'm trying to make everything look as if they were factory upgrades/options. It'll be interesting for the Center console as it is larger to piece together. But as i don't want to sand and bondo anything, it'll be a neat challenge on how to secure and support the pieces so they can go together and not look like loose legos lol. As my own center console is cracked in the armrest, it'll definitely be the next project though.

 

This is the best looking 3D printed anything I've seen for the interior of our cars.

I'd be interested in a single din version if it ever comes about.

 

Very impressive work! Especially considering you mentioned you are new to 3D modeling and 3D printing.

Will you be sharing your print files with the community?

 

Great work 👍

There's probably some interest in a 3 gauge pod since mwr seems to have stopped selling theirs for now

 

@pwnzor - yeah i'll be offering them sooon, hopefully in a couple weeks when i finish tweaking a few things then testing it out.

@dev - lots of good effort i've seen from other peoples models, some i think do look a little tall for the doubledin versions. It's kind of like the custom fiberglass interiors, its good work but I was never a fan of shiny super custom fiberglass interior parts.

@firebert - I think I will eventually, I kind of want to sell some and try to raise money for another printer, which would help with the speed of printing new center consoles. Currently I have to split time using this printer for personal and business designs so it's almost running all the time. I think if I had more printers, I wouldn't mind printing these out cheaper for everyone as it wouldn't interfere with my real job for R&D items.

@k_swap_it - ahh i was playing around with a few models, I wasn't sure if it'd look better with just the 3x52mm holes mounted on a flat face or angled a bit towards the driver. Scaling the height without warping too much will be tricky too (trying to keep the wrinkle pattern), i might do a mix of scaling and shortening as it doesn't need to be the same depth. If i wasn't concerned about keeping the pattern, this would be done already lol.

 

Ya know, I don't really understand the rationale behind not sharing the files. It's one thing if you're making parts for, say, a Civic or GR86, but in the case of the Spyder, how many are you really going to sell? 20? I understand that you've spent a good bit of time so far, but in my experience you will actually spend far less time by sharing the file, because others will also sacrifice a good bit of time to improve your work. So, in the end, you will spend less time and have a better product. This is part of the reason there are so many almost/maybe navpod products. People think they're going to make some money and thus are not willing to share. But, life happens, and they realize they don't have time to perfect the product/don't have a good enough printer/setup to charge folks any real money.

For my part, I am currently scanning the factory gauge cluster and I will share freely (so folks can make their own enclosures for digital displays). If someone has access to a navpod I will also scan and release for free. It's not worth making $200 bucks, hell even a thousand bucks. I would rather just have a good product and quickly.

 

others will also sacrifice a good bit of time to improve your work.

Seems like that's exactly what @FusionMRS has done here. All the other pods I've seen have not been anything I would consider putting in my car. Just my opinion, for what it's worth

 

Make a notice when you create a similar pod for AEM X-gauges. I'll buy directly from you.

 

@sacklunch 20 would be awesome lol. Like I mentioned above, just looking to raise some cash to get another printer or so. I mean who wouldn't want a hobby to help offset cost for more hobbies? Another printer would just help on wait time, especially if i start doing something big like the center console.

Anyhow, was just throwing some draft ideas together during lunch on the gauge pod. Should be a model like the navpod or like other gauge pod designs? It looks a bit funny, or maybe i'm just used to seeing the regular navpod. The images below are the super rough, they wouldn't fit as the further you move back the front cover, the deeper the pocket hole gets so the front would have to drop down more and back cover shortened. or everything moved forward and have a flat cover in the back. But was curious how it'd look. lol.

 

My vision was nav pod with gauge up top with cd in normal spot, but I prefer the look of the screen up top since you packaged it all in so well. With that, it'd be nice to have a triple gauge pod fitted in the DIN slot with the gauges angled slightly up and towards the driver. Is that something you can make?

I do have the a pillar triple gauge pod but it feels really close to my head and creates a huge blind spot.

View attachment 97520

 

I can see your view, but I wouldn't worry about it coming to market, it's nearly done. I'm just being picky about the LCD position/ hiding the bezel and moved the locking latches to be slightly tighter to minimize the gap between the front and back cover. I'm getting it to the look I want for myself and when I'm happy with that, I'll just reprint several more and get them packed for orders.

I mentioned 1 to 2 weeks because I wanted to pre-print 5-10 units before I offer them for sale and it'll give me time to see how the printer behaves with repeated prints. I think this will be a little different from other navpod threads that have post processes after the print for finishing so it's not going to depend on me having time to do the work per unit. It'll be more like print on demand.

You got to realize, I literally got my MR2 Pink in the mail today, had the car for a month and started this project 2 weeks ago. This week I'll run the wires/amp/speakers and subs and give it a go.

 

Nice a Spyder with a system. I am about to install two light weight subs to my system that hit hard for its small size.

ABS is good but for something that will see heat and UV have you considered nylon. They have some very good nylons these days that compete in price to ABS and are easy to print. They offer excellent heat resistance and are temperature stable. They can also absorb dye for good color matching.

Regarding sharing of files. For simple prints fine but for using more complex shapes and materials good luck with that on an easy bake printer you bought online. I would rather buy from a person that has gone though the trouble to get their printer and slicer program to do it right with enough trial and error which is hard. It ends up being cheaper.

 

Nice a Spyder with a system. I am about to install two light weight subs to my system that hit hard for its small size.

ABS is good but for something that will see heat and UV have you considered nylon. They have some very good nylons these days that compete in price to ABS and are easy to print. They offer excellent heat resistance and are temperature stable. They can also absorb dye for good color matching.

Regarding sharing of files. For simple prints fine but for using more complex shapes and materials good luck with that on an easy bake printer you bought online. I would rather buy from a person that has gone though the trouble to get their printer and slicer program to do it right with enough trial and error which is hard. It ends up being cheaper.

Nice! yeah doesn't seem right to have a project car without upgraded audio lol. I have a lifted Dodge Ram Hemi project truck that has two 10" kicker comp subs from early 2000s that I've passed from car to car. The Joying android unit I bought for the MRS is basically just a smaller version than what I have in my Dodge. Pretty decent radio units. Even connected a 360 camera system in the Dodge to the Joying Unit.

Ah I had just ordered an ASA 3KG spool, should be able to test with it next week. Hopefully prints like ABS. I had tried PETG when I first got the printer, but I didn't like how it printed. It seemed to not flow as well and was kind of this elastic glossy texture. I'll lookup some Nylon info. ABS is nice because it has good flow and prints fast. I just figured i'd give it a UV coat and it'd be fine.

 

ASA is another good alternative to ABS. It would be awesome to share the files, but it's inevitable that someone will steal your design and try to market it. I shared a battery tray design on here and then later found a member of this site trying to sell them on Facebook.

 

Which is what people don't understand. I have shared files with owners that I know are not in the business of taking my work and then selling items. I let them know that even though you have the file it doesn't mean that the print will give you the same results once you put in the machine as there is a whole lot of other things involved unless you want Micky Mouse trinkets made of PLA from an easy back oven. Sadly a lot of non printer people are under the illusion that it just happens with a file and a machine.

 

Latest print with ABS, closed the gap a bit more between the front and back cover, also adjusted lcd height and front lcd frames to hide the chrome bezel more. Just got in some ASA filament, so will start new test prints with the new filament.

 

ABS left, ASA right. ASA does not print as dark as a black even though filaments are from the same vendor. On the ASA print you can see I've filled in the gap between the front and rear sections in the top corners. Even though the 3D model there is no gap, I had to over exaggerate the corners for it to print correctly. The ABS was printed before I made the corner correction. These gaps you wouldn't notice either way once installed.

I don't know if I like the ASA black color so I'll be running the ABS myself, maybe with just a UV coat or just leave it as it is. I think I'd rather have the darker ABS filament and over time maybe it fades to where the ASA black is now? lol. I'm still looking for a darker ASA filament, right now the current ASA is polymaker. ASA tends to be more finnicky? Still playing with settings for ASA, but I guess until I get it perfect, so far ABS still looks better to me.

 

They both look pretty good in the photos to be honest. You should probably be painting them either way to give it some UV protection.

 

Thanks! The reason for ASA is because it already has UV protection vs abs. I will be offering both abs or Asa and whoever buys can do what they want.

 

If you print one for 3 gauges plz let me know asap. I’ll order it. Looks fantastic!

 

Ran the new wires for amp and radio. Compenents and subs next. Happy with how it turned out.

Also printing up some navpods in Asa and abs. Will post a link for purchase when ready if anyone is interested.

 

Ran the new wires for amp and radio. Compenents and subs next. Happy with how it turned out.

Also printing up some navpods in Asa and abs. Will post a link for purchase when ready if anyone is interested.

View attachment 97619

Looking forward to this and will buy one when you are ready to post!

 

if you make the gauge pod version or find a way to make an adapter for your current for gauges lmk!

 

I know you got your hands full but I have started some research for you for the relocation of the double din navigation .

Here is the Midship Garage version.
Midship Garage - 00-05 Toyota MR2 Spyder, MR-S - Center Console

I know some people would be interested in that style but I feel its over the top. A simple swap would look a lot better in my opinion.

The HVAC face plate has insert tabs that push in and I think that could be the basis of making the face plate. Double dins are universal so it can work but if not then the floating screen would also be a good option.

I have an extra HVAC face plate that I can donate to you so you can cut up and measure to make this project viable.

 

I know you got your hands full but I have started some research for you for the relocation of the double din navigation .

Here is the Midship Garage version.
Midship Garage - 00-05 Toyota MR2 Spyder, MR-S - Center Console

I know some people would be interested in that style but I feel its over the top. A simple swap would look a lot better in my opinion.

The HVAC face plate has insert tabs that push in and I think that could be the basis of making the face plate. Double dins are universal so it can work but if not then the floating screen would also be a good option.

I have an extra HVAC face plate that I can donate to you so you can cut up and measure to make this project viable.

Thanks! I was originally going to order from Midship until I did more research and it seems wait time was massive if customers got it, and hear the finish wasn't great, that's why I decided to try it out on my own.

Ah dang, thanks for the offer on the hvac plate but i had already ordered a face plate and extra controls for me to take measurements since I didn't want to disconnect mine since I still want to drive it lol.

I may try to make it so you can just relocate your existing climate controls, but it depends on what options I find or go with for new climate rings around the knobs.

 

I'm torn between the nav pod and gauge pod. How securely does it attach? Is it rattle-free while driving? What are you doing with the original stereo location?

 

Tabs are adjusted so it fits good. The radio is mounted at bottom and below the navpod bottom line so with that weight it's not going to pop out at all as if it was an empty navpod that is front screen heavy.

Right now I'll probably just make a wider double din pocket for temporary additional storage.

Oh and no rattle, but that would depend on your wiring. The navpod itself with radio and lcd are very snug fit to each other. I just put in subs so no rattle is definitely a requirement.

I'm making myself a new center console that switches the radio din and climate controls spot. If it turns out ok beyond prototyping, I'll probably offer it up depending on the print difficulty.

I'm kinda a tech geek so I'll probably put another 10" radio flush mount above the climate controls and below the ac vents. Then I could use the navpod as a digital gauge/navigation and backup camera.

This is probably over the top for most people but my truck project is twice as bad filled with necessary tech lol.