Making your own VDO gauge brackets...

February 08, 2021, 02:11:44 PM

All pretty straightforward... don't want to insult anyones intelligence by stating the obvious other than give a few potential tips that I found out on the way and save you covering the same ground...

With VDO's at least there seems to be two basic bracket types, one has 2 x holes (4.5mm) and the other a same sized single hole.

There's probably exceptions to this but in my limited experience I've found the longer bodied gauges (clocks and outside temperature gauges for example) have the single, central hole and the majority of short bodied gauges the twin holes.

Obviously the arms will need to be different lengths to suit the body type your making the bracket for but because there's lots of travel along the fixing screw(s) there's plenty of play and you don't need to be exactly the same as the originals.

I've made this one with 3 x holes, covers the bases if I ever find a short body gauge that's the exception to the rule and drilling that extra hole now takes moments now rather than complicating things later.

Said elsewhere that there's plenty of sellers on eBay offering off-cuts in various metals, I prefer aluminium as it's easily worked with using basic home garage tools.

All that's needed is a drill / 4.5mm bit / junior hacksaw and though not essential a small vice makes life easier when bending.

I got the aluminium strips here - eBay

The measurements for these particular ones are almost identical to the original brackets and that'll save you 99% of the work.

When you're bending the strip, do it over another right angle piece, like the scrap pictured and measure / mark + drill the holes before cutting / bending - again just makes things easier than trying to do it on an already made bracket.

Even you're only making one or two brackets, the cost to buy them new is still more than for the 10 strips posted, plus you've a stack of spare metal for other projects.