Since the LCD takes up so much space, I'm going to want to mount it securely to the dash instead of the bezel, so in order to do that, I'm going to have to make some brackets.
As you can see in the pictures, the red lines indicate where the brackets would need to fill to support the LCD.
Instead of trying to bend metal into shape, I'm going to make an exact-fit part, using 2-part molding putty (pic attached) to capture the exact shape and size of the area.
To use the putty, you take equal parts of the blue and purple putty, knead them together, and push the putty into place. The now-activated putty will then cure in about 5 minutes, and you can then pull it out with an exact impression.
But you can't make a bracket out of rubber, right?
No - instead, what you'll have is a positive mold, or what the actual part would look like, but made out of rubber.
In order to duplicate that rubber blank, you would then have to mix more silicone molding rubber, and pour it on top of the rubber blank.
But what happens when you pour rubber on top of rubber? It fuses together! Uh-oh!
The solution to avoiding that is to coat the rubber blank in what's called a
mold release - normally this is something like talcum powder, but there are other things you can use with silicone rubber as a mold release:
- Talcum Powder
- Lacquer Primer Spray Paint
The added benefit of using the Lacquer Primer is that it doesn't stick to the rubber - so if you spray the inside of your finished mold and let it dry, when you pour your resin, it cures inside the mold against the primer, and bonds to the primer for a pre-primed part out of the mold, ready for painting.