Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » October 14th, 2002, 12:28 pm

I am sending out a bunch of e-mails to people that had expressed an interest in the A-pillar gauge pods (for MX-3s with auto-retracting seatbelts). The original group-buy fell through, so I thought I’d try to re-vive it. If you don’t know what an A-pillar gauge pod is, check out the next message in this topic (below). If you are interested in getting one of these but didn’t get an e-mail from me, don’t worry – you’re not too late. Simply send me an e-mail and I’ll send you a copy of the same thing I sent everybody else.I went through the various threads in the forums and collected the usernames and e-mail addresses of everybody that expressed an interest for this item. Here is a list of those threads. Some of them contain some good info, though I’m going to bring it all together into this topic anyway.A-Pillar pods???
pillar gauges w/ auto
Group buy info for pillars w/auto seatbelts
What's up with the gauge pods for auto seat belts?
help finding some mods
questions
gauge pillar pods
A Pillar Gauge Pods
What's up with the tripple gauge pods for auto seat belts?
Group buy: Triple pillar gauge pods for auto seat beltOkay, some background info:
Lo-Tek (www.gaugepods.com) will make the pillar pods with a minimum order of 20. The price will be US$44.99 plus US$5.99 for shipping in the continental US. Yes, I know some (many) of you are from Canada or even other countries, but don’t worry – I’ve got you covered… read on.
Lo-Tek has already received a sample stock pillar cover to base their shape on. (Thanks, DJPRO)
The next step is to get the 20 confirmed orders. Once that is done, they will make a test piece to check for fit and color match. When fit and color are confirmed, the rest of the pieces will be fabricated and shipped.What now?
If you’re interested, the process is pretty simple:
1) Make sure that I know you’re interested. I set this group-buy up in the Group Buy forum so that I wouldn’t get a hundred messages that say “Count me in!” or “Hey, I’m interested.”, ‘cause it gets to be too hard to find any useful information. The third message in this topic (below the “What is a Pillar Gauge Pod?” message) is a list of people that are interested. If your username is on that list, you’ve completed this step. If not, drop me a note at the.ogimoj@verizon.net . Expressing interest is not an obligation to buy.
2) Send Payment. See below for details.
3) Wait for your new A-pillar Gauge Pods! Keep in mind that these things don’t exist yet. That means you’ll be waiting longer than you would if you were just ordering an off-the-shelf part from some parts store. See below for a rough timeline of when things should occur.Payment InfoFor more current payment info, see the 4th and 5th post in this topic (below).To recap what I wrote in the email: I intend to accept any traditional form of payment (check, money order, cashier’s check) or I’ll accept (and prefer) PayPal. I don’t have a Premier or Business PayPal account, so I can’t accept credit cards (but at least this way there are no transaction fees). If you live in the continental US, send $50.98 (includes the shipping cost). If you live anywhere else, send the cost of the piece ($US44.99), and when the parts are ready to ship, Lo-Tek will get in touch with you to arrange shipping. I assume PayPal will do the money conversion for you, but don’t know as I’ve never had to send money from outside the US. <blockquote>quote:<hr>***IMPORTANT***
Since I’m dealing with a number of people, and I don’t have complete contact info for everybody, I’ll be keeping track of who has paid based on your mx-3.com username. If you send check or other conventional payment, please write that username in the memo section of the check. If you pay with PayPal, make sure the e-mail address matches the one you have registered at mx-3.com, or better yet, keep my life simple and just include your mx-3.com user name in the comments section when you send payment.<hr></blockquote> Where to send payment:
Conventional (paper) payment can be sent to: John Gould
404 E. 86th Ave.
Merrillville, IN 46410 PayPal payment should be sent to:
the.ogimoj@verizon.net Timeline
The first deadline is the date which I’m going to stop accepting payments. This date will be November 30th, 2002. I’ve already spoken with Dennis of Lo-Tek. He indicated that once orders are received, it will take two weeks to make-up a prototype for fit-testing. Based on that, I estimate it to be ready by November 29th. Give two weeks for shipping and testing – which brings us to December 20th. I don’t know how long it will take to make the pieces once they’re started, but for now, I’ll estimate that the parts will be ready for shipping around the beginning of next year (If they don’t take too much time off for Christmas). Allow another couple of weeks for shipping and you should have your new pods in the middle of February. So, below is a table summarizing all this (it is of course all tentative). I’ll keep you all up to date as to actual progress via this forum.November 30th Stop Accepting payments for group buy
December 20th Prototype ready for fit testing
January 10th Begin Production
January 31st Parts ready to ship
February 14th Parts deliveredAdditional Notes
If I can’t get 20 orders, I’ll be purchase the difference myself and sell them later. I’m not making any money off of the people participating in the group-buy – the price was set by Lo-Tek, but any left-overs that I have to buy in order to get the minimum 20 will be sold at a small mark-up (compensates me for risk I’m taking as well as time I’ll have to put into selling the parts).
If I get more than 20 orders, then everybody’s happy (except those that decide to wait for me to sell left-overs – because there won’t be any)I know some people are apprehensive about buying things from people they’ve never met – and for good reason: there are a lot of scams and people wanting to scam you out there. I don’t have a whole lot to offer in the way of proof that you can trust me, but I do give you my word that this is all legitimate. I use the same name (Ogimoj) on ebay, if you’d like to check my rating there. If it makes you feel better, you can even give me a call. My contact info is below.Real Name: John Gould
e-mail: [email]the.ogimoj@verizon.net">the.ogimoj@verizon.net</a> (preferred) or <a href="mailto:ogimoj@yahoo.com[/email]
Mailing Address: John Gould
404 E. 86th Ave.
Merrillville, IN 46410[ February 03, 2003: Message edited by: Ogimoj ]

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » October 14th, 2002, 12:35 pm

What is an A-pillar gauge pod for MX-3's with automatic seatbelts? I'll start by defining the A-Pillar: The columns that support the roof of the car and outline the sides of the windshield.What do automatic seatbelts have to do with it? In (some or all?) 92 and 93 MX-3's, the seatbelts automatically retract up the A-pillar, along the side of the roof, and down behind the door. The plastic piece that covers the A-Pillar is different on these MX-3's to allow the seatbelt to move. Because of this, the A-Pillar gauge pods are different than those that are commercially available for other MX-3s.How can you tell if you have these automatic seatbelt retractor thingys? If your seatbelt looks like the one in the car pictured below, than you do.

Why would somebody want these things, anyway? Well, chances are - if you don't know, than you don't need them. There are a number of gauges out there that can be used to monitor various parameters of you car. Your MX-3 already has gauges to monitor engine RPM (tach), car speed (speedometer), Fuel level, and Coolant Temperature. Other things that people wish to monitor for various reasons are: Air/Fuel Ratio, Oil Temp, Fuel Pressure, Exhaust Gas Temp., etc. If you're going to install a gauge to monitor one of these (or any number of other) parameters, you need a place to mount the gauge. One popular place to mount these gauges is in the A-Pillar, probably just because space is already limited on and around the dash of a modern-day car. Common reasons for wanting to monitor various engine parameters include supercharging or turbocharging, tuning to get the most out of an enging, and provide indications for when certain types of maintenance might need to be performed.What will our gauge pods look like? The pillar pods that are being made for us will be triples (three gauge pods). Since they don't exist, there are of course no pictures; however, here is a picture of a triple gauge pod that Lo-Tek makes for the MX-6:

ps. Thank you to whoever's picture I'm "borrowing". The MX-6 picture is property of Lo-Tek.[ October 14, 2002: Message edited by: Ogimoj ]

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » October 14th, 2002, 12:46 pm

The following is a list of people that are interested in purchasing the gauge pods. The status of payment received is also indicated. I will keep this updated as people contact me to say they're interested or no longer interested and as payments are received.Username - (Info) A&F_mx-3er - Paid Anto - Paid BJ deLamare - Wants to have one held Buff1110 - Paid codene - Paid Custommx3 - Paid DJPRO - Paid Garrett Smith - Interested Hex3 - Will Pay Hotsiit - Paid Jeremy Richards - Interested lazzyie - Paid Ltjrnner - Interested Mark - Paid Mike Evans - Paid MX-TC - Interested Ogimoj - Paid Paragon - Will pay Patrick McNair - Paid R-KING - Paid RMCG5 - Will Pay 11/27 Robert Cook - Paid Stas - Paid Val Valenzuela - Paid WKDMX3GSR - Paid zevirii - Paid [ December 09, 2002: Message edited by: Ogimoj ]

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » October 16th, 2002, 2:28 am

I received some more information from Lo-Tek. Some people wanted 2-pod pillars instead of 3. Lo-Tek says that that would require a separate group buy (w/ 20 orders also). We will be sticking with the 3-pod unit, since that's the most popular, based on the e-mails I've received. Also... I'll be looking into upgrading my paypal account to accept credit cards. I know this has a fee associated with it. I don't know if this fee is applied only to credit card transfers, or if all transfers will incur this fee once my account is upgraded. If anybody has experience with an upgraded paypal account, please let me know.. (in the meantime I'll be reading info at paypal) Also... shipping to Canada and international will be US$10.50, according to Lo-Tek. If this applies to you, go ahead and include that with your payment to prevent any delays later. After only one day, I've already received 1 paypal payment, 3 checks are in the mail, and a couple people are waiting to see if I can take credit cards. Lookin' good..... <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> From: Lo-Tek Inc. To: the.ogimoj@verizon.net Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 7:00 AM Subject: Re: Mazda MX-3 gauge pods2 and 3 pods would require 20 orders each. Note that we will only do one project at a time due to the back log of other projects. We will do both but the second one would have to wait a while. So please select the one that most people want first. We ship to Canada and International but shipping will be $10.50 (US dollars)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » October 16th, 2002, 2:29 am

Many of you have asked if I'll accept credit cards, so I've been researching the requirements to accept credit card payments via paypal. The process is fairly simple - I just need to upgrade my account to a "Premier Account". Unfortunately, once I do that I will incur a fee any time I receive money. In addition, there is a fee for money coming in from outside the U.S. So, here's what I've decided to do: I'll leave my paypal account as a personal account to avoid these fees for people that want to send me paypal money from their checking account. I'll leave it that way until November 8th. On November 8th, I'll upgrade my account, which will just slightly raise the price (I'm passing the paypal fees onto you, since I'm not making any sort of profit in the first place). Okay, math time:Until November 8th, prices are: US Buyers Price: 44.99 Shipping: 5.99 Total: 50.98Canadian and International Buyers (prices in US Dollars) Price: 44.99 Shipping: 10.50 Total: 55.49After November 8th, prices (if paying via paypal) will be:US Buyers Price: 44.99 Shipping: 5.99 Subtotal: 50.98 Paypal Fee: 1.78 Total: 52.76Canadian and International Buyers (prices in US Dollars) Price: 44.99 Shipping: 10.50 Subtotal: 55.49 Paypal Fee: 1.91 Cross-Border Fee: 0.55 Total: 57.95Of course, if you're sending traditional payment via snail mail, this has no effect on you, and the price stays at $50.98 for US shipping and $55.49 for Canada shipping (US dollars). By the way, make checks payable to me (John Gould), as I'll be combining all funds into one account in order to transfer to Lo-Tek.If you aren't a paypal member, you may wish to consider it. I've been using paypal to pay for ebay auctions for several years, and I've never had a problem with it. It's safe, secure, fast, and free to send money from a checking account or credit card. If you'd like to sign up, use this link: <A HREF="https://www.paypal.com/refer/pal=WHLUUZ79UYEE6" TARGET=_blank>PayPal Sign Up</A>. Signing up through my referral will give you and I both a $5 bonus if you meet some requirements (requirements are listed on the paypal site and only sending payment to me for the gauge pods will not satisfy those requirements)[ October 16, 2002: Message edited by: Ogimoj ]

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » October 20th, 2002, 1:23 pm

I just wanted to give everybody an update as to where we’re at in the group buy: After just one week, we have:6 paid 11 waiting to get money together or for me to accept credit card payments (Nov. 8th) 1 check in the mailThat’s a total of 18 people… We just need 2 more people, and we still have 5 weeks. I expect that after Nov. 8th - when I start taking credit cards through paypal - the total number of people paid will be close to 20.If you are interested, but have not yet sent me an e-mail, you’re not to late… I’ll be accepting payments until the end of November.Lookin’ good….

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » October 31st, 2002, 1:33 pm

Alright, I thought it was time to give people a quick update of where we're at with respect to collecting payments:7 Payments are sitting in the account 1 check is in hand (I'll wait for checks to clear before considering them paid) 7 waiting 'til November (to pay by credit card or to get money together) 4 "Check's in the mail" 5 Interested but haven't told me if/when they'll send payment 1 waiting until we're close to the 20 we need 29 that showed an interest in the past but have not yet contacted me since I re-vived this group buy.So, by my count, we have 20 that seem to be pretty sure and 5 that have recently expressed an interest. There's still plenty of time 'til my deadline, so I'm pretty confident this will happen without a problem.For those keeping count, I have removed people from the list in the message above whose e-mail addresses bounce.Please take a look at the third message in this topic that shows payment status to see if your information has been updated properly. E-mail me at the.ogimoj@verizon.net if you find any discrepancies.[ October 31, 2002: Message edited by: Ogimoj ]

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » November 8th, 2002, 10:53 am

Okay, it's Nov. 8th. As I posted several weeks back, I am now accepting credit card payments for the gauge pods through paypal. Please keep in mind that in order to make up for fees that paypal charges me for the upgraded account, the price is a couple of dollars higher for any paypal payment (credit card or otherwise): If shipping to U.S., total cost (including shipping, etc.) is: $52.76 Outside U.S., total is: $57.95 (US Dollars) My paypal email address is the.ogimoj@verizon.net Thanks, John

Post by **Custommx3** » November 11th, 2002, 9:17 pm

We need an update please, and if you havent paid, please do so.

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » November 25th, 2002, 4:39 pm

Sorry for the lack of updates/communication over the last couple of weeks. Work has had me pretty busy - away from my computer.It's getting close to time to place our order. I will be doing so on November 30th (5 days from now). I'm still accepting payments, so for those of you that have contacted me but not yet sent payment, I would just like to send a friendly reminder that the time is close at hand. I would also like to say thank you to the thirteen people that have already sent the payment. For those of you that have been holding off to see if the group buy will actually go through, let me reassure you that it will. With the thirteen orders that I have, I can complete the requisite 20 to get Lo-Tek started. Of course, if you do want one of these, please help my pocket book by sending your payment now instead of waiting for me to place the order.During my last conversation with Lo-Tek, they are estimating mid to late February for shipment of our A-Pillars (due to the holidays and their back-log). This is pretty much in-line with what I had assumed when I made my tentative timeline that is posted in the group-buy forum of mx-3.com.Thanks again, John (Ogimoj)

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » November 27th, 2002, 2:50 pm

Due to the long weekend (for Thanksgiving), I won't actually be placing the order for our A-Pillar Gauge Pod group buy on Friday, as I had originally planned. I will, instead, place the order on Monday. This has no effect on the timing of our order or when they will be available for shipping, as nothing would get done with the order over the weekend, anyway. Sorry for the oversight on my part - I didn't realize that this was Thanksgiving weekend when I originally set up the deadline and timeline. I just wanted to be honest and let everybody know what's going on. On the plus side, this gives latecomers a couple extra days to send payment if they still want to join the group buy. Thanks, John

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » December 9th, 2002, 10:57 pm

If you have already paid for your gauge pods for this group buy, it is important that you read this entire message, because I need some information from you.If you're still interested (but haven't paid), it isn't too late. Send me an e-mail right away, as I will be sending payment to Lo-Tek as soon as we have a good test-fit prototype. On to business: I tried to place our order last Monday, but was only able to leave a message on the answering machine at Lo-Tek. After not receiving a call from them on Tuesday, I sent an e-mail. As of Wednesday, I still hadn't heard anything. I tried calling a couple of times, but got no answer. Thursday and Friday were the same, but not even an answering machine any more. So, today (Monday) I called again. Still no answering machine, so I went back to my notes and found the home (residential) number of one of the guys that works there (he made the mistake of calling me from there once in the past - gotta love caller ID

). It turns out that they've been without power and/or phone since Wednesday last week. They're located in North Carolina and got hit pretty hard by the ice storm last week. They just recently got phone service back, but that was the cause for the whole delay. ( I was starting to wonder if they went out of business or something!). Status: They are supposed to be starting the prototype mock-up for test fit today. They intend to have that shipped out to me by the end of the week, so that I can do a test fit (check for viewing angle, interference, etc.) I'll take pictures and post them when that happens. Once we're sure of a good fit, we'll be put on the back-order list and have to wait our turn for production. They estimate late winter/early spring for completed products (March-ish). Details: Because our a-pillar cover (the plastic piece that we're replacing) is so long, the a-pillar will only replace the lower portion of it. The cost of equipment that is capable of producing such a long piece is prohibitive, and Lo-Tek was surprised that Mazda even used a one-piece cover instead of two pieces. So, what's this mean to us? Your original a-pillar cover will need to be cut and we will now have a seam up near where the plastic piece starts to curve at the top of the windshield. The advantage is that we have a "real" a-pillar gauge pod piece and not a "ghetto" snap-over-the-top, one-size-fits-all piece. The obvious disadvantage is the necessity to cut the original plastic (If you're already modifying your car enough to have need for extra gauges, I'm sure this small mod won't make you flinch). If you are not comfortable with cutting your a-pillar cover, I will be happy to do it for you (I have some experience in custom interior plastic working). Let me know, and we'll make arrangements. Fortunately, these pieces will be color-matched by computer, so the seam should be insignificant. But this brings me to the next point: IMPORTANT: It has come to my attention, and I have personally verified this, that there are at least two colors of a-pillar covers on the MX-3's. The most common color is gray. If you have a black dash, you have gray a-pillars. The other color, is a tan/brown interior (including brown dash) and has a beige a-pillar piece. I NEED EVERY PAYING MEMBER OF THE GROUP BUY TO E-MAIL ME!!! I need to know which of the two colors you have: gray or beige. If any member has the (more rare) beige color, we will need to send Lo-Tek a sample piece to match the color. PLEASE E-MAIL ME NOW. Okay that's all for now. Stay tuned for an update that includes pictures of the prototype piece (fingers crossed, knocking on wood)

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » December 18th, 2002, 6:06 pm

Here's a brief summary of the status of our group buy:
Payment has been sent to Lo-Tek.
As of Monday (Dec. 16), the mock-up was "almost done" and supposed to ship this week.
After a couple of late-comers to the group buy, I have all of the 20 orders for the group buy. Since money has been sent, anybody else still interested in joining at the group-buy price should contact Lo-Tek directly (see their website at www.gaugepods.com). I can't gaurantee that they will give you the same price.
Thank you to everybody that sent payment. I will keep people informed as events occur.
-John
Ogimoj

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » December 23rd, 2002, 3:02 pm

I spoke with Lo-Tek today. Here's the latest:
The mock-up was sent to me on Dec. 20th - so it should arrive any day now.
They confirmed that they recieved payment.
I asked about any way to get the pods made sooner and they explained that there are 6 projects ahead of us. The bottleneck in the process is the mold-making - sometimes they need to re-make a mold 2 or 3 times to get a good fit with all proper angles, etc. They expect to be catching up on orders within the next two months. At least this is an indication that they take time to do a good job and get a good fit rather than rush through and make do with the first mold they make. There are still many paid members that haven't yet told me what color interior they have. Please let me know if you haven't already. Anybody that doesn't respond will get a gray one (since that's the more common color, it seems).I need to come up with a sample piece for color matching of the beige interior. If anybody can help me out, please let me know right away. It doesn't need to be the a-pillar itself - but it needs to be the same color (obviously) and large enough to get a good scan of it with their color-sampling computer.Thanks,
John
-Ogimoj-

Ogimoj · Post by **Ogimoj** » December 30th, 2002, 6:16 pm

I received the mock-up of the a-pillar from Lo-Tek. Pictures are available at:
MX-3 A-Pillar Group Buy PicturesAlso, many paid members haven't told me what color of interior they have (Gray or Beige). You may also request the piece in un-painted black, if you like (I know there's at least one person that wanted that (yes, I know who you are

)).

MX-3.com

Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts

Re: Triple A-Pillar Guage Pods for auto-retracting seatbelts