gauges and radio weekend project

ndiiorio

Registered User
well it was a while ago i decided on the radio and dvd combo but i havent got around to doing the rest of my stereo until recently so i decided to fire everything up this weekend to see how it sounds. i also decided it was a good time to put in my gauges. i was already going to get boost, water, and oil, and since my speedometer stopped working i decided to do them all. so i remade the gauge panel, threw in the turn signals, high beam, and check engine lights. i also wanted gauges that matched my radio color so i went with the autometer cobalt gauges, the blue matches perfect with the radio. i will try to get a picture when it gets dark. i used a texture paint for the gauge panel that i usually like but on this application it didnt do it for me so i will probably redo the paint when i add one more gauge, as you can see by the empty hole. i also had to modify the dash quite a bit in order to fit the radio combnation that i wanted and then made a flush trim fro the radio using the factory piece. it is no where near finished more in a pre primer and paint stage, but i will do all that when i finish with the rest of the panels im making in the interior and trunk. i still havent come up with a paint scheme for the car so that will all be done at the same time. i just wanted to post this because there arent a lot of pictures being shown for the gauges and dash so i dont know if there are any guys out there with some different things going on. hopefully this will give everyone some ideas. im just glad i was able to accomplish something over the weekend and i have a stereo working again. i still have to calibrate the speedometer but all the other gauges are working great. hurray for me...
 

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Looks good.... only down side is the bright trim ring around the gauges. That'll catch light and drive ya nuts.

When I've considered doing something like that I've always figured I'll probably take the trim ring off and more flush mount the gauges. But yours looks nice
 
well it was a while ago i decided on the radio and dvd combo but i havent got around to doing the rest of my stereo until recently so i decided to fire everything up this weekend to see how it sounds. i also decided it was a good time to put in my gauges. i was already going to get boost, water, and oil, and since my speedometer stopped working i decided to do them all. so i remade the gauge panel, threw in the turn signals, high beam, and check engine lights. i also wanted gauges that matched my radio color so i went with the autometer cobalt gauges, the blue matches perfect with the radio. i will try to get a picture when it gets dark. i used a texture paint for the gauge panel that i usually like but on this application it didnt do it for me so i will probably redo the paint when i add one more gauge, as you can see by the empty hole. i also had to modify the dash quite a bit in order to fit the radio combnation that i wanted and then made a flush trim fro the radio using the factory piece. it is no where near finished more in a pre primer and paint stage, but i will do all that when i finish with the rest of the panels im making in the interior and trunk. i still havent come up with a paint scheme for the car so that will all be done at the same time. i just wanted to post this because there arent a lot of pictures being shown for the gauges and dash so i dont know if there are any guys out there with some different things going on. hopefully this will give everyone some ideas. im just glad i was able to accomplish something over the weekend and i have a stereo working again. i still have to calibrate the speedometer but all the other gauges are working great. hurray for me...


Looks great....just curious how you were able to overlap the speedo and tach trim rings onto the trim rings of the surrounding gauges ?

David
 
Exactly what some of us have been talking about! How did you remake the gauge panel? Did you just start fresh with a blank piece of plastic and go from there??

Ira
 
Looks great....just curious how you were able to overlap the speedo and tach trim rings onto the trim rings of the surrounding gauges ?

David


To me it looks like he used more than one panel for the overlap. The other gauges are "in-laid" into the panel while the speedo and tach sit on the top panel. Looks good, I never thought about doing it that way, its something that I've been wanting to do with a set of Nexus gauges when I get the money to afford those overly expensive things.

Looks Great!
 
That's what it looks like to me. He did a good job on the guages.

Yes he did, and there is certainly a need for some of us to figure out how to get all our gauges back into the cluster where we can see them without having to put our heads on a swivel so this looks like another good idea to think about.

Ira
 
first i cut out the black plastic gauge panel leaving only a lip right around the edge. then i took some wood and cut a shape that would fit it there without falling through. then i aligned the gauges and made holes for them all. i took another piece of wood and glued it to the other adn used a router to copy the original and then made the smaller gauge holes a little biggerfor that piece only, that way the trim is flush with the wood. then i was able to mount the speedo and tach with a slight overlap on the the other gauges. once the panels were complete i glued it to the original plastic i cut out and used body filler to fill in all the gaps. did some sanding and thats it. basically did the same thing with the radio, but that was a little more fabbing.

speedo is calibratednow and everything looks great. i just need to get another gauge to go in there. i was originally going to try and fit all the idiot light in there and i still might but it would just be leds. i used the original film for the other lights and just put white 12v lights behind them. turn signals, cel, and high beams are all plenty bright. i did get rid of the swoosh module. all in all i think it was fairly easy. i still need to fine tune some things but thats it.
 
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