ambainb

Old set up, traced from cardboard.. really want to use the stock bezel tho

ambainb

Cobalts and sport comp II

ambainb

Used a dremel tool and slowly made the holes bigger, not much is needed

ambainb

I should note the back of my cluster is gutted, and im only using the wires i needed from the two plugs



I used a small cut off disc on the dremel for this

ambainb

I already had the aluminium or id be doing this in cardboard

ambainb

ambainb

My template





The plan from here is to cut this from very thin gaudge aluminium and glue it in place, then try to mimic the texture with some type of textured black paint

ambainb

One of the three gray wires on the left side plug runs the lighting (8)
The black/white wire (150) is the ground for all the lighting, but i chose to run my own grounds.
LT Blue in left plug is left turn indicator
DRK Blue in right plug is right turn indicator
LT Green in left plug is high beam indicator
Pink/black(39) in right plug is power from the gauge fuse
Solid Pink in right plug is fuel indecator
Tan/white is parking brake/ brake light indicator
Yellow is seatbelt indicator

ambainb

Im also cutting out all the wiring im not using, and repairing alot of hack jobs ive found under the dash

ambainb

No more tpi, and anything else that isnt being used ... turned out to be alot!... now ill know my fuse box is only running what im using and theres not a bunch of extra wires all over the place

ambainb

I used a piece of alluminium off a race car door i had hanging on the wall and cut it down with a dremel cut off wheel, then used a 1 7/8" holesaw bit and a dremel sanding disc to smoth it out and get the gauges to fit the holes

ambainb

I used 3M ruberized undercoating for the paint, hoping it would mimic the bezel texture but i may wind up painting the whole thing to match






Not too bad for **** laying around.. ive never fiberglassed before but that would be the better way to do this

ambainb

Now i can still have all my warning lights and put green bulbs of some sort behind my blinker arows!!... still not sure on what to do with the high beam indicator



Id say for just laying it on top it dosnt look to bad, after i match the bezel and go a little heavy around the edges youll hardly notice when its tucked back in its home

racerkilla

Looks good, takes time to make it fit and all work. I swapped a 92 dash into 85. Should of kept the 85 as could of got 5 inch gauges easy.

Here is my set up.I managed to get autometers into the 92 cluster.

ambainb

What gauges are thos? Looks really sharp, i love how you got the 4 smaller ones set up... and yeah i really wasnt a fan of the pre made ones. Not to mention they cost a fortune, i wanted the 5inchers bad

ambainb

Did you change the lighting to blue on thos?

ambainb

Your making me wanna do that set up!!!

racerkilla

They are auto meter sport comps. I used a white led(has a tint of blue in the pictures) to give it that color.

I ended up keeping the turn signal and high beam from the factory cluster as well.On the back side of the lexan I had cut arrows and chevy logo to go over high beam. Soldered every wire on gauges and used a big 12 wire plug for engine computer, so one plug and dash comes out.

I already had all the gauges or I think I would of went with the premade one but they were 5 inch only. Didn't want have to re buy gauges. Kind of glad I made my own set up

ambainb

I would be to, it turned out great, got any pics of the high beam cut out? What did you use for cutting that

racerkilla

I have a vinyl cutting machine so used that for the arrows and chevy high beam. I cut them in mirror image so they would be the correct way when viewed from the front side.

Only pics I have you can see them. I have none of them lit up

ambainb

Ok so its cut in vynle.. love it, i still dont know how to do my hibeam

racerkilla

I used the vinyl as a template. I then painted the back of the lexan black. Pull off the vinyl and have the shape I was after. The original blue/green light comes from the stock cluster underneath I kept

I think small details make a car. As for a high beam for your car I know a lot of people just use a blue push in indicator. Maybe install it between the two small gauges.

ambainb

Yeah... i hate to use just the round one tho.. i really love yours, are there any small round blue guys that light up the symbol and not just a blue light?...mabey i could have our race car vynle guy do a small one and stick it over the round ones they sell

Marine_Marauder

So how do you track your mileage?

ambainb

Well mine had 113k on it... now the autometer starts at 0.. witch is fine with me because my drivetrains starting at 0 as well

ambainb

Now on my sport comp II's the numbers themselves light up, do yours as well or is it a surounding type light? I dont know if i can change bulbs in mine

Marine_Marauder

I would have done this but In Cali we have to SMOG test every two years
and having an odometer is a requirement. If I can't program the autometer it becomes more painful than cool.

racerkilla

Mine didn't have the internal light like some of the newer autometers. It had a light socket that used a 194 push in bulb. So just swapped in an led version. With the normal bulb the gauges were lit poorly at night and looked old.

ambainb

Ahh i see... and the autometer has a odometer, what does cali do when ur odometer rolls over? There has to be a way around it or when u roll over ur car would be scrap

ambainb

So im going to wire them a bit diffrent this time, i have water temp and oil pressure on the A-pillar not really shown, when i dim my lights i want the speedo and tach to stay lit, the others can get anoying on long road trips... so my oil temp, water temp, oil prs, volts and fuel gaudge will be ran off the normal lighting source the gray (8).. as for the tach and speedo im running the lights off of the orange wire coming from the light switch it will go too the tach light first then to a switch mounted under the dash then too the speedo lamp, this way when im beating the hell out of it i can have nothing but the tach lit

ambainb

(39) pink/blk is power from the gauge fuse and it will be the (switched 12v source) i use for the speedo and tach(these 2 will have a single inline 3amp fuse before the gauge), volts and fuel gauge.. also it will run to what ever bulb i use behind the (Brake/ parking brake) lense, as that light has constant power and is turned on when grounded by the Tan/wht wire... there are 3 pins for the (8's) so ill split them up to make for less wire T's, pin 3, 12 and 13 ill be using pin 3 to light the pillar gauges and pin 12 for the fuel,volts and oil temp... the dark blue wire is power too R turn signal bulb, light blue wire is power too L turn signal bulb, light green wire is power too the high beam bulb, pink wire goes to the fuel gauge and the white wire is for the tach input. As for grounds im using a 2 diffrent spots.. 1 for the light grounds and another for the gauge grounds. i also plan on using a few of the empty red covers for warning lights...mabey water temp and oil temp on the blank red lense's and mabey volts on the blank amber lense not sure yet..

ambainb

Rear view.. sloppy diagram

gadocbar

Whats size gauges are those

ermandadana

On the back side of the lexan I had cut arrows and chevy logo to go over high beam. Soldered every wire on gauges and used a big 12 wire plug for engine computer, so one plug and dash comes out.