Well, I started to make a dash plate for my Autometer gauges this weekend.. I used a big peice of aluminum that my bro got me from his work and a jig saw..

For anyone that has ever cut aluminum with a jig saw, or ever will, USE OIL! Using plain ol engine oil on the blade and aluminum while cutting makes life a TON easier... It's like a hot knife through butter.. I couldn't believe it!

Anyhow, back to the gauge panel.. I still need to do something with the turn signals and high beam indicator..

Here is what it looks like now:



I'll probably end up painting it black with a similar texture to the original dash, but I'm kinda curious if anyone thinks I should polish it?

As well, does anyone have any cool ideas for the turn signals? I was thinking about drilling some holes to make it look like an arrow (<--- and --->) with a green lense and light behind the holes..

Any and all thoughts are appreciated..

Oh yea, grumble, grumble... Guess I took the car out too soon..



Cheers,

 

nice guages... i dont know if you took the car out too soon or maybe mother nature forgot its april and not december either way the guages are nice

 

guages look good.....really similar to what i'm doing....i would guess that you could just paint it .....some people do hit it with a wire wheel brush and then polish them by hand. Looks good but could be a little too shiney in direct sunlight. I think i'm going to hit mine with some spray in bedliner so that it will match the dash a little bit in texture. So far so good though.....glad to see more people are doing these swaps.

i'll have some pics up real soon too.

 

Thanks guys.. I may try a half-a$$ polish and see what it looks like installed... I've got some Harley engine paint (wrinkle stuff) that should put the same kind of texture on the panels as what was on the dash..

Cheers,

 

I think you should try some triangular LEDs and mount em so they form an arrow on each side of that fuel gauge. Cutting a triangular hole in that aluminum won't be easy though. heh

You could always just try some plain round LEDs.

 

Hrm, triangular LED's eh? That's an interesting idea now isn't it... I may have to think more on that, plus I don't ever recall seeing any triangular LED's on my trips the the electronics stores..

Thanks,