I have never had a 3rd gen dash apart. Before I go tearing it down to find out for myself, I thought I might ask anyone with a Camaro dash simular to this is you have ever had yours apart and know if there is room here for gauge installs behind this panel. Is it vacant space or is there ducting and such there that would prohibit room for the depth of the gauges on the back side?

Thank you for any help. Pictures would be great also if anyone has them of the backside of this panel.

Dean

 

I have been all up and down these boards looking for pictures of anyone with gauges here or at least a dash torn apart to veiw this area........Can't find anything.

 

i think on that spot there are heater/defrost duct work. i ripped all my stuff out since its a drag car so i have no issues. a good idea is to hang them under hte center vents with gauge pods angled towards you thatd look cool

 

I appreciate the idea, But I do not want a hanging bracket on this car. I want them in dash flush.
Here's a different angle to where I want them.

 

I just want a clean look with as factory looking black face/black bezel gauges there. I am using Autometer 2 1/16 "Z" gauges

 

Just get black ABS (same texture as stock dash) and make it look stock. Wouldn't be hard.

 

I put my oil and temp gauge there bot I also dont have any air cond parts behind the dash.And I used 2 5/8 gauges. Just remove the top pad and you can work behind the dash.

 

Do you use your ashtray?

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...ghlight=gauges

 

Yep, that's my setup.....

Willie

 

I pulled it apart tonight an checked all possibilities without having to remove stuff in the dash. The yellow is the only places it would work and they did not have enough room to go even side to side,. These are the smaller 2 1/16' gauges but would have to mount diagonally in those two sections to fit side by side.

They are going where the blue tape is

 

If you remove the center vent tube, there will be room. I removed that piece and built a block-off plate when I installed my LCD screen and DVD player.

This pic is the best I have that shows the vent tube in place:


Here's the block-off plate that I made:


After the holes were cut in the dash, you can see that there's a fair amount of space behind the area now:

 

I have a new R134 A/C system in this car and I don't want to loose any vents. I live in sunny So. Calif.. That is good knowledge thought that I should have posted for someone else ever needing this info.

There is also the A/C control module (the unit in the same picture that you show which is off to the right and has wires running to it. Has a triangular kind of shape mount on the top in his picture) that can also be moved so there would be more room to mount gauges in the higher section also. This could be remounted to the left or removed if A/C is removed. That fres up the entire area with gauge depth in the yellow area above where my blue tape is. You can get 4 gauges wide rather than just two gauges staggered above there.

 

You could do what I am doing at the moment. I am creating a piece that will fit between the center console and the A/C vents.

The front piece is a customized radio trim plate. It can hold gauges, switches, whatever you want.

Good luck with trying to make them fit in the dash, be interesting to see that.

 

Its already about finished. Thanks for the help

 

Air Adam's car:

 

that is one crazy shifter!!

 

This is what i did

 

why put them where the blue tape is,, the purpose of gauges is to be able to see them. I think it'd be awful hard to see them way over there. Not trying to be an a$$, just wondering.

 

These are gauges that require a quick glance once in a while to make sure nothing is pegged over past vertical with the red needles. Such as trans temp. The other gauges will monitor electric water pump turn on/off (other water temp in in steering console gages in plain veiw), and a fuel pressure gauge and air/fuel ratro gauge strickly for tunnig and trouble shooting. They are all still in easy veiw of the drivers eye.

The entire purpose for putting them over to the side is to keep them from being too distractive. Hence why I did not want them on the A-piller on a pod where they are right in front of my face. They are non-crucial guages just there for verifying set up and running adjustments. I do not want the air/fuel ratio digital gauge flashing in front of veiw especially for normal driving, I need to focus on the dash gauges behind the wheel that give me critical vitals needed during racing type senerios like tach, fuel load, oil pressure in corners, and water temp. I put the flashy air/fuel ratio gauge as far over to the right and down so as not to distract.

 

RTFC, i'd have to say that is one of the most tasteful placements of guages i have seen yet. i think that i may put some of mine over there on the next car. how's a/f, trans, vacuum sound?

 

Thank you very much for the compliment Nova. I thought of Vacuum also but I do have plans to someday in the future install a Hydroboost for the brake booster, thus no need for vacuum pressure other than the computer controls.

I should also note that the gauges sitting on the passenger side of the car will give any passenger something of interest on there side when riding along.

 

Thats not blue tape. thats a mini blue neon tube

 

If you remove that vent and plug it like I did, more air will blow out of the other vents. You won't lose any airflow into the car.

Another choice is to just modify the center vent instead of remove it. You can cut away a section for clearance, and install a cupped insert. You'll still get the unnecessary airflow through it, and you'll have enough depth.

 

being carbed, i could really use the vacuum guage for tuning purposes.

 

I had an 82 that had three 2 5/8" gauges mounted there, but I never took the dash apart to see exactly how it was done. It was a typical Canadian non-A/C car though, too.

I like the setup in my 84, it works pretty well with three 2 1/6" gauges.:

<img src="http://members.shaw.ca/crussel/camaro3.jpg">

One of these days I'm going to add another row to it.

 

I found this pic. I don't know who's car it is, though.

 

Gotcha.. Cool.