Alright bear with my really crappy rendering on notebook paper and tell me what you think of this idea....



Where the Ashtray used to be I could fit two 2inch gauges in a small pod in the ashtray area. Now they would be laid down only sticking up about 1/2 inch above the console. This way its not in the way with the radio controls. They would be on an angel facing the driver rather facing str8 back.

Of course you have to get a new piece of plastic there and shape the pod, but do you think its doable? Any thoughts on this idea. I am not sure what two gauges I'd be sticking there, lesser important ones I'm sure. Anyone have gauges in there center console?

[This message has been edited by un4givin89 (edited August 10, 2001).]

 

I think AutoMeter already has a piece exactly like what you are talking about made out of black ABS plastic for 2 1/16" gauges.

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Carl
CarAudio Resources

 

Those bastards!

 

hehehee. dood, that pics on crack, hehehehe.

hmm... i dunno if that was for firebird or maro, but thatd be pimp on firebird. flip lid, baaaam. hidden NAAAWWWS, (sorrry, brought on by fast n furious) nitrous gauge...

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That picture made no sense to me unfortunately

 

I can't draw worth crap. You try explaining an idea at 3:45am :| hehe

 

lol, I kinda get what your sayin. I think that would look pretty sweet. How about mounting some NOS switches in the ash tray? that would be pretty cool! Good Idea.

 

I have an automatic so I don't know about the manual cars... but the shifter would obstruct the view of the guages a bit.
you could just buy guage pods for the a-piller that are already made. It would be much easier.

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- Duncan Clarke
1987 camaro z28

 

Already have pods for the a pillar, I'm talking bout adding more, less importnat gaauges, NOS pressure, Voltage...

 

Well, I thought they had them for 3rd gens, but I guess not. Here is the one I was thinking of and it appears to be for 1st gens only...



------------------
Carl
CarAudio Resources

 

I've done something similar to your idea. It's a unique idea, so I'll try to describe it as best I can.

First, I removed the ash tray and substituted a rectangular piece of smoked plexiglas. Underneath the plexiglas, there's a custom fabricated three-pod gauge panel which holds three Nordskog (ex-Cyberdyne) digital gauges. This gauge panel is mounted at approximately a 30-degree angle, so the gauges face towards the rear. The digital readouts show through the smoked plexiglas, but the gauges themselves are hidden. Looks very clean because all that can be seen when the gauges are off is smoked 'glass.

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Willie

Supercharged 1987 305 IROC-Z, Daily-Driver, Emissions-Legal.
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http://willie.camaro-firebird.org/

1987 "20th Anniversary Commemorative Edition" Z28 Convertible -- Super Chevy Show Class Winner, 1998.

 

I'm in the process of doing something similar, though not with gauges.

Part of my company is a prototype/CNC machine shop... I had them drill out the rivets for the ashtray lid and make a custom aluminum plate that fits down inside there. It's bent upwards at an angle in the back so it "flows" and looks almost stock.

I am putting two toggle switches down there, along with two LEDs. One switch will be a radio cutoff and the other I'll wire to a concealed garage door opener. I was going to put switches in my "rare" overhead console but I'm too lazy to route all of the wire through the headliner.

Today I drilled the holes for the plate and realized that the switch holes are on the passenger side... oh well. When I get this done I'll create another post and put up some pictures.

Just another idea...

 

Here's a pic of what I described above:

<IMG SRC ="http://wsphotofews.excite.com/028/Xw/Dn/r8/1U63944.jpg">

Willie

[This message has been edited by Willie (edited August 14, 2001).]

 

Willie,
The pic doen't show up. I tried copy/paste and that didn't work either. I'd like to see your setup, sounds interesting.

 

That's odd. The pic was there when I posted it.. I'll e-mail it to you.

Willie

 

That looks pretty cool Willie. I just had to correct one point: Nord-Skog bought out Intellitronix. Cyberdyne is completely unrelated to either company.

I am going to do something similar with the smoked plexi and digital gauges, but up above the radio section.

 

I saw a car that used the climate controls as NOS switches, and gauges in the glove box. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

 

I can see the pics now, thats really cool man.

 

On a similar realted note, A few years back I bought the Cyberdyne gages from JC Whitney. I put them in my 67 Riv. Anyway, I did not like the red LED numbers, and I thought they were a little small. So I bought 15 3/4 inch LED numbers desplays.

I poped off the face of each of the gages and, de soldered all the LED numbers. Since my numbers were larger, I could not simply plug them in.

From there I bought a circut board form Radio Shack, measured my spacing, where I wanted to put my numbers. I then started to solder wires from the holes of the old LED numbers to the new LED's. Been going for 5 years, and still no problems. I have a bad ground on one of my gages that I need to tighten but other than that, it works great. The numbers seem to be a little innacruate, but they give me an idea.

With that Idea you could take a batch of digital gages, and locate them wherever you wanted in your car. Run a batch wire cable to where you want your numbers to be located That way you could cluster them together. and it would not be so spaced out.

I used my stock dash on the riv to put the numbers in, so I did not have to relocate the gages, I only had 112 4 inch wires to run. thats 224 solder connections. It took me about 4 days to do it. I will see if I can get a picture of it.

<img border="0" src="http://www.usol.com/~okfoz/images/Riv/67RIVdigitalgages.jpg" width="448" height="300"></p>


Just an idea for you.

John

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87 Formula Yellow/Black
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[This message has been edited by okfoz (edited August 15, 2001).]

 

you guys got it all wrong...you HAVE to go for hood gauges baby!!!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by un4givin89:
They would be on an angel facing the driver rather facing str8 back.

They would be on an angel? Where on an angel?
he he