So here's my recent project. I swapped out all of my factory gauges in my bird for a Autometer setup, they are the ES series and all electric full sweep gauges. So this would work in any 86-92 bird.

Anyway, i set out to make a complete bolt in setup for us firebird owners, and almost sucseeded, but the water temp and oil pressure gauges need different senders and winging, not a big deal, but not quite a bolt in.

I starter with the factory pod, removed the gauges and the circuit board. I clearanced the entire inside of the pod to make room. Its REALLY tight on the sides and where the pog plugs into the dash.

I wired it up for the new gauges


I had to make a plate for the gauges to mount to, used 3/32 aluminum, .095 i think. Painted it black, maybe i'll have to powdercoated later.


after cutting the holes, the gauges fit in with some minor clearancing of the black bezel for the small gauges. The Speedo and Tach are too deep to fit in the factory pod like the smaller ones, so they sit about 3/8" higher and stick out a little.





cont..... damn pic limit

 

Since the speedo and tach sit into the dash openings, the clear plastic lens wont cover them, so i cut it down to only cover the smaller gauges and keep them a bit easier to clean.



Had to fish the wiring harness for the temp and pressure gauge down through the dash behind the pod, simple enough, and bolted the pod into the car.




lights on



They are pretty sweet! I have to move the tach a little its a hair low, but there is enough room on the hole to center it better. I need to swap the senders for the water and oil, and im done! All I have to take the car out and calibrate the speedo.

Im probably going to take it back out and replace the black bezel with another one and clearance it again, i got a little overzealous with the dremel and made the notches a little sloppy, you cant tell unless you really get close, but im not happy with them.

So it can be done! And you dont have to do any cutting of the dash or screwing/riviting things to it. Since a lot of this was trial and error, i have a pile of wasted gauge pods, and i need to tweak a few areas, but overall it was a cool job and actually worked out quite well once i figured out all the placements.

Its nice to have the odometer back at 1 mile, i need to go to the dmv and see about mileage verification so i dont get in trouble.

-Phil

 

Very nice!

 

Those are the same gauges I'm planning on getting, nice choice! Don't you like that red glow when lit up?

 

yes i do! thats why i went with them. It looks killer in the dark

 

Very nice! I had considered doing something similar to this. Except I had thought about using one of the dummy light clusters with a speedometer and one of the quad gauges that Autometer makes.

 

Nice work!

You cut the clear lens away from the speedo and tach right? So are they completely open now?

I'd like to get just the speedo installed for now since I just swapped to a T56. Do you know if I would still have to make a custom aluminum piece?

 

missed this sorry.

you need somthing to mount the speedo to, so yes, you would have to make something

 

Looks good, nice and clean. I did the same kind of thing on a 2nd gen and an S10.