Curious if anyone would make me a custom gauge bezel for my 89 camaro? I was wanting a metal or plastic duplicate of the 6 gauge holder that goes for like 900$. Need one that resembles this:

 

Theres tons of threads about people making custom panels. usually its just a flat peice of sheet metal. The 82-89 panels are way easier to make look good than the 90-92. With that being said:

The blank panels run $130 predrilled here. The $900 ones are the ones that come loaded with the gauges.

 

If I have time, I'm going to make a panel like that for my car next week, from aluminum. If it turns out ok, I could make a second one for you. Should be pretty easy to make, for the outline and screw holes the stock panel can be traced. I think it will only cost about $20 for the materials and tools to make a pair of those. Powdercoat might cost $10-$15 more.

 

I'm interested! Black would be a plus. Keep me posted and updated! thanks

 

I got some material today, 1/8" aluminum. I cut out a panel today, I'll see how it fits tomorrow or Wednesday.
What size gauges do you want, how many, and where do you want them? It would be helpful if you were to draw a simple pic.
Or I could just do it in the same layout as the one you posted a pic of.
4 2-1/16" and 2 3-3/8" holes.
Or 2 5" and 2 2-1/16".
There are lots of colors available for powdercoat, so if you want something else, it is available. I think the black wrinkle would match the stock interior the best.

edit: forgot to ask, do you need any other holes drilled in the panel, such as holes for turn signals or high beam indicators? Or are you going to mount those somewhere else?
I don't see any provisions for turn signal or high beam indicators in those other aftermarket panels.

 

Heres a picture of where i want the holes for the lights. I was thinking of putting those autozone light screw in plugs into the holes. I don't know the size exactly. Green is Turn Signals, Blue is High Beam.

Your opinion would the guages they have be good? or should i look else where? Are SunPro still good? IF sunpro is still good i could buy them from autozone. I believe they should be around the same size. They have the same appearance.

Wrinkle Black would be fine.

 

For gauges you might want to check out the SW gauges at Napa. You can save some money by getting mechanical oil pressure and coolant temp gauges, since the sending units for the electric ones are expensive.
I don't know if sunpro gauges are any good, but if they make a speedo and tach that are both inexpensive, I think they would be at least worth a try.

Almost any gauge will be available in 2-1/16", and almost any tach and speedo will be available in 3-3/8" or 5". You won't have any trouble finding gauges to fit those hole sizes.

If you can get a part number for the screw in lights that autozone has, I can go get some and make the gauge panel fit them. But it might be as long as a week before I go to autozone, since they are about 40 miles away. If you could find a part number for something similar at Napa, that would be better since I go by Napa a few times a week.

 

yeah just give me some time to get there

 

Today I got some led's at radioshack for the turn signal indicators, I'm not sure if they will work or not, (they look like they will to me) but I'm sure someone will be able to tell if they'll work. They will be very easy to mount to the panel if they'll work.
Here's the problem. I don't think they had any blue led's that looked like they would work (for the high beam indicator). Would a different color (I think they had red, amber, and green) be fine?
Here is a pic of the panel mounted to the dash (I didn't really make any other progress today) and two pics of the led's. I'll post a better pic of the led's later tonight so you can get a better idea of their size.
I cut the panel to the same shape as the stock one, but the gap on the right side isn't quite right, so I'll have to fix that tomorrow.

 

pics

 

I had those lights...and i wasnt very happy with them. They seemed kinda cheap looking once installed ( i know they are technically cheap...). And they were pretty dim when lit during the day. At night they were ok.

I also couldnt find any blue LEDs...those are the hardest to find. You'd be better off going with an online site to get the LEDs that you want and will be happy with.

Since I retained my factory high beam indicator and turn signal indicators, check engine light, and brake light, I just picked up two for low oil and for low coolant.

These are the ones I went with finally. They lit up nicer, i think due to the flat face, and they sat mroe flush and looked finished.



BUT...the ones you got will work! Dont get me wrong...not trying to talk you out of em

J.

 

ghetto cruiser the led's you used are what i was looking for! Greg, your picture was a bit blurry but looked the same as ghetto cruiser has? I'm happy enough as long as it works an I can tell when a turn signal is on and the high beams. Bright is great but not blinding, lol.
I'm fine with a amber light, for the high beam.

Also ghetto cruiser I was looking into black gauges with chrome trim ring, to give the classic look. Just debating on gauges now.. Don't need gauges that cost me 900$, but as long as it works i'm fine. I'm looking for a 160mph gauge with a 8k tach, an all the accessory gauges. So i think sunpro would be ideal, let me check their site and get the numbers for you greg

 

Where did you get the lights that you used for low oil and low coolant? They do look like the lights I already have.

 

For black gauges with chrome trim (and not too expensive), the SW deluxe gauges are worth looking in to:
8K tach: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SWW-82170/
160 speedo: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SWW-550BP-D/
Other gauges: http://www.summitracing.com/search/D...?Ns=Rank%7cAsc

IIRC, you need a 0-90 ohms fuel gauge to work with the stock sending unit.

The SW HD gauges also look like that, they just cost more.
But if sunpro has what you're looking for, they will probably be cheaper.

 

I never heard of stewart, those look great though! do they come in red numbers and hopefully back lit?

 

I don't know if there are any with red numbers, black face, and chrome trim available. The maximum performance series gauges have a red pointer, black face, and chrome trim.
I believe they are all back lit.

 

Thats fine. As long as the rpm tach an speedo are bigger than the accesory gauges go with those sizes. The ones you just linked me are perfect, imo!

 

A note on guages ... the ones with senders are more expensive because they are more desireable - few folks want to risk having the plastic tubes break or come loose from the guage on things like oil and coolant - means oil and/or coolant leaks out inside the car

 

For my mechanical oil pressure gauge I used a hydraulic line with crimped ends that (IIRC) was rated to 3000 psi, so I wasn't at any risk of failure. My line was free, but I bet you could get someone to make something like that for you inexpensively.
I also don't like the cheap plastic or copper lines that the gauges come with.

 

hmmm

 

Here's the progress I made today. I fixed the gap on the right side, cut the gauge holes, (which need to be made a little larger, the hardware store didn't have 2-1/16" or 3-3/8" hole saws, so I had to get 2" and 3-1/4" hole saws, and the holes just look kinda crappy still because I didn't remove the burrs left by the hole saws) countersunk the screw holes, and marked the locations for the turn signal indicator holes. (I didn't drill those holes yet, because I'm still not sure I want to use the bulbs I got yet)

 

That looks great! I changed my mind and now seeing the size i think the lights would look best in these locations.

 

I drilled the holes for the turn signal and high beam indicators on thursday, but I still haven't enlarged the holes for the gauges. Not anything really worth posting pics of...

 

looks nice u wouldnt wanna make one for me too would ya? just the same as what ya got and leave the holes a tad bit small and if i need to make em bigger i can do it on my own.... i already have all sunpro guages from auto zone they all work pretty good i just have 2 of every guage cause i still have the stock ones in and i relocated things to make the rest fit and i didnt wanna spend all that money to put em in the stock placement.. but if you could make me one of these bezels for a decent price shipped to 55117 that would be amazing... btw all my guages are pretty much the stock size..

 

Sweet greg, see now i'm making you business and having customers! It really is coming out great though Greg. Can't wait to see it finished with the paint. So are the sizes the same for the SunPro if i went with them as well. or will it only fit the guages you sent me links for?

 

It should fit any 2-1/16" and 3-3/8" gauges, probably including the sunpro gauges.
Might be a week or two before I can get it powdercoated though.
zachkuby87, I'll see about making another one, not sure how soon it will happen though.

 

im in no rush it would be nice though im not very good at fabricating i can wrench all day but when it comes to custom pieces it looks like a group of 4 year olds made it i still try time to time but it gets expensive cause after i make somethin that looks stupid i just throw it away...... just keep me updated and let me know what you would charge. thanks
zach

 

Got the panel back from the powder coater today. Here are some pics.
There is some corrosion in the bottom right corner, I didn't think anything of it before (you can kind of see it in the other pics posted) because I assumed the powder coating would hide it, but a bit more material was removed when they media blasted it. I took a couple close-up pictures of that area.

 

another picture...

 

Thats awesome man! pm me the bill to ship to 06489

 

I have one similar. I'll have to post pics in a little bit.

 

Nice work looking good!

 

looks good-like to see it installed, powder coat looks great too

 

You know, I just got a full set of iEquus Gauges for around $225. They look like this:


http://www.iequus.com/Product/Gauges/s8000.html

 

any update on this?

 

 

This is what I have so far. Sorry just VERY low on cash. :\ I envy others who can throw a few grand no problem just to screw around. But on the brighter note, i think its very neat how its coming along. This is all I have like I said but once i get all the gauges I'll take a picture and then a installation picture. I'm very happy with the black gauge with chrome trim. I'm going to install a red 5angle led for backlighting. Also going to make a 16-32pin connector to make a quick easy connect/disconnect Don't worry i'll keep updating, just having issues with funding. :\

thanks,
Timinsk

 

You can buy sheet plastic, even textured. I think uscomposites has that stuff. If you're going to use metal I recommend aluminum, no thinner than 1/8". Stainless will be expensive and hard to cut. Steel can be painted but will eventually rust.

With a few clamps, a drill bit, and a few hole saws you can make one of those pretty easy. Just a bit of math. You don't even have to do a great job with the hole saw since most gauges already have a little bezel that will hide minor (read MINOR) defects.

Mathius

 

i like it! I would love to do something like this myself but i dont really have the patience for it lol. Almost need exacly how u have yours too. spedo, tach, fuel, water temp, oil pressure, and id have boost too for my set up eventually but thats what i want to do to mine. Hopefully will have a friend do it for me!

 

honestly for $40 i couldnt beat that price for a direct fit made

 

The pieces you have constructed look better then the aftermarket crap I bought. Any more of these panels available? TIA.

 

Sorry, I haven't made any more of these, but that doesn't mean there isn't the possibility of more in the future.
I just don't really have the time to make more of these. I've been going back to school since spring, and I don't have the tools to make these very efficiently.

 

Damn i got lucky! Atleast if you can do it, it'll be side cash?