When I bought my car it came with the A-Pillar gauges. Never being a fan, I decided to make console gauge to give the car a retro look. A friend of mine used an extra center console plate that I got from the local yard. He cut out the pieces needed from sheet metal.

Here is is final product from the machine shop in the raw:



From the side



Took some grinding and cutting to get it to fit right. Here is the the final fit for the console.



The only thing left was to cut the center hole for the shifter and grind out the holes for the gauges because the sunpro gauge my buddy used to cut it was not as deep as the autometer gauges that I have for it. Final pics after fitting gauges and shifter.



This is where I am at so far. He made the edges rounded, I am thinking of squaring them out to match the squared edges of the console. Once I decide that I am completely happy with it I am going to hit it with some textured paint for a perfect match. Overall it came out great, I am just a perfectionist when it comes to my cars so it has to look like a factory option for me.

 

Well, the link info looks good & I'm sure the gauges look better, but the links aren't working, or is it just me??

 

Sorry bout that. Should be working now.

 

IMHO that does look real nice!!

 

The best part is that it is all separate pieces so I can change and modify it however I want. I just replace the top shifter plate with another piece of metal and cut it to fit whatever. My buddy also said he could make the front where the gauges are for anything anyone could come up with... ipods, cellphones, whatever.

 

I was thinking about something for the iPhone other than the ashtray too.

There's plenty room for hi-temp & oil pressure warning lights, shift light, N2O switch, etc., just has to be planned out what you may want to add, if anything in the future.

Did you use 2 5/8 or 2 1/16 gauges?

 

thats a pretty good idea, i might try this myself if you dont mind

although id make it to where the gauges are tilted to point toward the driver

 

I like it, for things you don't need to keep your eyes on all the time. Too bad you couldn't fit 4 of them in there for even more of a retro look.

 

I used the 2 5/8 gauges.

Go for it. I thought about the same thing but I can see these pretty good already when the car is in drive. In park, the right side is blocked. I also thought about recessing the front of the gauges so they are a little lower. Still may do that. At this point it's real easy to modify.

Thanks, I thought about 4 but it wasn't happening. I also would have liked to have found some rectangular gauges that would look closer to the old stuff.

 

I like it

I see the volts gauge, but what's the other one?

I like the gauge choice too. Thank you for not using gauges with all the chrome bling.

--Just my opinion here, but I think that'd look really nice with Autometer "Z-series" gauges. I bet you could fit 3, and angle them towards the driver with these... http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ATM-2234/ Now that would look nice, and the gauges don't look out of place in our interiors at all, I loved mine. But like I said, I like how you have it set up too.

 

I mispoke when I said they were 2 5/8. They are 2 1/16 gauges in there already. I was wondering why I didn't find all those 2 1/16 gauges when I was first making it because I was looking for something a little smaller before I made it. The gauges that are in it are oil pressure and water temp. I just used those two temporarily to make it. When I got the car the stock gauges werent working. I have fixed the wiring runing them so I don't have a need for the other two gauges other than filling my holes. Future plans are to install a Air/Fuel gauge and a Nitrous pressure gauge and I think that since everyone is recommending it, I am going to remake the gauge plate so the gauges tilt toward the driver position.

 

quality work. very classy. I fall into "make it look stock" quota as well, lol.

 

Hi - looks very nice. Can you share what textured paint your are going to use?

 

Thats sweet!!!

 

i been trying to figure out where to put my toggle switches at . should have 5 or 6 toggel switches and this should work perfect . looks great man i think i might have to steal your idea for my switches. could you tell me what guage metal you used to make this.

 

I was going to try the Krylon Outdoor Spaces Black Textured #2911 first. If I don't like it I will go with something else. Each brand has a little bit different coarseness to the texture, Krylon looks like the closest match so far.

Go for it and post pics on this thread. It will be cool to see other ideas. I will have to get back with the metal gauge. I'll ask the friend that cut it all out. He will know off the top of his head.

 

Sweet mod. Sorry but I might be stealing this idea for my car.

 

If you're looking for the perfect paint match...

I used Rustoleum "professional grade" undercoating, what you can buy in a can at Autozone for 6 bucks or something.

Spray that on, and it's a pretty darn good match by itself. But if it gets dirty, it's difficult to clean, and cloth and lint catch on it very easily.

So what I did, was after spraying the undercoating and letting it dry, I sanded lightly with 400 and then 1000 grit sandpaper (washing it off very well) to smooth the surface down, while retaining the textured finish. After sanding and thoroughly cleaning/washing it off, it's going to be a much lighter gray than you started with. But wipe it down with armor-all, buffing it almost (this takes a little time) and you can bring it to nearly a perfect match to the factory interior, and it cleans easily to boot. From a few feet away or the outside of the car, you couldn't tell the difference.

I did this when I made my custom gauge panel, I loved it

 

i know its been a while sence i said i was going to steal this idea but i finally got it finished and thought i would share some pics.

 

i will install it tommorrow and post some of it in the car. i now need a new shifter boot real bad. and i have an idea for a custom shifter **** but that will be later.

 

Well the plate looks great but that is one awful looking shifter boot

 

Did you mount the switch panel to the original shifter plate or did you fab the whole thing? What are all the switches for?

 

i just fabed up the plate for the switchs because i used a 5speed base it would have been alot more work.


as for all the switches there for the halos on the bmw headlights i will be installing , fog lights, neons in the car and under the car , and strobe lights. i want everything on different switchs so that when i go to the cruse inns and car shows i can turn on everthing seperate.

 

the shifter boot will be replaced and i am going to make a shifter handle out of a white snooker{bumper pool}ball. snooker poolballs are smaller than a normal 8 ball .

 

i made a switch panel that sits in my ash tray so i can close it and it looks stock

 

for the tilt toward the driver you can cut the gauge openings as ovals/eclipses to fit properly sized metal tubing at the desired viewing angle. Then fit the tube through the flat panel kinda like rooftop vent stacks. the end result will be angled like the pillar gauges but on the console
edit: oh someone covered this:/