I decided to make a new secondary gauge panel for my Z28. Two reasons prompted this idea. 1. I had the motor out for a head and cam swap and wanted to add an oil temp gauge and for this I had to weld a bung for the temp probe into the oil pan (I prefer mechanical gauges), 2. did not want to remove my main gauge cluster as that was exactly what I wanted it to look like. More on that main cluster I made can be seen in this thread...

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...er-custom.html

So I already had a 3 hole Autometer gauge panel in the car and upon searching realized nothing was out there as I was picturing in my head. I did not want to hang this additional gauge elsewhere in the car as I like to keep them all within the same area for ease of viewing. i wanted to add a 2 5/8" gauge at first but where I was planning to put it would leave it hanging too low. I made all of the mockups with Adobe Illustrator, printed them out, trimmed them to size and taped them over the existing gauge panel to see if the idea was what I wanted (see pic 2Mockup.JPG). I finally came up with one I was happy with and made it out of 1/8" aluminum. I have no pics yet of it powdercoated, but I had it coated with black mini tex. Matches the rest of the parts I have made for the dash, and is a very close match to the factory plastic grain.

I also added two indicator lights to light up for when the 2 step function of the MSD digital 6 is activated so I know I can matt it (hard to hear the relay "Click" with a helmet on at the track) as I plan to leave off this... this is the green light. And the blue light is to indicate when the WOT switch is activated on the nitrous system, aside from the "Armed" light.

Anyway here are the pics!

 

Final 2 pics. I will get some final powdercoated pics this week sometime!

I am very happy with how it came out!

 

that looks nice. its always nice to see ideas go from head to reality, and look good on top of that

 

That looks nice, How much are they? LOL, seriously thats got to be one of the best secondary pods I've seen yet.

 

Thank you!! It is nice to see it come out like I envisioned!


Thank you! And since I have a template, $25 shipped a panel.

 

Do you have the template for the main dash bezel. The one that goes behind the steering wheel. I just need the outer diameter plate. I see you have done that as well. If you dont have the template....can you tell me how you came up with it?

 

Sorry...No I don't, I just traced the factory black plastic cover from the dash. I actually made that plate before I started mocking things up on the computer first. It was a PITA to get the layout I was after as it is not symmetrical either!

 

Yeah, thats what i noticed. Even if you layed it down flat the tracing egde would not be on the paper. Thanks anyway