Just finished up a little project I've been working on the past few days. Gone is the stock 85 mph double needle speedometer which read 50 mph driving through town. The new electronic one will be great since I'll be switching rear gears from time to time. Had to buy autometer's little sender to screw onto the transmission and ran some new wires.

So it began with taking the stock dash out and measuring it up. After a while of doing that, this is what I came up with in the CAD program.


Ordered up the aluminum, popped it in the CNC mill and after a while this is what came out.


Since this was going to be black anodized, I bead blasted it for a little bit nicer matte finish and to get rid of any scratches.


Next of course was the test fitting of the gauges


While waiting for Monday to roll around to send the dash off to the anodizer, I decided to do a little wiring. This is just the power and grounds to the gauges plus the lights all of which will be spliced into the stock harness.


Back from the anodizer!


Another test fitting and just to see how it looks. The 4 smaller blank holes will have some LEDs in them, they hadn't arrived yet when taking the pic.


After much wiring and splicing into the stock harness plus the arrival of the LEDs, here's the nearly finished project all lit up. I might try and find a different bulb for the tach since it's brightness overpowers everything else.


Just about everything works after splicing into the stock harness. The only thing I haven't figured out whats wrong is the "brake" light. It doesn't light up when I pull the hand brake like it used to with the stock dash. Think I may know the problem though, just have to look into it a bit more.

One last little thing was this plate I did years ago now but finally got it anodized black too.

 

now thats a nice lookin dash!! good job it looks sick!

one the the many things on my to do list!

 

Very nice job. I think it would have looked better with a brushed aluminum finish, but maybe a little too flashy... Either way, it looks really good.

 

Oooooh.I like that. Will you share the template? I can have the stainless laser cutting guy across my shop cut me one. That's looking real spiffy!

 

badass man. looks real sweet. i liked it the aluminum color too

 

Thanks guys... Reason I didn't want to keep it just raw aluminum is to me, that was too much of one color going on.

Here's another pic before it was black.

 

thats is one cool dash!

what are the green and blue lights for?

 

Very very nice, thinking of making any for us cnc mill challenged folks?

 

you can buy these off of EBAY. got one for my car while back.
i think the guy will even cut it to your specs.

here is the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/82-89...1%7C240%3A1318

 

Turn indicators and highbeam indicator

I do have an extra one laying around that's black and I think enough material left over for a couple more. Just remember, this isn't a simple plug in play type of swap and I'm not using some things that others might be. I have no computer so no need for an SES light. Also not using the Choke light and didn't make spots for the water temp or voltage gauge since I had those in another place. There is room to put those into the dash but really can't see them all that well way down below, or at least I can't. The bottom 2 most inner screws don't go into anything so I'm just going to put a speed nut on the back or something to put the screws in for looks. There are 6 others that hold the dash just like stock.
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Mine is much thicker, has recessed areas for the screws like stock and a beveled edge.

 

Looks great. What size gauges are those?

 

I understand that...I`m using 5 inch gauges and 2 1/16...looks clean PM me a price if my stuff will fit

 

How did you go about hooking up the turn indicators and high beam?

I would really like to do this to mine.

 

5 inch and 2 1/16 gauges.

Tapped into the stock harness that plugs into the gauge cluster. Not sure how much things changed from 82 but on mine, the wire for the left turn and highbeams were on the black connecter and the right turn wire was on the clear connector. Think the left turn was a light blue wire, right turn was a darker blue and I forget what the highbeam was but I'll add the info in.

Left turn: Black connector, pin 8, light blue wire
Right turn: Clear connector, pin 12, blue wire
Highbeams: Black connector, pin 10, light green wire

Changing over to an LED flasher unit too since the turn signals flash really slow now. Kinda acts like a bulb is burnt out due to the low draw of the LED.

 

thanks!
I will post some pics when I get it done.

 

Very nice job! I like how you have the screw holes countersunk.

 

WOW...by far the nicest one I have seen to date!!!

Makes mine look JYD in comparison!

"The only thing I haven't figured out whats wrong is the "brake" light. It doesn't light up when I pull the hand brake like it used to with the stock dash. Think I may know the problem though, just have to look into it a bit more. "

I went through some wiring confusion and posted this when I figured it out and got all the lil lights working right...

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...ghts-high.html

 

Very nice, Evil.

JamesC

 

Ahh just what I thought on the brake light thing. That's an easy enough fix to do. Thanks for that bit of info!

 

Glad to help!

 

Very nice!!

I've been wanting to do something simular to mine. My stock gages are real junk....

 

any chance you know where i cant kind a schematic on the wiring for that? im plannin on doin this to my 84 soon-ish

 

Here's a neat idea for a finish (at least I think it is LOL) I did this on my 77 vette. It's wrinkle paint but stuck it in the oven for a deeper wrinkle finish:



Still hoping someone wants to share a DXF of the template

 

Basicly just need the pinouts for the two plugs that go into the cluster if you plan on tapping into the stock wiring. Whatever the stock harness didn't have, I ran new wires. Had to do that for the electronic speedometer which was only 3 wires down to the new sensor on the trans.

Here's what I used for the pinouts. On the clear connector, pin 09 ground wire, that's not a regular ground I found out. Think it's the one I need to get the "brake" indicator light working again, just haven't gone out in the cold yet to try it out.

 

the guages look awesome but i think they would look even better with this little touch and if you can make it i would buy in a heartbeat. Now these pics are from a ford but be open minded.

http://www.mc-machine.com/mcm_galler...ashpics/black/