I am converting to 5 speed and I know the factory tachs aren't very accurate. I am trying to maintain stock look in the interior cause mine is imacculate and I HATE when something the looks slapped together and with a shitton of mods. Show some pictures of where you put your tach and what you did.

 

I'm interested too on this. But under my middle vents i'm putting a tri-gauge pod, so i'm hoping theres some creative spots.

 

Good topic! I am subscribing!
Out of all of my 8 factory gauges, only three work!
My speedo, my fuel, and my oil pressure!

I am thinking about doing this look with the pod under the ac vent:

like this users:


Then what I am going to do is blank (back out) the factory tach and
install a autometer 5 inch tach on my driver side A pillar,
use a Oil, Volt and Water temp for the pod under the AC vent.
I have a link to ebay for the pod shown if anyone else wants one.

 

I put mine in the custom guage cluster I made. It looks like it could be factory.

 

I love this! Do you think it would be just as easy on a 82-89 model?
How hard is it to make this?
Im sure its much more cheaper than buying a premade panel is it not?
THIS LOOKS AWESOME MAN!
Love this look! Gotta have it!

 

Can you post a better picture of the A pillar?
That looks much better than a pod in my opinion!
Where did the aquire the brackets for the A pillar gauges and
what size are those gauges? What size are the speedo, tack, and other
dash gauges?
Thanks!

 

Thank you. It wasnt that hard to make. I made a template out of carboard and then traced it on to the same board you would make a box out of for subs. I think Home Depot called it project board. I then covered the whole thing (after cutting all the holes) with fiberglass resin. This was too seal it so moisture didnt rot the board, and to make it perfectly flat so that it looked good after painting. I then made little brackets that actually let it bolt in to the factory mounting locations.

It was cheaper. I'm not sure what the pre-made panels go for but the supplies only cost a couple bucks. The guages cost a decent amount becuase they are all electric. I also wired the whole cluster in the dash into one quick disconnect from painless. This way if I have to take the guages out, I just disconnect one connector and everything comes out.

As far as how it is on a 82-89, I'm not sure. My brother has a custom cluster in his 85 TA, but his isnt as clean as mine. Its not his fault, but the TA dash raps around the AC vents and around the headlight switch in his car so it isnt as easy. If the Camaro is like this, then it is a little more challenging to make.

And the two green LED's in the middle are for the turn signals.

 

Thanks. The car is up at my work right now, but tomorrow I'll get a better pic. The speedo and the tach are 5" and the speedometer is the programable one. All the smaller guages are 2 5/8. All the guages are Auto Meter Pro Comps. The guage pods for the A pillar came from Summit. Heres a link to them. I had at first wanted the normal guage pods, but I decided to try these. I was really glad I did after wards as it is nice to have something a little different than most people.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ATM-3202/

 

Awesome man! More pictures! How hard was it to get all this to fit in the 91?

 

Not that hard. I just removed the factory guages (which is all one piece) and then made my cardboard template to fit into its spot. I think I may have had to trim a little bit of the plastic behind the guages (I did this project 3 years ago). I think in the end, it took me maybe 4 hours or so to make the piece. The wiring took longer. The key is to make the template so it fits nice and then trace where the guages are going to be. The nice part about the project board I used is that it cost less than 10 bucks for a piece that is 2' x 4'. This way if you mess the first one up (which I did) you can start over and it doesnt cost any more money. You can probably make 3 or 4 of these on one board. I used hole saw bits to cut out the holes. I also used a piece of weather stripping with the adhesive back to fill in the gap between the cluster and the steering column.

 

Great. Hole saws I am familar with.
What about the cluster? Did you remove the entire cluster or cut through it as well?
One other question. This mod does seem way cheaper than buying the entire panel with gauges.
I was looking on summit and found a total of 7 gauges including a clock that I want in the A pillar. Do you think there is room in that A pillar to mount a third gauge?
Also. When I got to the fuel level gauge I got three choices.
OHMs... Which OHms do I need?
Are you using electrical or mech speedo?
Are you using electrical or mech Oil Press?
Are you using electrical or mech Water temp?
I come up with about $630 including three brackets.

 

ran this for the longest time. when driving i could see all the other gauges just fine.

 

Unfortuantely the only good pic I have of the tach is one with me in it, but I like this spot. I thought I would hate it, but it's really pretty good. I just bump it every once in a while steering, but this is a corner carver car and it still doesnt bother me so it's all good.



Very visible and obvious but surprisingly it doesnt really get in the way of my view at all like I was worried it would. I just wish I didnt have to drill my plastic, but I figure that should be an easy piece to replace if I ever decide to remove it. Much easier than the dash center section or the dashpad, which was one of the reasons I decided to do it that way. The visible wiring bothers me though.

 

Looks great! I'd buy smaller guages so I could fit the fuel,oil,volts like it is stock, i really do like the green spot lights for turn signals.
How did you wire this up? Are there connectors that fit right over the stock terminals? If so i might buy some fareau's and just put a connector on it and it'll be plug & play I might use the stock gauge bezel on the outside and just screw the gauges on those wholes, but do they make gauges that small & big to fit them?

 

Yea, I removed the entire cluster. Just take the kick panel out, then pull the bezel around the cluster off and there are 2 bolts at the bottom. Then the cluster unbolts. The new one I made bolts to where the original one did.

As far as which fuel level guage, I'm not sure which one I bought. I'm almost positive its the 0-90 ohms one though.

All the guages are electric. The speedo is programable so if you ever change gear ratio, tires, whatever, a 2 mile drive will recalibrate it. Whenever you put guages in the car you want them to be electric. Reason is that if a oil pressure line, with 200 degree oil at 50 psi breaks right over your lap, your not going to have a very good day. And yes, there would be room enough for one more guage. It would be at a kinda wierd angle though, so I would put the clock up there. I put the most important guages in my line of sight. Thats why the oil pressure and the coolant temp are in the main cluster.

Here are a few more pics of the A pillar. Excuse the sharpie marker. Unitll I looked at the pic, I had no idea that was still there.

 

The main cluster in the dash is wired into a single quick disconnect from Painless Wiring. I had to run wiring to each guage individually, then into the connector. I had already rewired my entire car though so I had no factory wiring to tie into except for the fuel level guage. Maybe tommorrow or sometime next week I'll take the cluster out and take a pic of the backside of it. I had no idea this many people would be interested in it

 

So the wires to your ecm you just relocated to where it needs to be so the gauge could read properly? I'm looking to go from TBI to CARB thats why an was wanting new gauges, also how much is the painless?

 

YES! DO IT!

 

very much so!

 

bump

 

I got another question...
Do you think a monster tach would fit inside of the gauges on the A pillar?
IE, two gauges, then the 5" tach on the right inside of the smaller gauges?
Will a 5" even fit comfortably btween the windshield and dash pad?
I guess I could always break out a tape measure!

 

Had a chance to take pics?

Interested in this "quick disconnect" from Painless Wiring, etc etc

 

i used some 1/4" black mirror plexi glass that i had laying around. i have smaller cheaper gauges obviously but this will work. i just took the black overlay that screws to the cluster and copied it onto the plexiglass. took a cut off wheel and cut it out. used a hole saw to cut out the hole and used a file to make the edges rounder. i drilled out 4 holes (where the original cluster bolts into) and used some nice stainless hex bolts to attach it. as you can see in the picture i didnt have the bolts in there just yet. it spent a good week just sitting there (snug) before i felt like messin with it again. it really is kind of aggravating trying to get it in and out of that small space 100 times. HINT: TAKE OFF YOUR STEERING WHEEL FOR EASIER ACCESS. but anyway it was simple, took maybe 4-5 hours. most of the time spent was taking my time on cutting and making sure it fit perfect before i just slaped it in there. enjoy

 

Back from the dead. So wheres the picture of the backside of the gauge plate? Im interested. Its like this guy here in the pictures below. He bought the Camaro with the gauges already replaced.

 

 

i ****ing love it

 

Yup!!! 20 cool points for that digital gauge!!!

 

Catch the gps speedometer on the right?