While I had the dash out to remove the climate control, I figured I might as well upgrade the gauges. What do you guys think? Personally, I really love the way they turned out. I can't wait to fire it up and play with my new programmable wideband O2 gauge

 

Sweet! Looks really clean & like factory

 

Where are you hiding the temp gauge?

 

I've had my water temp, trans temp and air/fuel indicator (Soon to be replaced with wideband air/fuel rato gauge) in an Autometer triple gauge pod on my a-pillar for a while, so I didn't include those in the pictures.

 

looks a lot like mine andy

 

Except symmetrical

 

where did you get the plastic to match the dash?

 

I got the ABS plastic from rdplastics.com

I got way too much, but it's good because it took me three times to get the cluster perfect enough for me.

 

looks sweet! but i think i saw two fuel gauges?


EDIT: 2nd is psi, I'm just

 

Here is a few pics of mine:

 

BOTTLEDZr28 ; I have to say that your use of the space under the center dash air vent for two guages is absolutely ingenious!! Would you be willing to share how you pulled that off? (or better yet, how you installed/or built that guage box????? Wow!!!!!! Nitro

 

I bought a used radio trimplate and cut it so it was just was wide as the vents. Then I made a box enclosure out of ABS plastic with a structual center piece down the middle. I used 4 clips that are the same as the ones used to hold the radio trim in place to hold the face for the gauges. it looks just like the radio plate now. The lines run up into the vent under the dasah and then down behind the gauge cluster. These are mechanical gauges so all Ihad to do was run the wires for the lights and then the braided lines through the firewall. I had these gauges mounted in a cutom made panel under my cowl in my old hood but then I bought an SS hood and had to find a place for them to go they didnt fit under the cowl in the SS hood since they are 2 5/8" gauges

 

those gauges doo look like a factort installation..........

 

That is Impressive on how you put that together!!

I had removed a pop-out cup holder from a wrecked Mitsubishi and was planning on installing it in that spot, but I'd much rather have a box made to hold a couple guages instead.

I have a lot of respect for people who have craftsman abilities like that; Wow!!!! Nitro

 

where did u get tha little green turn signal lenses and how did u wire them up ?

 

I got my green turn signals lights from radio shack. They are standard 12V indicator lights. I was going to use LEDS but that required a little bit of work to get the flasher to work and stuff and the extra time didnt make it worth it considering these look just as nice. I did not install a high bea indicator for a ferw reasons. 1, my high beams dont work unless I mess with the tilt wheel while I am driving and 2 I will know the high beams are on if the foglight switch light is off. I plan on changing it up a little bit down the road and I will fix the high beam problem and then add in a few more indicator lights. There is also no need for a SES light on my car since I am not running the stock computer anymore.

 

Wow that Under the A/C Vent install looks great. I'm really tempted to that to mine....

When I got the car It had Gauges installed under the A/C vent, and I thought it looked pretty clean, but after seeing yours, I really don't think so anymore.

The big rub with mine is that the previous owner ruined a perfect dash pad drilling holes for the Tach...

Here's what it looks like..

Take care,

George

 

where can i buy a sheet of the same material as the dash i am trying to put in custom gauges and i cant use the old gauge cover

 

I bought a sheet of ABS plastic from rplastics.com
I still have a decent amount left, how much are you looking for?

 

that's looking really good metallicamaro! only thing i'd have done differently, is probably put a couple more guages in the cluster behind the steering wheel. it looks a little plain.

here's a couple of mine:
what she looks like currently

an older pic from when i still had the car on the street, had a radio and center console in it still

 

Wow, I just wanted to say to everyone, that those dashes look good. I am on the fence as to wether to tear up the dash in my 91 GTA. It is not that bad looking stock, but new gauges are fun!

 

let me first tell you that if you plan on doing this major swap then you will need to know a bit about the wiring setup behind your cluster.There is going to be a lot of head scratching once you look back there and see what GM did. Ya, its a mess. There was no way I was splicing this wire and that wire to the factory wire just for lights in the gauges and I basically started all over again and ran all new wires for each gauge. I made a 2 junction boxes for the grounds and the wires for the lights. It just made it a lot easier to service if I needed to. I went to the junkyard and found come GM male to female connectors out of a 4th gen and used those as my plug and play setup. Now all I have to do is unplug 3 plugs and its out.


Just make sure you know what your getting into here. its not hard but its not for the amataur either. Good luck. oh and make sure you do some research on getting the new speedo you plan to buy hooked up to the computer AND the tranny.

 

How did u run the wires for the lights n turnsignals? which color are they i'm in the process of doing the same and i'm stumped. also did u run a new wire for the fuel gauge or tap into the existing one?.. which color is that one if u know?


John

 

I cant answer that question becuz Gm changed the wires so many times over the years. The only thing for you to do is to get a copy of thw wiring diagram for your VIN. Then get a few more and compare. I have found a few different ones just my my 1991 model year. As for my fuel gauge wire, I used the same wire. I was going to run a new one but I didnt have that length of wire laying around. The rest of the gauges have new wires. The turn signal wires where spliced into the GM ones that go to the switch.

 

i just need to make a new gauge cluster to mount the gauges in the stock location

 

I didn't really have much more room. I wanted to use a 5" speedo and tach, and trying to add another gauge in there would have made it too crowded. I also like symmetrical as opposed to the setup you are running. If I did cram another gauge or two there, the panel where the climate control was would look too plain. To each his own though

Thanks. This was one thing I didn't plan on doing with the motor swap but since I had the dash out I decided to go for it and I am glad I did. I really love the look.

I don't have the diagrams handy, but GM had a few (two or three) wires for the gauge backlighting. So for the cluster, I put the speedo on one and the tach and fuel on the other. For the other panel, I ran new wires. As for the turn signals, I just used the same wires they used from the factory, just extended them. Fuel gauge uses the fuel sender wire for it's signal... no need to run a new wire.

I have plenty of ABS plastic left, probably enough to do 4-5 OEM sized panels. PM me if you're interested.

 

Thanks for the tips BOTTLEDZ28. I agree GM had some crazy ideas when they wired up our cars. That is why I pulled the engine bay harness completely out and made my own when I switched over to the Holley Commander 950.

 

Why is everyone removeing there climate control?

 

Can you get a mechanical speedo that doesnt have to connect to the ecm?
Botteledz28 are those 5" speedo and tach you have or 3 3/8.

 

You can use a mechanical speedo, you just need the matching tailhousing for your transmission. Autometer makes some speedos that will allow you to use either the raw signal from the VSS of the speed signal coming out of the ECM on the 730 ECM. I cannot remember the differences in signals, I think one is 4000ppm and the other 2000ppm. If all else fails Dakota digital makes a little box called the SGI-5 that will convert just about any speed signal, to what you need it to be.

 

The wiring isn't really anything that strange, I'm not sure what you guys found so unusual about the gauge wiring.

I removed my climate control because I don't drive the car in the winter, and when I drive it in the summer, the t-tops are off. No use for heat or A/C and it really cleaned up the engine bay.


I am running a mechanical speedometer and I didn't change my tailshaft housing. Check out http://www.jagsthatrun.com/Pages/Spe...eedometer.html and pick up a VSS that goes inline between the transmission and the speedometer cable. One wire to ground, one wire to the signal for the ECM and you're done.

 

all 89 and older camaros use a mechanical speedo from the factory. that's not the case with the firebird though. i think they got an electronic vss in 86 or 87.

 

no you don't have to use a mechanical tailshaft housing, you can purchase the electric to mechanical converter from Jags That Run, for about 300 dollars, or you can spend 50 dollars at a junk yard for the mechanical setup.

The GM setup is not wierd, it is hokey. The splices are in bad spots, and are done poorly. The connectors are poor quality, and they did not standardize on anything, some sending unit are electric some are mechanical, speed is synthesized in the ecm, in the gage, yad yada yada.

 

Botteledz28 and/or metalicamarorsRS,are yalls speedo and tachs 5" or 3 3/8?They look a little smaller than 5".Thanks.I want to put all new white gauges in my dash but the 5" are pretty pricey.If thats how the 3 3/8 look I`ll go that route.Thanks again.

 

I put my non critical trouble shooting gauges over on the passenger side. These are gauges I rarely need to look at so they do not clutter my A-pillar view and give the passenger something to look at (Trans temp, fuel pressure, and AF ratio).


http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...2_123_full.jpg

 

I just bought the VSS from them for under $80.

Mine are both 5"... I like them a lot better than the smaller ones.

 

mine are 3 3/8". The 5" ones would not fit with the other gauges in the cluster. Plus I reused the stock cluster housing to simplify installation. I like the 3 3/8" gauges better anyway becuase they dont stand out as much as the bigger ones. To me, it looks better in my case.

 

MetalliCamaroRS, I have used that sensor before you are right that does only cost about 80 dollars and works well. That sensor will allow you to run a mechanical tailshaft housing on your trans with an electric speedo.

THe question asked by ShadyGray was, can you use a mechanical speedo with a VSS sensor. THe answer is yes, but it is expensive

http://www.rd-eng.com/

 

Ah, I misunderstood his question. My bad