sharingan 19

iTrader: (16)

So I've gotten a lot of questions recently on how I made my gauge cluster, I said I would do a writeup so here it is.

I wanted to add some aftermarket gauges to my interior to replace the always broken oil pressure gauge, and the useless boost gauge in the stock cluster. I also wanted to upgrade the temp gauge since I planned on raising boost as well. Since I was replacing the other 3 might as well do the fuel level gauge as well right?......not so much.

I mounted the boost gauge on the column cover but what about the other 3...?


for a split second I considered a triple A-pillar pod but that was too rice. Then I considered a DIN panel, but the radio area is too much of an inconvenience to look down there for important gauges like temp and oil psi. Idiot light area seemed like a good idea, but what about when I want to add WB, egt, or fuel pressure gauges? Plus I never liked how the space where the now useless stock gauges just goes to waste.

The original plan was to replace the temp and oil pressure gauges w/ 52mm Prosport units (now for sale - brand new) in the original location and get an aftermarket fuel level gauge. Anyone who has searched can tell you that's easier said than done. I soon realized that was not a viable option.

Then Prosport came out with their line of 45mm Amber Series gauges....BINGO. Now I had the space (theoretically) to fit two gauges in the stock cluster while retaining the stock fuel level gauge!

First you have to take the front (black part) off the stock cluster and trim out the center section EXCEPT FOR THE bezel around the stock fuel level gauge. Bear in mind that the clear plastic does not come off (easily or without trying to break) so you will be trimming it backwards. Tie a string on the parts you don't want to cut, sounds silly but it may save you having to buy new cluster cover. When you first trim the bezel the line will look jagged, I very carefully trimmed the bezel down using a dremmel wood/plastic trimming tool, until i got it looking pretty nice. The silver disks are 48mm (estimated gauge face size before I got the actual gauges) mounted to a rough cardboard template affixed using holes for the plastic mounting posts. As you can see the initial cut of the cluster was not sufficient so I had to make another pass (silver pencil line).


Once that is done, you need to make room on the backside of the cluster (white part). Remove the gauges which are held on by phillips head screws. Then clear out anything that looks to obstruct your gauges; I measured the depth of the gauges, and cut anything that might have touched the gauges in their mounted position. Conveniently, the only thing you need to do for pass-throughs for the gauge wiring is remove the stock light bulb socket


After you are comfortable with your template transfer it to your material of choice...I chose 28 gauge aluminum due to its availability (home depot) cost, rust aversion, ease of cutting (Cutco super shears ftw!) and thickness.


Cut out the gauge mounting holes in the template...


A look at the mounting on the back side....


You will need to "detach" the stock fuel level gauge from the its twin, the temp gauge. It's pretty easy, just be careful and take your time. There is a steel spine behind the plastic, be aware of this and make sure the gauge is held securely when you cut it. When its time to install, you can re-use the stock mounting locations to keep the half-gauge in place.


Time to fit the gauges. First tried using the included mounting brackets but it was too long and made contact with the white part of the cluster...


"Take a little off the top"....


Much better...


Now for the test fit....

sharingan 19

iTrader: (16)

Now its coming together...


Graphite bezels look cool and all but not really what I was going for, some satin black Color Coat from SEM will help reduce glare and match the rest of the interior a lot better.



Now time for assembly....


There was one minor clearance issue, which was easily resolved by drilling an additional hole in the mounting plate...


Putting it in the car... I combined the power, ground, and illumination wires respectively so there are only 3 wires to worry about. I will probably go back and use and actual connector for a "quick disconnect" feature.


[IMG]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/hs034.snc6
/166494_676632920491_45000098_34990397_4048285_n.jp g[/IMG]

Finally.....

need RX7

iTrader: (4)

Very cool .

FC3S_nataku

iTrader: (3)

That is actually very cool. The extra gauges look crazy bright next to the stock ones

SpikeDerailed

iTrader: (7)

do like.

hioctane-dtc

iTrader: (1)

Great write up man!

Tofuman FC3S

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for putting this up.

wmtil

Have you thought about replacing the bulbs in the stock portion of the cluster to make it brighter? I love the idea but it looks funny because of the differnce. Good job though.

K-Tune

iTrader: (26)

Nice job...could have made the cutout for the fuel a little cleaner...

jjcobm

iTrader: (18)

Good stuff

MadScience_7

I have got to do this sometime. Sick.

Justen

iTrader: (12)

shouldnt really matter the way he cut out the gauge face/needle. He cut the plastic cover very carefully from what I can tell. So once you place that on top, you probably wont see where he cut the gauge anyway.

Can we get finished picks in the daytime???
This is an awesome idea, especially since the top of the FC dash isnt very guage-mount-friendly. Perfect solution.


...

sharingan 19

iTrader: (16)

Actually, the difference isn't as significant as that pic suggests, the cell phone camera does a poor job of picking up light differences...at least w/o messing w/ iso and other settings; and this isn't hondatech, lol.

Yes I have. I actually ran some led replacement bulbs (single led - cool blue) for a while before I did this mod. The single led bulbs aren't brighter than stock incandescent and the cool blue made the stock gauges look more yellow than orange. I have the 4-led bulbs in the turn signals and the are plenty bright so perhaps using those in the "warm" (incandescent replica) or amber color would look good.

These leds have a built in circuit so they can be dimmed by the stock switch (just like the gauges, also led lit). However the dimming is non-linear so they don't dim@ the same rate as the incandescents. Perhaps a full led cluster would be more uniform in appearance, but I just keep it on the one of the top 3 brightness settings and it looks great.

sharingan 19

iTrader: (16)

EXACTLY! Give this man a gold star!
I really was going to clean up those edges, but when I mocked it up I realized they can't be seen anyway, so I said "screw it". Now if one didn't want to spend the time tediously trimming down the fuel level bezel, then yes - those edges would need to be smoother as they would be seen, but I thought it looked better this way since it tired in w/the look if the stock gauges.

Daytime pics pending...

FC3S_nataku

iTrader: (3)

Next time you are in jax let me know. I want to go see these in person

sharingan 19

iTrader: (16)

Hard to eliminate ALL the glare considering its 1 in the afternoon, but you get the idea...

wmtil

you know you could probably make and sell kits for doing this on ebay or something. I would probably buy one.

unek87

very nice

Hypertek

iTrader: (3)

to eliminate glare, i bet you could get those anti glare gps screen protectors. probably just trace the shape to the lense and slap it on

jackhild59

iTrader: (7)

Or remove the glass covers and mount the gauges behind the surface of he cluster. This would make the cluster look nearly oem

Great project.

sharingan 19

iTrader: (16)

I considered that for a little bit, but I wanted to make a significant contribution to the forum; now if someone just doesn't feel comfortable doing it themselves then they can pm me and we can work something out.

Now that might work. When driving its not a big deal as the glare never stays around for long, but if I have to open it up for something else I might just do that.

To really make that look good I would have to cut some custom bezels to match the stock ones, plus the glass bezel is what the gauge uses to mount to the board...creative engineering would have to follow lol


Thanks for the comments guys.

FC3S_nataku

iTrader: (3)

I went and hung out with Sharingan yesterday and i got to see how the gauges look at day and night. they arent too bright and just look overall awesome. i would do this mod

jjcobm

iTrader: (18)

Yes!

sharingan 19

iTrader: (16)

If the gauges were orange like the old school HKS then perhaps, but even after you do all that extra work, they'd still be white, lol.

FC_fan

iTrader: (2)

now someone needs to do a writeup doing a complete custom cluster (speedo,tach, and all the others). that would be epic, I've seen an aftermarket tack put in the stock tack place in the stock cluster but a whole cluster would be awesome. don't get me wrong, this is truely a great idea and great writeup, looks legit, but it leaves me wanting ALL the gauges looking like the new ones.lol. maybe I'll do one later on if I can figure out how to do it with all the gauges working (I'm looking at you, speedo).

bte, I vote archive for this.