Seeking Help & Advice on Centre Guage Setup.

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Yeah, that is nice. Much better than the job that was done on mine. Nice work, looks factory:)
Thanks for your kind words Greg.I guess it's always rewarding to see a project come out great especially when you put a lot of time, thought and effort into making it come together. Your help and input with photos was very much appreciated, and steered me in the right direction indeed.Thank you!

Greg:)

 
Those look Fantastic!

 
Nice,,, soooo when are ya gonna start offering that as a service???
Thanks P,

Sounds like you're in need of one now.:p

Main problem would be trying to find old Ford pods.Which got me thinking.If you could find a company that does computer driven injection plastic moulding or the like, a proper pod could be designed to house aftermarket gauges based on the Ford design.

I don't think you'd make a fortune, but you would solve some people's problems for sure.

Greg:)

 
Just wanted to thank everybody again for your interest and input into my thread. One member was kind and gave me my first reputation number. Hey!, i'm on the map. And i've managed to get some rating stars as well for the thread.

Thanks folks, i hope i was a help to finding a better way to an existing problem.

Greg:)

 
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I have a question for you. Does the fact that you have two lenses cause any reflection problems in day to day usage?

I'm looking to replace my factory center gauges with some that are actually accurate and upon which I can rely. That will mean mechanical oil pressure and temperature gauges and I think my third gauge will be an Air Fuel Gauge, I'd sort of like to have a voltage gauge too, but it seems less important to me.

 
I have a question for you. Does the fact that you have two lenses cause any reflection problems in day to day usage?

I'm looking to replace my factory center gauges with some that are actually accurate and upon which I can rely. That will mean mechanical oil pressure and temperature gauges and I think my third gauge will be an Air Fuel Gauge, I'd sort of like to have a voltage gauge too, but it seems less important to me.
Hi Jeff,

Having the two lens setup does not really cause any reflection or glare issues for the new gauges at all, night or day.

You have the option with my system to leave the factory lenses in or out of the equaison so to speak. I left mine in because i wanted to give the finished result a more original look, and it would be easier to keep the whole setup clean.But you can leave them out if you want, and just rely on the new guage lenes to do the job.That will give you a more sunken recessed look for the finished result with the new gauges installed.

Given the original lens are old, you will have to polish them up and restore the lenses to bring them up to a nice clean, clear appearance.(see my post on that)

Hope that helps,

Greg.:)

 
Greg's gauges look great and were the inspiration for mine. I took another route to get there and only have the actual autometer lens exposed. If you want to consider this route I can give you details. I think I did post pics in another post but can't remember. Funny...two threads going down the same path tonight...

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John

 
Greg's gauges look great and were the inspiration for mine. I took another route to get there and only have the actual autometer lens exposed. If you want to consider this route I can give you details. I think I did post pics in another post but can't remember. Funny...two threads going down the same path tonight...

John
Thanks John,

I like the look of your gauge's end result very much too. The white looks very smart and crisp.Did you get around to telling the forum how you did the set up?, sorry, i can't remember.

Greg.:)

 
Thanks John,

I like the look of your gauge's end result very much too. The white looks very smart and crisp.Did you get around to telling the forum how you did the set up?, sorry, i can't remember.

Greg.:)
Hey Greg, I did post it somewhere but it probably makes more sense to be here with the rest of info.

It was a little tougher than I thought but I was determined to make these gauges look factory installed. After reading all the threads I knew it was going to be a challenge.

In case anyone is interested I'm going to walk you through how I did it. If not you can just skip to the last picture to see the end result.

First I decided you to use some 1/8" thick paneling. I drilled three 2" diameter holes with a hole saw and then reamed it out to about 2 1/16". I had to make the holes oversized so the gauges could be pivoted into place.

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I then took a 2" o-ring and glued it to the face of the gauge so that it would sit up tight against it, preventing vibration noise and help cover up any gaps due to the odd shape of the bezel.

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I laid the piece over the bezel and pivoted the gauges into place. This made it easy to locate the mounting holes. I drill those and put in the screws to secure it in place. I then turned it over to check my work. Surprisingly, it looked just right. I then confirmed the gauges were rotated correctly, and glued them into place. I let it dry overnight and turned it over and glued the backside.

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I then cut a second piece and did the same basic things drilling and reaming the holes and getting the mounting holes correct. I made a couple of spacers from a little pipe I found in the garage.

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I added the second piece and screwed it down. I then glued it in place.

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I'm quite pleased with the outcome and think it should last just fine. I guess time will tell.

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Let me know if you have any questions...

John

 
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Hi John,

Wow!, That's a really good design and idea you've come up with there. Simplicity and practicality as well. One thing stands out to me is with my design, you are mostly limited to choosing that model of Autometer gauge for fit issues. With your design, you would have greater choice of gauges to choose from in respect to how the gauges attach themselves to the plastic bezels.

Very good Sir!

Greg.:)

 
Thanks for the compliments Greg! We both conquered the beast so to speak. Either way gets the job done. A lot of people don't realize how trick that compound angle is on these gauges. I'm very happy with the results, it really suits my car.

Cheers!

John

 
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Let me know if you have any questions. I'll be glad to share the challenges and things I learned from it.

Cheers!

JHawk
John & Greg,

I got to say I like both of your designs and methods...bravo! After completing mine (http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-upgrade-triple-gauge-cluster) and posting the pics Greg "Austin Vert" posted a comment and provided the link to this thread. I just read the whole post and really appreciate both of your approaches.

Greg and I both chose to mount the gauges in the original "rear" pods but with different techniques. I love the look of the brackets Greg fabbed to mount his gauges and how he really took the time to accurately cut out the rear of the rear pod...beautiful work! Very commendable. As he stated he had to glue the two rear pod halves together, as the gauge brackets, by design would want to pull them apart, making the stock clips not worthy of the task. However, his design allows removal of the gauges very easy.

I chose to hot glue the gauges into the the front half of the rear pod. I cut out more of the rear half of the rear pod, keeping as much of the "corners" intact, for structural integrity. This took about 10 minutes to cut and it's new use is really only to provide a way to attach the front of the rear pod/gauges to the dash bezel. The old "housing" is no longer needed, as a housing since the gauges are now each individually sealed.

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My rear half of the rear pod is held together to the front half with the factory clips only, as their job, in this application, has not changed. My halves can come apart easily but my gauges would certainly be more difficult to remove. At 48 years old, if my VDO's last anywhere near as long as the stock gauges, removal shouldn't be an issue, for me. Two different methods which look exactly the same from the front, other than the Auto Meter -vs- VDO looks. I thought the VDO's matched the factory look as closely as I could find. The Auto Meter's look nice too. Personally, hands down, Greg's looks better from the back (true artistry) but no one will ever see that. My gauges will certainly not lose their position/rotation! I'm sure, that took a good part of his 30 hours. Mine took, including the silver respray after the milling, about 2 hours. I will say it again, Greg, I really appreciate the look of the brackets and the rear cutouts!

John's (JHawk635) design had a clever twist to it. The 2" O-ring. Brilliant. Although you've lost "some" of the stock looking depth by mounting directly behind the center dash cluster, I'm not so sure that's a bad thing. The stock gauges were recessed a little too much for my liking and don't provide a clear sight line to the driver. Your white face gauges combined with the 2" O-rings help to sell the illusion of the round gauge mating to the ellipse of the dash bezel. The eye is drawn to the white face, rather than the discrepancy of circle to ellipse. (this is why I do not like the methods of mounting the gauges, from the front, through the dash bezel) Your O-ring solution was creative. Your two layer rear mount (two points of circumferential contact to resist movement), using the stock screw locations is another backyard garage approach that was also very impressive! You and I had better hope we don't need to replace a gauge...lol. (I know yours and mine could be removed, I just hope we don't ever have to.;))

Although, Hawk and I could probably remove 20 glued in gauges in the time it took Greg to create his masterpiece!!! (No slight to you Greg!)

Bottom line, 3 inspired Mustang guys...three jobs well done!!! ::beer::

 
Hi Eric,

many thanks for your feedback on this thread. I must say i really like your approach to setting up the center gauges as well. I'm pleased you like what John and myself have done with our approach, and your words of praise.

If you don't mind, i'm going to pop in your link to your own thread and the work that you did on your center gauge project. I think it would be a good idea to have you included here with us as well, so folks can get a good look at what you have done also for even more options.

http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-upgrade-triple-gauge-cluster?pid=234014#pid234014

Cheers,

Greg.:)

 
I like all of the above methods and I can't decide whether I prefer the stock look or the flush mount look that jhawk came up with.

Anyway I express my deepest respect for the degree of care and accuracy taken in these projects.

As some of you know, my skills are pretty limited and I usually go the "dirty deeds done dirt cheap" way, so I came up with a different idea.

Please note, my setup does NOT look factory stock but I did not have a center gauge panel to work with and my standard panel was screwed up because the PO had drilled a hole near the "Mustang" script.

So my approach is to be considered "Luxstang's cheap and easy way to center gauges that will never win a trophy but that will do their job while still looking halfway decent".

I wanna add that I did not even have to remove the center bezel for this setup but I would advise you to do it anyway because it's easier and cleaner to work on.

Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the build stage but it's pretty easy.

First I dremeled out the whole piece in between the radio bezel molding and the hole under the map light (or air duct if you have AC).

Then I took a metal plate the exact shape of the area (that I took with a paper template) and drew a rectangle in the middle so that it would leave a frame of about 4 mm.

Then you cut out the piece in the middle of your metal plate and tilt it inward at the top and out at the bottom until you have the desired angle. (Imagine a horizontal pivot point).

I had a friend weld it at that angle and fill up the gaps with metal strips or triangles.

The gauges are Auto Meter and are mounted with Auto Meter angle rings and their own clips at the back, just as you would install them in any other bezel.

The whole shebang is held into place with 4 small screws on all 4 corners that bolt it to the plastic center piece.

That all sounds pretty confusing but the pictures make it perfectly clear.

Like I said, it won't win trophies and doesn't look original but it works, is easy to do and cheap and looks way better than a bezel bolted underneath the dashboard.

The big "pro" with this is that if you need to change a bulb or anything, you do not need to tear half of the dash apart because this simply unbolts with the 4 screws and comes out.

When I did this, none of these threads had yet been written and I had no idea how to do this and what to order and before I'd order a center bezel and gauges that would not fit, I preferred to be on the safe side.

If I had to choose, I'd use one of the methods my buddies showed above as it looks way more professional but at the time this was the best I could come up with. :)

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Hi Mike,

Thanks for contributing your own approach to the center gauge upgrade. In your case you have gone to a good degree of effort,detail and planning to bring off your finished result, which in it's own right, looks pretty good as well. It's good to show both styles of mounting, as each look takes on a different feel. I know that some folks prefer the external mount look as adversed to the traditional recessed look, and your approach gives good feedback to achieving that end.

Cheers,

Greg.:)

 
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