A body aftermarket gauge cluster...

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j par

j par

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I haven't shopped these and I was wondering if this is something that's a good deal or they can be bought ten times cheaper somewhere else??
I noticed Summit has them on sale... Seems a little expensive for a little piece of plastic, but I'm not sure? I guess I could try and modify or make one of my own off of one of my old pieces but this seems like a nice little piece...
Anybody's experience or thoughts on this are welcome thank you...
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j par said:
I haven't shopped these and I was wondering if this is something that's a good deal or they can be bought ten times cheaper somewhere else??
I noticed Summit has them on sale... Seems a little expensive for a little piece of plastic, but I'm not sure? I guess I could try and modify or make one of my own off of one of my old pieces but this seems like a nice little piece...
Anybody's experience or thoughts on this are welcome thank you...
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$223 for cheap *** blow moulded ****. Plus the gages are where they put them, not how you want to lay it out. Build your own cheaper and nicer.
 
I don't know if you've seen this, but it's really similar to what you have to do with the new vintage gauge cluster. Gauge depth can get tricky around the dash brace bracket that the pedals and steering wheel mount to, as well. You can get by for a lot less like this though. Well, Stephen Mulkey beat me to it, but I wish I had seen it before going the route I did.
 
I think 2 bills is cheap compared to a repo ralley dash. Those f0ckers are like 800$. It’s the one thing you have to stare at forever, 200 is worth not cursing yourself every time you look at the speedo
 
Garrett Ellison said:
I don't know if you've seen this, but it's really similar to what you have to do with the new vintage gauge cluster. Gauge depth can get tricky around the dash brace bracket that the pedals and steering wheel mount to, as well. You can get by for a lot less like this though. Well, Stephen Mulkey beat me to it, but I wish I had seen it before going the route I did.
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You know, i haven't attempted the conversion yet but i read it and thought it was a great option and write up.
 
Thanks men, I think I will dig through my salvage and see if I have a cluster that's not broken I can at least give one college try too..
 
Dartsun said:
I’ve got a 75 Duster cluster out in my shed you could use if it helps. Dustin
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You're awesome brother! let me do a little digging in my shed I know I have one that has a crack at the bottom but I thought I had another one that was just ugly but wasn't broke up. I can take that and get it prepped up and use it if I'm correct either that or just the one that I have in there now there's really no gauges on it that work. I even was so bold as to glue the digital window switch tack right on the glass of the speedometer as I've never had one...
Let me hold on to that offer just for a minute I sure appreciate it!!..
 
I might’ve spoke to soon JPar can’t seem to find the cluster in the shed. I’ll keep looking hopefully yours are good enough.
 
Gut the OEM face and leave a 1/2" flange all around. Glue in a sheet of kydex plastic and then place your gauge wherever. Cost a lot less, take nothing to fab and still have a clean look.
The kydex can also be formed and shaped with heat if you want to get fancy. Use ABS glue with it and it can be effectively "welded".

Just my $.02
 
Dartsun said:
I might’ve spoke to soon JPar can’t seem to find the cluster in the shed. I’ll keep looking hopefully yours are good enough.
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Not a problem even the one in my car is there just to hold my headlight switch! LOL... I don't have windshield wipers so there's no need for that switch it's there but I don't think I've ever used it. Absolutely none of the gauges work and there's no Speedo cable LOL... It actually might be a good candidate...
 
jpar,

Harley Davidson has international symbol indicator lights that I have used when making an aftermarket gage mount cluster out of a stock gage panel for a friends V8 S-10 Blazer. Really nice blue high beam with symbol and green arrow turn signal lights. Evilbay has stuff like that or check out the Custom Chrome or Drag Specialties catalogs for OEM replacement H-D indicator lights.

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Also when i did his custom S-10 cluster, I mounted a ground terminal strip to the back of the plastic panel and ran all the lighting, and gage grounds to it. I used a 12 pin molex connector and pinned all the gage feeds, lighting feeds etc along with the ground wire feed into this connector. This way if my friend has to remove the cluster, all the gage and lighting feeds minus speedometer cable just unplug. A good electronics store should have these. All the leads were crimped, soldered, and insulated with heat shrink tube. He has not had an issue with it in 10 years since I built and wired it up.

I also recommend looking into speedhut gages and have them make up something for you that is your heart's desire. They even have GPS speedometers that only require a ign SW power, backlighting feed, and ground. These have a small antenna to pick up the signal.

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Here is what I used for the ground block on the back of the panel. I ran all the gage and light grounds to it. And one ground out of it through the molex connector to a metal body ground.

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New vintage used to carry one like the Auto Meter bezel stamped from aluminum. I was going to go that route but it was no longer available when I dropped the hammer on it.
 
V8 Chevy S-10 gage cluster I built out of a stock gage bucket. Used .063" aluminum sheet bonded on with JB weld. Autometer Z series gages, H-D indicator lights

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Yes they are. His blazer has a tuned port injection 350 in it. The indicators are green arrows for turn signals, blue hi beam signal in the middle. Red is for parking brake/low brake pressure warning indicator. One amber is wired to his engine management computer as a fault light. The other amber light above the tach is a shift light. He bought a spectre brand adjustable shift light. We mounted the dial part under the dash, with the dial facing towards him, and gutted it on the light end so I could run the wires from it up into the cluster to that second amber as an in dash shift light.

Sonofabitch was a tight fit with the gages. 3&3/8" and 2&1/16" they just barely touch one another. A lot of measuring before I took the holesaws to it after bonding the aluminum to it. I modified the bottom of the surround hood because the bottom 2 gages didnt quite fit. You can see how its smoothed and radiused where they fit at the bottom. Stock is straight across. My suggestion to my friend when i started wiring it up was to put the water temp, oil press, and RPM clustered together on the right with the shift light, since that's the most vital information.

The cool part is we used the vehicles existing wiring harness for everything, except the added chassis ground wire, and 2 additional wires for the shift light. Thank God he had a wiring schematic for the truck. Then he just installed the gage senders for the water and oil, and plugged in his stock vehicle wiring.
 
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