no gauge cluster, lights to aftermarket gauges

[steved033]

Hi everyone,

Here's a quick little project to move from "idiot" lights to aftermarket gauges in a factory cluster. I'm fairly bad at documenting, so let me know if you have any questions.

I took a stock cluster, opened it up, cleaned out 40 years of dirt, and set the aftermarket sunpro 2 1/16" gauge so the light in the gauge aligned with the factory "idiot" light. I removed both bezels and glass on the sunpro gauges, then marked around the gauge on the back side of the black facing plate. I then cut the facing with a pair of shears, about 1/16" inside the mark I made, then measured and re-trimmed as needed. The temp gauge I marked and cut to be somewhat concentric with the factory inset. I might go back in and hammer the rectangular dimples flat, but having it like this kind of fits in with the ratty theme of the truck. The temp gauge was a little busy, so I rotated it so that 190 degrees was at 12 o'clock, then blacked out the gauge face with testors model paint. I did the same for the brass looking bodies on the gauges as well.

The gauge lens is actually plastic, so I very carefully scratched off the silkscreening, then sanded and polished with a mother's headlight repair kit. It worked AWESOME on the old plastic. The surround I hit with rustoleum 'stainless steel' which added a really cool texture.

All the lights on the gauges are wired to the stock switched wiring for the ambient (grey wire on a '66), and the function on the voltmeter is wired to the stock switched wiring (pink wire).

let me know what you think!