Covid Dash Project

[AcampoDave]

I got bored just hanging around the house on the weekends so I decided a guage panel would keep me occupied for a little while. All my components were obtained on Amazon or scrounged from around the house. First I needed an inset. The 3 and 3/8 as well as a 1 and 1/16 hole saw were delivered by the familiar grey van.

[AcampoDave]

Next I purchased the Autometer Tradional Series guages and a box of 5 different colors of wire along with a DIY plug kit. That's the 9 pin plug I made at the bottom of the pic. The wiring looks chaotic but it was pretty simple to link all the grounds, lighting, hot wires etc together on individual circuits so as to use a differnt color wire for each function. I suppose I could have used zip ties to organize things but they are a pain to remove should I decide to make changes later.

[AcampoDave]

The white plastic from the tabletop got covered in black vinyl when the guages and indicators were installed. Since I already had a temperature guage in my "thrift air heater" plate I went with vacum, oil, tach, fuel, and volts. I also installed blinker, oil pressure and high beam indicator lights.

[AcampoDave]

Having idiot lights and guages required me to add another temp sender necessitating the use of a fancy water neck to get the clearance. This one is a swivel type with an o-ring seal by Mr. Gasket. (My fellow Amazonians gave it decent reviews) The oil pressure was a bit more tricky since the guage sender and the idiot light sender shared the same hole. I don't have a pic but it took a 90 degree elbow and a tee to gain sufficient clearance for them both.

[AcampoDave]

The other half of the 9 pin plug was wired into the truck harness and even though it is hard to tell, I did try to use matching colors on both halves. The stray yellow lead is the tach sender and the draped over red one is for the cigarette lighter. I also wrote up a quick guide and left it in the little zip-loc bag for future reference. If you look above my temp guage on the far right, you can barely make out the temp idiot light in the old push/pull heater control hole.

[AcampoDave]

Here it is all done. I decided to forgo a speedometer since space was limited and a tach can double as a speedometer once you memorize the approximate RPM for a given speed. I'm pleased with the layout as my plan to avoid obstructing the guages with the steering wheel paid off.
Tomorrow morning (before the day gets hotter than hell again) I'll center things up a bit in the holes and take it for a run. If anyone is contemplating doing this for themselves and has any questions about what I did please feel free to ask.

[The Rocknrod]

That looks really good. Thanks for the update.

[AcampoDave]

Thanks Rocknrod, I've never really liked the "vagueness" of the stock guages and I definitely am the kind of guy who needs dummy lights to accompany my guages. It did pain me a bit to yank the stock cluster but what the heck, it's not like it's a numbers matching stocker anymore. I just decided to post the whole deal on here because things seem a little slow on the ol' board lately and maybe some "lurkers" might enjoy seeing it.

[Southcity]

Well done and thank you for sharing. Curious how your new cluster looks at night with dash lights on?

[AcampoDave]

It looks quite traditional at night. They are backlit like the old Stewart Warners and come with old school incandescent bulbs. They work perfectly with the dimmer on the headlight switch. Also, if I wanted them in color, they include little slip on... (ahem...) bulb condoms in red and green. Being backlit does still give them a circle of light around the faces which is quite apparent when viewed from an angle, but I like that, and it is what I was hoping for. Autometer calls them the Traditional Series and they do live up to that title. They also are reasonably priced. Here they are on full brightness with the engine off.

[cwcarpenter98]

I like the look in the daylight and at night. If I was building a truck to do some racing with, that's probably what I would go with. Good work, and thanks for sharing!

[kens65fb]

Originally Posted by cwcarpenter98

I like the look in the daylight and at night. If I was building a truck to do some racing with, that's probably what I would go with. Good work, and thanks for sharing!

Is it legal for a motor vehicle not to have a speedometer and odometer ???

In Pennsylvania, the current mileage must be updated every year, to complete a registration.

One good thing, is when a state trooper pulls you over and says "Do you know how fast you were going, this in a 35 mph zone", you can truthfully say "no I don't, but officer, I was only going 1450 RPM's"

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by kens65fb

Is it legal for a motor vehicle not to have a speedometer and odometer ???

In Pennsylvania, the current mileage must be updated every year, to complete a registration.

One good thing, is when a state trooper pulls you over and says "Do you know how fast you were going, this in a 35 mph zone", you can truthfully say "no I don't, but officer, I was only going 1450 RPM's"

Depends on the state. Here in GA, they don't care about what the odometer says on old cars. I didn't have an odometer in my 63 for a couple years before I got it fixed

[kens65fb]

Originally Posted by cwcarpenter98

Depends on the state. Here in GA, they don't care about what the odometer says on old cars. I didn't have an odometer in my 63 for a couple years before I got it fixed

It looks like Georgia has more friendy laws reguarding Classic Cars & trucks

In Pennsylvania, the Dept of Transportation reqiures current mileage, at time of annual registration, so the insurance companies can see how many miles you drive a year.
This is true for all vehicles, classic, or any vehicle, driven on state roads & highways.
I think that the only exception is for vehicles registered as antique vehicles, but then there are alot of restrictions.

USE OF ANTIQUE, CLASSIC AND VINTAGE REGISTRATION PLATES
The use of antique, classic and vintage registration plates is governed by Section 1340 of the Pennsylvania
Vehicle Code, which states: “It is unlawful for any person to operate a motorcycle or vehicle with antique,
classic, vintage, collectible or historic military vehicle registration plates for general daily transportation.
Permitted use shall be limited to participation in club activities, exhibits, tours, parades, occasional
transportation and similar uses.”
Occasional transportation and similar uses are defined as no more than
one day a week

[AcampoDave]

Yeah, my orginal speedometer hasn't worked since I got the truck way back in like 2010. In California it's only illegal if you defraud someone with regard to mileage. We have a few different boxes to choose when we do a change of ownership. One says something about actual mileage being unavailable, another says something about mileage exceeding mechanical limits of the odometer....etc
A friend of mine in a '57 Chevy truck with a custom dash got pulled over and the cop only asked to see the high beam indicator and hear the horn. Told him that was all that was required. I guess the blinkers only need to flash on the outside then.

[cookseyb]

If you look just up from the timing cover and just below your temp sender there is a pipe plug that taps your oil gallery for a second place to get oil pressure..