Gauge Upgrade!

[Tezjoe84]

Finelly got a few pics of the gauges, Sorry there's not many of the complete install, my batteries went dead about an hour into it (nephews playing with the camera etc...)

Anyhow, here's what I came out with. Their all Autometer Ultra-lite II's, These things looked awsome when lit up so I paid a few extra bucks to order them, the alumnium bezel is a major pain to round out yourself if you don't have access to a good machine shop. I'd say all in all it was a pretty easy upgrade, I did alot of reading on here especially from past installs and ordered everything I could, I.E. Wiring harness, bezel, etc... I added a shift light but decided to put it on the dash corner rather than the column like orginally planned, Right now i'm using the column shift so I didn't like the idea of putting it there, I'll eventually have a floor shifter installed, so I may move it down there later.

Here's what I got so far...





First day Disassembly, We done this over 2 days, first day i'd say we spent about 2 hours fitting everything into the alumnium bezel and factory dash inserts. then about 8 hours the next day finishing the fitting, wiring, and changing out and running wires needed to sending units... Speedo, temp, and oil pressure.



completely gutted...


Here's when we finished everything in the bezel.


and after trimming out the plastic bezel


Unfortunately this is where my camera went dead, so the rest of the pics are just of the finished product...



snapped this with my phone before I stuck the shift light to the dash with some double sided tape.


Here's a few in the dark...

[SevenSeries]

Wow! nice improvement! those look really good!
How much did the entire setup cost?

[Tezjoe84]

Total was alittle over 1K, but I bought a few extras I didn't have to have, like the alumnium inserts, and the wiring kit, the kit makes it a TON easier, but it costs ya for it, the kit was 137 bucks from Jegs, and the alumnium pieces were from LMC.

Ahh, I left the shift light out... it was in that amount as well, that's another $120 you can take out, it's the stage 2 digital.

[SevenSeries]

Aw wow, far beyond my price range for gauges atm haha.
Well for a little over 1k, they really look worth it. I was looking at that set awhile back too.

[Cherub]

seven series if your just after the gauges you can get them for 660 or so. Thats what i paid

[menace121978]

that is bad a$$ man! nice job... how is the line of sight and angle of the gauges? i'm also going this route but was planning on mounting them on the backside so they would be angled up. i think this looks a bit cleaner though.

[Tezjoe84]

Originally Posted by menace121978

that is bad a$$ man! nice job... how is the line of sight and angle of the gauges?

Thanks!

Yea, the angle is kinda bad,that would probably be my only complaint... but it depends on your size, i'm 6'1, and the angle does kinda suck... they make angled bevel's that go behind the gauges to angle them up some, I may go this route down the road, but for now I can live with looking down alittle.

My dad's alittle shorter than me and when he sat in the seat he said he could see them fine. I thought for a long time about the recessed install as well, in the end I just liked the look of the flush mount look.

[Tezjoe84]

Originally Posted by Cherub

seven series if your just after the gauges you can get them for 660 or so. Thats what i paid

Yea I think if I just bought the gauges themselves it would have been somewhere around $780.00. You can get the regular Pro-comps alittle cheaper than these, I paid more because their the II series with the LED backlighting.

[SevenSeries]

Originally Posted by Cherub

seven series if your just after the gauges you can get them for 660 or so. Thats what i paid

Ohh I see, thanks Cherub. I really only was going for the gauges lol

[highperf4x4]

Awesome!!

[JohnC]

Looks awesome Joe! That is a night and day improvement. I really like the LED backlighting. That is the ones I was looking at, but with the black face.

[Tezjoe84]

Originally Posted by JohnC

Looks awesome Joe! That is a night and day improvement. I really like the LED backlighting. That is the ones I was looking at, but with the black face.

I hear ya John, I'd definately recommend these to anyone doing a street car/truck. these things look awsome and are easy to read at night. i've always wanted to do an all autometer cluster... and once I seen this series, I had to go ahead with it.

[fpjr0]

NIIIIIICE!!!!! THEY LOOK BAD a$$$$$

Originally Posted by SevenSeries

Aw wow, far beyond my price range for gauges atm haha.
.

just look around, I bought some couple of weeks back they are not the same as the ones shown here but they are the black ones, I got electri speedometer( i have a 5.3/4l60e) tach,oil,temp,fuel,and volts they were already in a 80-87 bezel, for 190 buck... just keep looking ... you might just get lucky

[SevenSeries]

Originally Posted by fpjr0

NIIIIIICE!!!!! THEY LOOK BAD a$$$$$





just look around, I bought some couple of weeks back they are not the same as the ones shown here but they are the black ones, I got electri speedometer( i have a 5.3/4l60e) tach,oil,temp,fuel,and volts they were already in a 80-87 bezel, for 190 buck... just keep looking ... you might just get lucky

Oh wow. Haha thanks man. I will

[Tezjoe84]

yeah 190 bucks is a GREAT deal, Grats man!

[rodstored-72]

tezjoe84,
by chance do you have any pics of the wiring, iam doing the same thing on my '72 & i would like ot see a shot from the back....

thanks!!
rodstored-72

[smokedat]

damm that looks sweet

[Tezjoe84]

Originally Posted by rodstored-72

tezjoe84,
by chance do you have any pics of the wiring, iam doing the same thing on my '72 & i would like ot see a shot from the back....

thanks!!
rodstored-72

I don't at this time, I may have to pull it out to fix a blinker light in the next few days and i'll post some of the wiring.

I used the Wiring kit from Jegs and it was a breeze, just read it first, look over the kit and familiarize yourself with it, it's step by step and had a excellent diagram for the factory wires, all color coded.

The kit itself is color coded as well as all labled per wire... Great kit if you have alittle extra to spend on it.

[NINERS1]

Wow, that looks very good, sure would like to do that to my 71 someday!! I take it there all electric?

[dgodecke]

Originally Posted by Tezjoe84

Thanks!

Yea, the angle is kinda bad,that would probably be my only complaint... but it depends on your size, i'm 6'1, and the angle does kinda suck... they make angled bevel's that go behind the gauges to angle them up some, I may go this route down the road, but for now I can live with looking down alittle.

My dad's alittle shorter than me and when he sat in the seat he said he could see them fine. I thought for a long time about the recessed install as well, in the end I just liked the look of the flush mount look.

This looks like the gauges mount directly into the aluminum face plate, is that correct?

I love what you have done and since my dash had been hacked up by a past owner I am going to go the way you did.

Do you have a photo of the back side of the face plate by chance. I would love to see exactly how they are mounted and how they fit in relation to the stock dash cover.

Thanks a ton.

[Tezjoe84]

Originally Posted by dgodecke

This looks like the gauges mount directly into the aluminum face plate, is that correct?

I love what you have done and since my dash had been hacked up by a past owner I am going to go the way you did.

Do you have a photo of the back side of the face plate by chance. I would love to see exactly how they are mounted and how they fit in relation to the stock dash cover.

Thanks a ton.

Yep, their mounted to the aluminum plate, this is the easiest way to install I believe, but as far as visibility I think recessing the gauges behind the bezel would be alot better.

Unfortunately I don't have any other pics of the install, my batteries went down in my camera, and I didn't really have time, or a vehicle to run to town for more.

The gauges come with mounting brackets to mount flush, so it was reall easy.

Here's a write-up Jeff did when he installed his flush mounted gauges.

73-87.com surface mount install

Hope this helps ya out!

[highperf4x4]

So Joe, what idiot lights do you lose from the speedo and fuel gauge?

[dgodecke]

Yep, their mounted to the aluminum plate, this is the easiest way to install I believe, but as far as visibility I think recessing the gauges behind the bezel would be alot better.

were the holes in the plate the right size or did you have to open them up for the gauges?
Thanks

[Tezjoe84]

Originally Posted by highperf4x4

So Joe, what idiot lights do you lose from the speedo and fuel gauge?

Emergency Brake, High beams

I have a High beam blue LED right between my tach and speedo.

[Tezjoe84]

Originally Posted by dgodecke

Yep, their mounted to the aluminum plate, this is the easiest way to install I believe, but as far as visibility I think recessing the gauges behind the bezel would be alot better.

were the holes in the plate the right size or did you have to open them up for the gauges?
Thanks

Nope, you have to cut them out a good bit... if you have access to anyone that has a machine shop it's alot faster and easier to go pay them a few bucks to cut them out for ya... I didn't, I had a die grinder and I cut them out, took a good hour or so to open all the holes up.