Auto Meter gauge install

Sounds awesome, be sure to post pics in progress and the finished product!

Here's the first part of what I will be doing with the cluster.

I had a couple Autometer liquid filled pro comps laying around I aquired long ago that I figured would be perfect to find a home in this bezel. Since I have no A/C in my truck I didn't have a vent in the upper part of the bezel anyway.

Here's the back of the factory Bezel. I had to cut part of the back out to make my aluminum plate fit in there. If you don't have an air saw and you want to do this gauge install, I guess you could try a dremel, but the air saw is a PERFECT tool for this job.



Making the plate.....







The end fit of the plate ended up being so tight that the thing almost would have retained itself just sitting in the bezel. The awesome thing about this little spot in the bezel is that it accomdates (2) 2 5/8 gauges almost like the darn thing was made for it with the right plate. There is a 2nd ridge that reduces the size of the opening below the top of the bezel, perfect for the plate to butt up against.

I used a 2 part epoxy and plus when I put the backers on the gauges, 1 arm will hold behind the bezel.



I decided to use emory cloth to sand and then just clearcoated the aluminum, it ended up matching the brushed aluminum on the bezel almost perfect.

Here's the finished product.



By the way, this is a pretty easy job. With air tools and some patience, anybody could do it. You can even find little sheets of aluminum like this at Home Depot or Menards.

The other half of the job for the pressure gauge requires installation of the isolator, since you don't want to route fuel up to your dashboard.

I made another plate to cover the huge hole I had in the firewall from where the harness used to route through for the old ECM I won't need anymore. The Isolator uses anti-freeze for fluid inside the cab to match pressure seen on the engine side of the system.





Just this part of the gauge install has taken significantly longer then I had wanted, lots of little details I didn't think of when I just decided to "drop these in". I sill have to install the oil temp sender in the pan too. The primary gauges should be pretty easy with all electrical senders.

More to come! When I get the cluster housing I bought, I can start the install for the other 6 primary gauges.

The install continues.

Here's the modification I made on the cluster housing to accept the new gauges. I cut the back out with an air saw.




I also decided to make a new inlay, out of sheet aluminum. I picked this piece of aluminum up at Menards for $15. The measuring and cutting took forever. Don't know if I would do this again, but smaller diameter of the gauge holes now ensure the aluminum goes all the way under the gauge bezels and it didn't before.

I used the old inlay for a template, that was just glued on (and coming off by now anyway)







This is the finished inlay. I know the circles look pretty jagged, but you can't tell once the gauges are installed.

I was able to cover up the spot for the transmission indicator too, since I am running a stick shift.

I made plates for the stereo area, and another with two toggle switches over on the spot by the light switch.

I will be sorting through the last details of the wiring today, and will epoxy the plates and inlay on since the clearcoat is dried on them by now.

More to come!

Heheh.. Yea, some carnage on the upper left gauge hole huh? It was more or less an excuse for me to dump the old inlay, I wasn't really happy with some of the imperfections in that blasted inlay already anyhow so I decided why not. I have so much time and money into this project already I don't want to settle for anything less then what I think is acceptable at this point.

Wanna hear the real lousy part? I ended up giving up on trying to get that custom aluminum inlay to sit in correctly and ordered the billet one from LMC anyway. #$@!... I should have just done that long ago now for the $99 that thing cost.

Nah, you wouldn't really have to go through quite the hassle I have created here. Making that inlay plate was a mistake. #1 I should have picked a thicker gauge aluminum had I wanted to try that. It ended up being a huge waste of time after I had some spots that ended up creasing and dinged that just wouldn't clean up without looking unsatisfactory.

I bit the bullet and bought the LMC truck billet inlay instead! DOH!!

But no matter what, this job will require grinding and reworking the original parts (or filing). Plus there will be a pile of different ground, power, and signal connections that must be considered.

Definitely not a "plug and go" type mod.

Well it looks pretty good . So what size gauge did you use that, how much thicker is the one you got from LMC ? ? with all that work it will be worth it.