Phase 1 of my custom gauge project

[Gibson99]

Whatcha think so far?



Phase 2 is an LED tach, kinda S2000 style, but in the factory location, and when it's off, it won't look much different than the picture above. Here's how I'm gonna do that: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2898256&page=1

Phase 3 will be to "erase" the PRND2L section and replace it with a bar graph of approximately the same size to display boost. like this: http://www.skylineowners.com/forum/show ... p?t=100380 (link to more details in first post)

No, I don't have an automatic. This cluster is partly from junkyard parts and partly from Craig's transmission swap. He didn't need the PRND2L section anymore so we installed the temp/fuel section into his cluster from the car he got his tranny from.

Yes, it does partly block the TRAC OFF, ABS, and CRUISE lights - blocks most of the ABS lettering in fact. But since i don't have traction control, don't care much about the ABS, and don't pay attention to the cruise light, it's not a problem. I did try removing the glass from the front of the greddy gauge, but it looks odd that way. I may go back and take the glass off it anyway and just paint the exposed lip of the gauge so that there's less stuff in there to give me glare, and also to block the numbers and warning lights a little less.

Thoughts, comments?

[JamesT]

I really like this idea - it seems like something I would definately do.

I might be PMing you in the future with a few questions...

[SleeperSolara]

Very nice man.
I'm very interested to see the end result.

[TxBmbleBee]

that gauge cluster looks familiar looking good so far man!

[youngblood]

Very cool, indeed. You must be a meticulous person by nature. Looks clean.

[Gibson99]

Very cool, indeed. You must be a meticulous person by nature. Looks clean.

lol you wouldn't say that if you could zoom out from that pic and see the rest of my garage... thanks tho. check out how i mounted my safc:


this only took about 2 hours including paint time. i hid the dimmer knob up inside the dash since i never adjust it. if i have to though, all i have to do is pop out the little coin tray thing and i can get to it.

[D-money]

now thats the nicest install ive seen

[lilm]

thats a awesome install for that safc

[alltrac92]

This would be cool for a factory boost gauge but it has no numbers. It's from a Celica All-Trac.

[Gibson99]

That would be nice to have it stock looking like that. Looks like it would drop right in, but i'm sure the shapes behind the trim are way different. not to mention wiring and physical mounting... plus the font is a little different - those alltrac gauges look more like the font (and colors actually) they used in my 88 camry. which makes sense since they were both built around the same time.

i hope that having LEDs on both sides of the cluster will help sort of balance it out. leds on only one side will look weird i think.

i might spend a few more $ on the LEDs (and other parts) and do my speedo too like that VW site, but i won't do the speedo multicolor like he did - just stick to green i think.

i have also thought about completely eliminating the stock fuel/temp gauges on the left and building my own little gauges there completely out of LEDs (and another greddy gauge centered in there to balance it out), but i couldn't figure out an easy way to do the fuel level, nor a good way to keep the stock warning lights at the bottom without it looking weird.

i can easily picture LEDs making a ring (broken in 3 parts) around the greddy gauge tho - similar to the tach, the temp would go from about 0-1.5, then a small gap of nothing, then boost would go from 2.5-5.5, another gap, and fuel would go from 6.5-8. i think for fuel, i would put the LED display in "dot" mode rather than "bar mode". That way I can have the lower 1-2 LEDs on the fuel be red to simulate the current orange "feed me" light. temp could be a bar graph with the lower 5 segments being green, then 3 yellow and 2 red as the temp goes up. boost i think i would do 10 green for vacuum and 10 either yellow or red for boost. prolly yellow. Then the trick is labeling them so that it still looks OE, AND is visible at night! talk about a tall order!

[trd4life]

Jason i want you to build me one of these custom clusters!

[Gibson99]

hmm... let me finish mine first so i can work out all the bugs. you don't want a beta version, do you?

check out this gimp-shop i just put together...



it'd be fuel pressure on the left, not another EGT of course. everything else would be LEDs to match the tach - temp, fuel, and boost.

of course, i would still need to figure out how to make the LEDs work using stock senders for temp and fuel... it'll be alot of work!

[KILLA CAM]

That is a pretty big undertaking with all of those modifications. Good luck partner!

[akora12]

Love the SAFC install!

[Ilovemylara]

You could use a custom made microcontroller to read the stock digital sending unit signals, and convert them in different voltages for the led. With that option, you could do so many cool things with the leds, for example, when you turn the key to on, they could all flash at a certain pattern, then go to 0 psi. or really anything you want.