AUTOMETER GUAGES IN 65 or 66 bezel...My quick write up!!!!

65racecoupe · Jul 29, 2003

This concerns the 65 GT or 66 guage Bezels. (o o O o o)

4 small and 1 large.

GUAGES...
Speedometer - 3 3/8 inch face (120 or 160 MPH-I like 160)
Oil, Volt, Water temp, Fuel Level - 2 1/16

You don't need to do anything to the large speedo hole. The speedometer drops right IN and looks great. I have the 160 MPH.

As far as the 4 other openings, you have to do a lot of grinding to get the guage to fit..
The plastic cups in about an inch. You basically have to cut out all the plastic cup up to the chrome rings. You have to trim the inner part of the chrome rings.

Don't worry if it is a little jagged. As long as you keep the trimming on the inside and don't grind all the way through the wall of the chrome ring you will be fine. The guages will end up sitting on top of the rings, covering any imperfections. The rings are about 1/4 in above the black surface face as you probably know.

You have to get the wall of the chrome ring pretty thin. If there were 2 inch guages, it would be a lot easier, but it really is no big deal.

I recommend a plug in Dremmel. I have a rechargeable cordless, and my power runs out before I finish ONE of the holes. In fact, as I write this I still have 2 to finish.

PRICES...

65 GT BEZEL $52 66 BEZEL $26
Speedometer $75 - $80
Oil $$50 - $54
Water $50 - $54
Volts $30 - $35
Fuel $35 - $30
Dremel - $40 cordless $50 with cord

I think that the black guages from Auto Meter look great, but the white ones would look cool, especially with a green or red light behind.

Skill Level - 5 (Hell, I can do it, so it can't be too difficult)

floggerjay · Jul 29, 2003

I was thinking about doing the same thing with my 67. do you know what size guages I might need? Is it easy to wire them up?

65racecoupe · Jul 30, 2003

I don't know.

What you do is...

1. Have the bezel measured with an instrument at an autoparts store. (not sure of the name, but it can be measured to the .xxx of an inch)

2. Figure out how much space you have in the guage bezel to fit the guage in. For instance, I had a 1.95 inch opening on the small holes and a 3.514 inch opening on the large speedo hole.
The total material on the small guage was more than enough for me to fit 2 1/16 inch guages. For the speedo, I ordered the 3 3/8 inch. The ring on the guage will hold it in.

3. Order the guages. They are measured by the guage itself, not the outer chrome ring. Summit has the dimensions of the guage rings.

That should help.

RaSMG · Jul 30, 2003

That's cool and all fitting aftermarket gauges in the stock cluster. But I think with the 'aftermarket' gauge clusters that are out now by JME or Haneline or Dakota Digital you just can't go wrong. I mean you spent over $300 in parts and lots of labor and you've still got a 'half stock half mod' look if you know what I mean. Maybe that's what you were going for. But for a little bit more usually around $499 these aftermarket clusters come with the gauges and wiring all pre fit and installed, they have fancy bezel options like billet or engine turned aluminum, multiple gauge options, plus you get the 6th gauge and the most important the tachometer reading. I just can't stand when I see a car with a nice interior and a nice paint job and then some ugly ass tach on the dash or steering wheel.

65racecoupe · Jul 31, 2003

It is not quite that cheap.

JME guage bezel is $399 WITHOUT GUAGES

Dakota Digital Guages are, well, digital. That doesn't jive with my interior.

The only other reasonable guage cluster I have seen was about what I paid, but I didn't like the way it looked.

The autometer guages I used are black faced, like the stock ones and look great. The tach I have is a small 3 3/8 tach without a shift light. It will look clean on the steering shaft.

I guess you could go either way. I didn't ask how much the JME with guages was, but I doubt it was under $550.

Maxamil · Jul 31, 2003

preach on it brutha RasMG. I currently have the ugly dash tach. Im working on getting the JME bezel but its close to 1G with all the gauges and wires you need to hook it up. I would rather spend it on other things. Like a motor and trans. Thats probly what hes going for.

65racecoupe · Jul 31, 2003

Yeah, I thought the JME bezel would be about the much. I would rather waste my money on a Fuel Safe Fuel Cell (which I did).

I didn't try to get out the cheap way, though. I could have put the stock guages in for free. I just like the way this looks.

Here is a picture, not my car though. My dash is black.

Http://forums.stangnet.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1382

66P51GT · Dec 18, 2003

I know I'm reviving an old post but I'm glad to see that 65racecoupe took the time to do the writeup. I've been thinking about this for a while and this was exactly what I was looking for. It all came together with the picture above. I've been trying to visualize what it would look like and now I know.

One question... where does the light source come from for night time driving?

302 coupe · Dec 18, 2003

all the gauges have their own lights, they can be wired into the headlight switch so that they dim and come on with the headlights just like the factory gauges.

66P51GT · Dec 19, 2003

302 coupe
Where did you get your dash pod? I found one at NPD, Mustang Corral, and Maier Racing. They run between $60 and $80. Except for Maier, they say they have to be trimmed for the '66. Is this a fact?

302 coupe · Dec 19, 2003

66P51GT said:
302 coupe
Where did you get your dash pod? I found one at NPD, Mustang Corral, and Maier Racing. They run between $60 and $80. Except for Maier, they say they have to be trimmed for the '66. Is this a fact?

I'm still running factory guages right now. In the next month or so, I'm gonna be putting in the GT350R dash panel. I know Tony Branda sells them, the panel is $50. Has holes for tach and speedo, along with the 4 smaller guages. It will be fitted with autometer traditional chrome guages, all the guages add up to about $320. Just so there is no confusion, I am not talking about the 'pod' that goes in the center of the dash.

66P51GT · Dec 19, 2003

OK - Thanks for the clarification. Yeah, I priced Auto Meter Phantom gauges on Summit last night and it came to around $380 with 2 1/6" Fuel, Volt, Oil, Water & 3 3/4 Tach and Speedo.

I did find a lower cost alternative to the billet aluminum units. They are availabe from Cobra Automotive and Delta Bay Mustangs. The 6 pod dash runs $50 - $80. So, you could all the custom gauges installed in the dash for less than $450.

-Chuck

brittanyh21 · Dec 20, 2003

Thanks for bringing this old post back. Very useful info.

hotrodman · Jan 27, 2004

brittanyh21 said:
Thanks for bringing this old post back. Very useful info.

hey brittany i miss you?

golf4283 · Jan 27, 2004

can you post a pic of the job done?? I am going to do an autometer swap in my 66 and wanna see what it looks like.

brittanyh21 · Jan 27, 2004

hotrodman said:
hey brittany i miss you?

I'm here ! I just wish this forum had a general discussion area.. but thats okay!

charlies · Jan 28, 2004

yea, there's no discussion area, what's up with that? it's totally lame.

cardude · Jan 28, 2004

Quick question on this. I currently have stock guages and running the under the dash mounted oil, water, volt, and tach on the column. I am curious to hear how you handled the wireing aspect of it. did you simply bypass the wires that are there for the original gauges and blank them out / leave them loose?

Edbert · Jan 28, 2004

floggerjay said:
I was thinking about doing the same thing with my 67. do you know what size guages I might need? Is it easy to wire them up?

http://www.edbert.net/gauges.htm

stebbi66 · Jan 28, 2004

Here is a link to a another Auto Meter Phantom gauge setup in a 1966 cluster.

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/3573/Special/p1.html

AUTOMETER GUAGES IN 65 or 66 bezel...My quick write up!!!!

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