I just ordered the panel and am glad i found this thread. That is exactly what i am looking for in the placement of the gauges. I am going to mount my Air/fuel, oil pressure and water temp. I did not want the air/fuel flashing in my face, and that would be a gauge that would be easy to see out of the corner of your eye and the other two are ones that shouldn't change too often so an occasional glance would work on checking them
Even with a 150 AMP alt... I still ran very low voltage at idle with everything on (radio, 3.8 Tauras fan, headlights, ect...) I took off my underdrive pullies, switched my fan to low speed and put an OVERDRIVE alt pulley on. What a difference. Never goes below 14 volts with everything on full blast. If you still want the pullies, your best bet is the March Power and Amp kit, which comes with the underdrive water pump and crank pulley, but the overdrive alt pulley. Looks good buddy!
Another site is www.gaugeplates.com which thier "comming soon" has been the same for over a year now. I want a setup that has no radio at all, just gauges and switches.
I once saw at a track a guy with a foxbody race car, where the whole radio to the HVAC controlls were deleted with one plastic pannel and just had some switches on the bottoms. Probally a good home made setup. This all reminds me that I need to start putting the interior of my car back togeather.
Savegoodauto: Your PM box was full, so I just posted in here for you.
For me a one wire hook up means:
I tied all of the power wires together and made 1 power lead. (like 3 into 1. Or a power block)
I tied all of the ground wires, dimmer wires together all in the same fashion. The only wires that you can't do this to are the source wires (one that hook up to the gauges)
The stock gauges can remain functional. For the Oil Pressure you will have to go to the local hardware store to get some brass fittings to tee both the new sender and the stock sender.
The Temp sender needs to go into the stock location. The stock one needs to be moved somewhere to the rear part of the intake (I haven't done it yet)
So they can both be made to work with the stock gauges. I haven't finished it yet.
Thanks Nick... If I need to, I'll look into an overdriven pulley. These are sort of temporary since I'll probably end up with a Vortech or something next winter. If I can't reuse them, I'll just put them on eBay. Just wanted a little something more for the summer, ya know?
90GT, I know what you are looking for. It's a panel that holds like 5 gauges. I think I have seen something like that, but I don't remember where I saw it at.
I just got my plate in the mail and will be attempting to do the install within a month or so. Ill post up some pics before and after since Ill probably be installing some new interior peices as well!
If anyone has any ideas on how to wire up an a/f gauge, Im all ears! I got my a/f gauge used so it didnt come with any directions. The other 2 gauges seem pretty straight forward though. I will be installing an a/f gauge, oil pressure gauge, and water temp gauge.
srothfuss, can you shoot me a quick write up of how you wired everything on the back of the gauges. I sent you my email address the other day. The pics are almost big enough to see everything, but Id hate to miss something! Also any info on how to keep the stock gauges going would be appreciated as well. Id like to have them going "side by side" so to speak just to see how far off they are/were. Its no big deal if I cant keep them wired though, it would just be a plus.
Great pics, those are awsome! I like it when people take the time to post progress pics! Kudos!
My next project will be putting the climate controls on the bottom where your gauges are, room for radio in stock location (or vice-versa, in my case I have no radio but an illuminated logo), and guages in the old climate control location...
I am glad I saw this thread. I need gauges for the new engine but I wanted a lower profile look than pillar mounts or vent mounts. I am ordering one of those gauge/radio mounts tomorrow! Thanks for posting that (months and months ago).
Those look great guys but i love my pillar mounts. I dont really have to take my eye off the road to look at them. And what kind of shift knob is that?