Originally posted by todras:
Originally posted by DARKONE:
did u do that urself??



His mom probably did it.



LOL! Yes I did it!

Thanks for all the complements guys (and one girl ). After all the frustration of getting that interior "where I want it", I REALLY do appreciate your kind words.

As for the install, I can tell you I went through alot of frustration trying to create a suitable mounting plate for the three gauges. First I tried high density foam. We build models with that stuff at school, and I thought it would work great...but after I carefully cut and sanded the overall shape, the 2" drill bit just tore it to shreds. (~tear~)

Then I tried 1/4" plexi-glass, again cutting the rectangle out with a band saw, and fitting it into the dash. Again, I started to drill the holes out, and the bit heated the plastic so much that they fused together as I was drilling.
(It started spinning wildly, and before I could get my hand off the trigger, the plexi gave a nice slash to the abs. Luckily their made of steel.

Anyway, I was devastated, but decided to try a 1/2" piece wood. I've never worked with wood before, but wish I would have tried it in the first place. It cut out nicely, and the holes drilled through like butter. I sanded the surface smooth and painted it black with this chalk board paint I had lying around.

As for installing the gauges, the oil press. has yet to be done. I bought a bunch of wire first, and built a "wiring harness" for the + and - lights. I made it so I can unplug the whole assembly, should I ever need to. The route of those I just shoved into the back of the dimmer rheostat, so the bulbs dim with everything else.

Here�s a shot of the wood piece I made, and you can see where 2 wiring hubs where the + and - all run together, and then run to the dimmer switch from there...



The back of "thee apparatus"...



Here's the Vac. line commin' through the firewall. I still have to run the sender wire through there, and hook it up to the Oil press. sender, which has yet to be hooked up either...



And the "T" fitting on a vacuum line...



I tried to get a shot without glare, but the camera just kept picking it up, despite the car being in the shade, and no glare on the gauges. The needles are actually muuch more of a neon red in person. They are not orange, and match the stock gauges well...



And lastly, heres a sh*ty shot of what everything looks like at night...


Last edited by Scottster; 07/31/06 10:24 PM.
The relentless pursuit of unrealness ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2000 SVT Contour -Toreador/Tan -Build #363 -121ooo miles -priceless