teach me about stupid cheap custom gauges

Related to the GMC build thread. I found a great set of combo/quad/custom gauges for the truck to make the cluster in my truck look like less of a cluster. I pulled Tunawife over for her aesthetic opinion, and her choice was made. When she heard the cost ($650-$750 before I figure out senders) she started hitting me.

So I am still twitching, but I've cleaned up most of the blood, and I have decided that I should probably explore a cheaper, more GRM friendly option.

The truck currently has the three hole "idiot light" cluster. It looks like this.

The left hand is the speedometer, the right hand is the fuel gauge, the middle is blank. It looks goofy and stupid with the weirdo duel plane setup and shows you virtually nothing. The more typical cluster looks like this:

Or like this

And they both look -ok- but are expensive to switch to if you want something in good condition, and still look busy on the tiny dash cluster.

The setup I was planning on was going to use a 5" speedo, a 5" tach, and a 3 3/8" quad gauge from Classic Instruments or two thri-gauges from New Vintage with a clock in the center.

Now, I am creative. I don't mind playing around a bit. My thoughts are: If I can mount some random ebay/junkyard/swapmeet finds to a panel, and figure out a cool way to make pointers, I can print a nice vinyl face for the new gauges and throw it all together. I figure my current speedo is fine technically, so I'll just gut it and put a new face in front of it. I'll ebay a generic cheapie used for fuel/oil/water/tach/battery and stuff them where I want.

Sounds easy, but I have never done it.

Has anyone here done this?

Does anyone know of any links where this was done?

Any other thoughts?

I have to go, a lot of blood to mop yet.

How about some 924, 914 or 911 gauges? They all have some decent combo gauges and good tach/speedos that are legible. They are good sized and round so they are easy to adapt.

http://web.archive.org/web/20090211173802/http://revlimiter.net/mods/gauges.html

"How about some 924, 914 or 911 gauges?"

ABSOLUTELY ! ! ! They're a little known treasure. Cheap, accurate, super easy hook up and VDO quality inside and out. The bezels and lenses interchange throughout the years and models so you can customize a set to suit your needs/wants. The best part is that the Porsche gauges match perfectly with the smaller aftermarket VDO gauges for a nice matched set. If you want to save even more $$$ on the smaller gauges, oil pressure, fuel, volts, etc. You can look to the Saabs and VWs for those rather than buying new.

I use these in almost every car that I can (I have a nice set of Porsche 356 gauges going into my MGA) and always have good luck with them.

turboswede is correct !!

Ive built about a dozen custom panels. Its very simple actually.

What gauges do you really need? Personally I say speedo fuel oil pressure and water temp. Use leds for shift light. Volt gauge if necessarry for visual symmetry or warning light if not.

Use a 5 inch speedo center surrounded with amber led for shift. Water temp and oil pressure right beside it. Fuel hidden behind the ashtray. Nice and clean and simple.

Front the factory cluster with lexan and cut your new holes. Angle as necessary for visibility.