Hooray for tax refunds! Of course, I suppose I could have just reformulated how much of my paycheck went to the federal government, but then I wouldn't have that pleasant surprise in May. With part of my 2009 fiscal year refund I bought the last of the gauges I would need for the Autometer conversion in my 'burb.
If you recall, this was where we'd left off:
I bought my 4491 Voltmeter, 4414 fuel level gauge (0-90 ohm) and 4489 programmable electronic speedometer from Summit. After debating for a while, I decided to hold off on purchasing a transmission temperature gauge, mostly because at 2 5/8” it would look goofy in the 3 3/8” center opening, but also because I had another plan in mind for that center opening. My devious scheme involves taking a new VDO transmission temp gauge I already had, having a machine shop make me a 3 3/8 bezel out of aluminum and screen printing a custom gauge face on thin brushed aluminum so that the whole cluster looks the same. I'd also need a custom cut piece of round glass to protect it and a longer gauge needle. Then I'd probably want to integrate the check engine light into it as a simple LED too. It's a project to worry about at a later date.
I'd already cut the holes for the small gauges, but out came the tinsnips and dremel to let that 5” speedo slide into place.
With this intermediate plate fully modified I could finally secure all of the gauges with of their provided hardware and then slide the back plate over them to hold it in place. At the same time, Brothers was having their spring sale, so one of the things I ordered was a new gauge face plate. In order for the tach and speedo to fit properly the back side needed a little notching.
Oooh, all put together it was starting to look real good.
For comparison's sake I threw together a factory tach cluster real quick using parts that are meant to go on the Blazer.
They've certainly both got their charms.