Bump

 

So I finally got around to taking pictures of the panel with my two gauges installed. I have three autometer gauges coming Tuesday, so I should be able to poke them in really quick and get pictures ot the panel filled by the end of the week. Enjoy.

 

Is that 60mm gauges

 

Someone obviously didn't read the entire thread, let alone the first post . 60mm gauges can not fit in the stock DIN location because the DIN is only 53.5 mm tall. Those are 52mm gauges.

 

i want one, could you please pm me price shipped to 43235. i believe is 50 something right? and alumunium is the only color you have ?

 

Panels are 59 plus shipping. So 66 bucks shipped. the panels come in raw stainless, whether you decide to polish it, brush it, or paint it is up to you. You can contact the guy supplying the panels for the group buy by emailing steve@nsnmotorsports.com

 

I did read several pages of the thread, they just look bigger than 52mm from the pictures.

 

I know, I was just joking around with you. They look bigger because they are black with a black rim.

Good news, I got my two gauges from Steve (the same guy doing these panels) and my other gauge from Summit in the mail. I built a wiring harness for the gauges last night so installation will be a snap. I'll probably get them installed with pictures by the end of the week.

 

do a how to for wiring up and installing the gauges jay.

 

 

Keep in mind that the gauges are a solid friction fit. You can put urethane adhesive on the back of the gauge when you insert it if you feel the need for more holding. But the panel holds the gauges all down the side because of the flanges. I'm sure that is what livelyjay is doing as well... just slipping them in because the fit is so tight. Once you mount the panel with the screws the plastic surround goes on and then the gauges are slipped in. If you buy a panel like 42DD sells you are just doing the same thing except gluing/taping the panel to the front surround.... Which will eventually release, and isn't as stable to keep the gauges from vibrating... Most of the time when you mount gauges into a pod they are "snap in" fit which is just a friction fit. In rare cases, you can use special clamps. But unless you figure out a nifty way to get behind the panel that isn't happening with these panels.

So just wanted to clarify that to you guys so you understand... Steve said he got some questions on that one.

 

The gauges fit in very tight, depending on how much you sand. If you feel the gauge is loose, something you can do is put tape around the end of the gauge to make it tighter with the panel. Here is my MS Paint wiring diagram. It's a crappy drawing, but it gets the point accross. I have a power/ground distribution block behind my dash that's wired up to the radio accessory wire (with a 10amp fuse in line). That's where I'm going to run my gauges, radar detector, and boost/vac sending unit. It makes wiring a hell of a lot cleaner.

Also, I hear wiring up the light bulb of the gauge to the dimmer works a bit differently than it would be to straight power and ground. The dimmer might make things work in the opposite direction, so you'll have to wire the light bulb to Power and Dimmer, instead of Dimmer and Ground. I'll be checking this out with a multimeter before I starts hooking things up.

Also, you might have the ability to use clamps, so you could mount the gauges to the panel with the clamp supplied with the gauge, then wire the gauges, then mount the panel. I'll look into clearances with clamps when I get to mounting my new gauges.

 

The Autometer gauges fit perfectly into the gauge panel right out of the box. Since I did a little sanding/grinding to fit my other gauges, the Autometers are a little loose. This was remedied by pressing the outer flanges together a bit, then the gauges fit in nice and tight. I put the clamps on as well, just to show everyone that you can fit clamps in the panel. Here are the pictures of it in my office, and you can see my harness as well. The lights aren't hooked up yet, because it was too cold to get outside to do much work.

 

2 questions...

plastic im guessing is to keep from scraping up the gauges?
and
what are you using for your power source back there? Im guessing you are gonna use the ground the radio used?

 

I have a distribution block set up behind the stock radio location. I tapped into the radio accessory wire to power the dist block. There is a nice grounding point behind the stock radio. There are two bolts, pick one and use it. I ground the distribution block from that point. The block is also fused with a 10amp fuse, to keep it at the same rate as the stock radio fuse amperage.

The items plugged into the dist block are: amplifier remote wire (I think, I may have left that as it was), vac/boost sending unit (this will soon be wired into the gauge wiring harness), my existing 2 gauges (soon all 5 gauges will only be one connection with the harness), and my radar detector.

Edit: Added awesome MSPaint drawing of behind dash setup.