I own a '79 Vette that has a non working speedo and tach. I am would like to replace them with some new style white gauges but they do not appear to be separate gauges to be replaced like this. Has anyone made a custom panel for this or modified the stock one to accept a new speedo and tach.

 

I also have some non working gauges. I am replacing all my gauges with Nordskog digital gauges for the vette that is custom fit cluster for about $500. But with that note I am not going with all original equipment. The car right not is heavly moidified from original.

 

Putting the 5" tach and speedo along with with 2 1/16" gauges in my 78. Phantom gauges with the green LEDs should look a lot better then stock gauges IMO. I used the stock mounting buckets for both the center gauges and tach/speedo to keep as close to stock location as possible. Made a new face plate for the tach/speedo from 1/4" plexiglass as you have to offset the holes a little from the stock ones. The flat part of the stock gauges allows them to be mounted a little lower then the Autometer gauges will be in the original mounting bucket. I used a jig saw to cut out the back of mounting bucket so the new Autometer gauges would fit in. The 2 1/16" gauges got mounted in stock bucket also. I used a hi speed grinder on stock bezel to make the openings big enough for the new gauges. Will use a woodgrain veneer to cover the holes on the bezel for the center cluster to finish it off. Several forum members have posted pics of their conversions on here in the past. After seeing their conversions it was an easy choice for me to go with the Autometer gauges. Maybe some members will post pics again so you can see the finished product, houstonvett

 

Check these out

 

Props to EDDIEJ82
Those gauges look great!

 

i have digital gauges and they suck.... they flucuate (sp) too much and jump in numbers...also u need special senders/etc....PITA..... i might switch out to analog ones..... mine look cool cause they are green digital but the operations sucks

 

What type of Autometer guages is Eddie running?
Ultralite? Ultimate? are those backlite led's? Looks good.
Any chance of part #'s? I'm looking to replace my tach & speedo with some autometers (blue color) but most of the guages don't come in 5".
Any other good guage companies out there?

 

Did you use Nordskog digital gauge custom fit panels. Sorry they don't work well for you?
I read other reviews regarding the Nordskog gauges that they worked pretty good.
Please give reviews regarding these gauges, because I was going to buy the cluster.

 

yeah, i used nordskog but the individual ones....not the c3 kit that i have seen....... my temp/oil/speedo jumps toooooo much.... sort of freaks me out cause i'm afraid of it overheating/etc.....but i usually run at 160-170 in temp though....but still.......

 

You can get the blue color by asking for the LED package for the gauges. The 5" gauges use 2 LEDs and the 2 1/16" ones use one LED. I use Phantom gauges in mine with green LEDs. The LEDs are about $13.00 extra from the big suppliers. With Autometers Cobalt, C2 or N2 gauges you are being stepper motors and high end sensors along with the LED backlighting. Those 3 series cost a lot more then lets say the Phantoms do. If I was in a F-22 Raptor the stepper motors and high end sensors might make a difference but IMO is a waste of money for a car. Not sure about the other series of gauges but the LEDs fit into the Phantom line for sure, houstonvett

 

....mine work great and don't seem to jump at all.

I cannot recommend strongly enough *RED* on any digital if you have a ragtop - green, blue and amber all wash out in the sun and green seems to mess up night vision a little.

On my aux dashtop panel I made, which holds 8 2 1/16" gauges, I am shortly changing out 3 simply because they are green, another because it is a white faced A/F meter (they didn't offer black then) and two others to include two new gauges - an exh gas temp instead of the second a/f meter and a D-PIC I'm butchering to make the right red with blacked out styling.

I might have to consider a nitrous set up.....just so I can add a few. more. GAUGES!!!

Mine's getting painted right now or I'd go take a pic. I have some I took anyhow and I'll try to upload them tonight, but I'm pretty stupid.

The looks are striking and I love the action of all the gauges. I like the small increments they move to let you spot a trend developing, but I've never noticed one jumping much. Most of the senders are standard senders, but as everything else changed and most the gauge functions were added (fuel press, vac, oil, tran, diff temps and a/f meters), I started with new senders anyhow. The speed sender is of course an electric one instead of that stupid mechancial cable, fortunately.

A few words of caution - changing out the gauges and half fixing the ducting system underneath was the single longest and most involved project on the complete rebuild of this car I've ever gotten into. I advise getting *new* gauge lenses at a minimum and preferrably spending the bucks on new housings. They are all available at all the big suppliers - Cent Corv, Corv Am, Eck, MidAm, and the others like Volvette, etc. You can probably get the lenses for $50 and new housings (yours may be all crushed and cracked) for $150.

Go high end on the wiring too. Rig joint plug ins for simplicity - I used tralier plugs for water tightness (and they were sitting around!). Fuse everything and get a good new direct to battery ground and positive source for all uses. You'll hate yourself if you Lucas together those hard to reach wiring connections.

While I had little problem with the console part of the kit the main tach and speedo were a nightmare. I had to dremel part of the actual breadboards to make them fit - which horrified me. I thought the screw extension mount system seemed flakey, but in 50+K miles of really hard abuse, and exposure to rain with the top down (or leaking) have had no problems.

To do this (gauges alone), plan on a nice week of evenings and have a nice supply of two part epoxy (a type you've tested and know works well), some nice flat black paint, cleaner, masking tape, exacto knives, wire, connectors, strippers, crimpers, cutters, pliers, etc. (Have all possible stuff right there at hand and you'll get stunning results.)

 

Wow! I can't believe how great this community is. I have only owned this car for a year and am just starting my "project" now.

All this information was very helpful, I am most interested in what EddieJ82 did. That is EXACTLY what I want to do. Right down to the B&M shifter!

The problem is, I am not a very good metal worker. I can install parts with the best of them, but if it doesn't come in a kit, I do not have much faith that I will be able to do a decent job.

The plexiglass idea is intriguing though, from houstonvett. Do you have any pics of the project? Did you paint the plexiglass after it was completed?

I am just finding it so hard to believe that with a community this strong, no manufacturer is making retrofit gauge panels like the ones Eddiej82 has made.

Eddiej82, I don't suppose you have a step-by-step you would like to share with me? Maybe even direct me where I can purchase these (if you had them made)?

Thanks again for all your help.

 

Nice custom

 

Wayne,
I ordered the Nordskog complete setup in red and amm just waiting for it to be delivered. Were the speedo and tach that bad? I figured with all the screw extensions and so forth that the kit was really thought out. Guess I'll learn soon enough. What did you need epoxy for? I bought a ton of different color/guage wires and corresponding terminals/crimpers etc. What do you mean you had to dremel the breadbords? Whats a breadboard? If you have any photos of either the work in progress or the final outcome I'd love to see it. You can email it to me if you'd like at ccuneo@si.rr.com , or post it, maybe others would be interested.
Thx ESU

 

bezel in a couple of places - significantly - on at least one gauge. It really unnerves me to take a vibratory tool to something like that too, and I had to go in a fair amount at that.

The little bolt pillar mount things *did* work - *surprisingly*. They seemed very cheesey to me but haven't moved around at all.

Bear in mind I did an entire dash rebuild, including a DIN radio mount for my Blaupunct MP41 San Jose, all the vent system fixed and new hoses and heater core, the wood insert kit, dash cap covering, new speakers, changing or rerouting main wires that looked iffy - everything in the area.

The epoxy was for all the stuff that was broken in those bezels, all the screw holes and flanges that were broken off, stripped out and such. I recall I used something like 20 tubes of the stuff by the end of the phase.

I used the flat black paint and some black duct tape in a few places to control behind the lense reflections, etc. I was really glad I had sprung for the new lenses and really wished I had sprung for the whole new bezels. It would have saved so much effort.

I know every single area I went into got worse and worse and discovered more and more rot and damage and such and I addressed it all. I love what it looks like and how it works now. I will be happy when I have my speedo working right again.

(The speedo sensor is being used right now by the Gear Vendors and splitting the signal from the single sender screws up the reading of the speedometer when the OD is actually on. So far GV has not come up with a way to rig the appropriate mechanical-cable transducer without that cable being too kinked, although I think we could dodge the problem, use a single sender and amplify or filter the signal from it electronically (which oddly I'm about to ask the tech at Nordskog about, even though they have no part of it, as they are a lot better at that than those at GV or anything I remember from 20 years ago when I dropped out of CSE.)

Sorry, I have few enough pics as it is of it done, let alone any in process. I took some more very recently I will try to upload here shortly from the new palmcorder I bought for the shoots I go on. (I'm pretty bad at it so far, so you might see some so-so pics of gauges or some tracer fire from a night shoot by the time I upload them - no promises!)

 

Wayne, I have some concerns about the speedo hook up. Nordskog tells me I dont need the mechanical sender and that I can just hook up electronically to the cruise transducer and that my cruise control will still work. How/where did you tie in for the speedo? Also, Nordskog is gonna make me a tinted plexi bezel or maybe it just comes with the kit for the speedo and tach, should cover up some of the unsightly areas.
ESU

 

with my set....I just don't know. I'm pretty sure the central console one was a sourced vette part.

I would assume your regular sender works for this. My 75 had a manual speedo - so I had to change it to the electronic signal generator.

My problem came when I had the Gear Vendors installed. It uses that signal also. It has a seperate place for it's own manual adapted cable to signal generator (a real rube goldburg arrangement to begin with.) But the tunnel on a C3, even butchered like you wouldn't believe it, would not allow enough clearance to not kink the cable in a few miles.

The two wired together caused a misreading when the OD engages. Either I need a special 45 to 90 degree adapter on the cable or a way to electronically split and/or boost the signal from that signal generator.

I do not know the exact problem with the split signal. I believe it's a standard varying AC wave reflecting revs, but the OD could be a "noisier" receiver than your cruise control. In that case, wire the two together and you're fine.

I needed to call their tech guy anyhow about this. I"ll try to do that today or tomorrow. (I need to get them to make me a custom "Diff T" in red anyhow! )

 

Working on a '78? go here where ive got written instructions and wiring diagrams of how i did my 78.