sweetride2go Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 I always liked the way the autometer gauges looked in the stock Datsun housings. Especially with the 'ProComps' there is a real crisp, clean look. You know, "doens't look quite stock, but almost does," lol. Unfortunatly this means buying several hundred dollars worth of gauges, cutting them out of their autometer housings, and then mounting them somehow. I, however, wanted to make the "somehow" a lot less work and give it a little more(or less)of a "bolt in" approach. This is what I have done, so far... First off, here is the two side by side. Depth is the same, diameter is the same, color is not, heh... First off, obviously we need empty Datsun gauge cups. Soo, I gutted the old guages and kept just the fronts. Here is an ealier attempt at utilizing the OEM back section. Notice the three notches in the center we milled out for mounting the gauge. The problem here is that the gauge is electric, and I didn't feel there was enough room, the metal is flimsy, and bla-be-da-bla, well, I just decided at this point to build the back from scratch. So yah... Ok, so after an hour or so vary gingerly trying not to cutt off a finger I coaxed the autometer's gauge bezels off (I now wish I kept the glass). Here's the gauge with no bezel/glass, and just the guts... Here we go! After a few hours of designing and cutting, we gave birth to a new gauge cup. Now with the guts installed, almost a frankenstien (spelling? haha). The front has now been put on. Here's where it got tricky. I didn't cut out the little 'crossbar' on the Datsun unit, and so for the needle to pass by the gauge had to be set correctly via the back of the gauge cup, or by setting the depth in which we counterbored we effectivly set the face height. The other factory to keep in mind is that there is still no backlight, and inorder to light the face we spaced the face of the gauge a little less than 1/8" away from the Datsun's black plate, you know, with the crossbar thingy... This will hopefully allow enough light from whatever backlight I use to get by the autometer face and light up the face so I can see it at night. So far, I don't have any tweaks to make. However, the cup still isnt quite finished. The top and bottom still needs to have a bit milled off and a few holes drilled for the 'back bar' (I guess you could call it that?) that holds the gauge into the Datsun dash. I still have to find a backlight of some kind and drill holes and mount it. But so ya, this is it in a large nutshell, *grin*... Cheers Ryan~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetride2go Posted August 29, 2008 Author Share Posted August 29, 2008 PS: Sorry for the SUPERSIZED images. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin.pk Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 That is some damn good work. Amazing attention to detail Makes my gauge install look like a completer hack job. Kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 That is SOOOOO nice!!!! You should definitely market the cup housings. I wonder if you need to make several different cups to suit the various mounting positions in the dash and variations from year to year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WizardBlack Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Great job! Ever think about getting a piece of plexi or something even more scratch resistant to replace the OE glass? Maybe take 'em out and use a plastic (or headlight) buffing kit to clean them up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetride2go Posted September 2, 2008 Author Share Posted September 2, 2008 Thanks guys! Now I'm thinking about doing the outer piece too. It should be fairly easy to do since the overall shape is there in the back section. This would also eliminate any modifying that I would otherwise have to do to the OEM outers. I will do the lense in Lexan or better yet, I'm going to see if I can get this one peticular glass shop to cut me some lenses that will fit into the new cups. This shop has a CNC waterjet and does a lot of custom glass for hot rods and such... Oh, and I'm thinking about making the back sections out of a white plastic to help with the backlighting, the blue was some nylon my buddy had laying around in his shop. I still have to design cups for the tach and speedo. I don't know how similar the S30 dashes are in reference to gauge placement. I thought they were the same, but thats just an assumption. So far, for the 4 autometer gauges that I have, all being ProComp 2-5/8" 90* electrical, these gauges all have the same dimensions in how they are mounted(ie: the three mounting pins on the back). Cheers, Ryan~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyZ Posted September 4, 2008 Share Posted September 4, 2008 Impressive work, Ryan. Getting glass cut for the guages would be the pièce de résistance of the whole project. That would be sweet!! Davy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dudeboy Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Home Depot has 8 x12 inch lexan (and bigger) that is clear and about the same thickness as the original Z guage material and the cost is $3.00 plus tax. The guage glass is 2 1/2' across, and it can be cut with door knob cutter or dremel tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dudeboy Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 Quick edit for above post. The size of the glass/lexan of the small guages is 2 5/8 inches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sorealsosurreal Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 i want more of this, anyone think they could make these and possibly sell them??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montezuma Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Very interesting post Ryan, I really like what you did. I did something like that the other night in the garage but I took a little different approach, I will take a picture and post it. I wanted to use the factory cup and cut like Ryan did but I would rather have those blue plastic cups he made. Ryan please consider mass production of that cup you might not make a ton of money but you would be helping out other Z owners. I discovered the fit of the Tach and Speedo is not as easy if you want it look clean. Great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bansheeboy11 Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Thats awsome, nice work and it does look stock haha. Cool stuff. What did you cut that with? and 3 axis mill? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montezuma Posted December 28, 2008 Share Posted December 28, 2008 I am still interested in those cups, here is the way I am doing my guages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetride2go Posted January 7, 2009 Author Share Posted January 7, 2009 Thanks guys. I'm half way toying with the idea of producing the back halvs (the blue section) since they bolt right up to the factory face side(the black side). I'm sorry I havn't updated in a long time, the project got side-lined, I just have to many projects going on at once all of a sudden, heh... The only reason they are blue is because that happened to be the color of the material we had laying around at the time. Optimally, I think white would work best as to help reflect the light from the backlight. Those cups I already made only fit the electric auto meter guts. However I don't think it would take long to redesign a cup for a mechanical guage's guts and still allow for the sending unit line through the back. As far as where I left off ealier, we have the outer cup(the black half) mostly done, and I even sourced a guy that has a CNC water-jet and will cutt out the glass for them. cheers Ryan~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetride2go Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 Well, we're still working on it, and I should have some more models cutt tomarrow. We just finished cutting out a socket for the backlight bulbs, and making holes for the 'band' that goes across the back for mounting in the dash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilC Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 I have to switch all my gauges to my "new" LS1 Z so I am watching this one closely. Great work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetride2go Posted February 7, 2009 Author Share Posted February 7, 2009 Sooo, finally an update! We've made some progress, and we have had some setbacks. First off, I think the smaller gauge cups are finished, maybe. Heh.. Second, we've been working with the big two, the tach and speedo. Mounting them hasn't been so much an issue, but getting the backlighting to shine to the front has been a bit of a pain... First off, here's the latest in the small gauge prototypes. However, it's not the final, we have one more prototype to cutt. The changes from this one is that the backlight has been clocked about 25* to the left of its current location to free up space behind the mounting band. This picture shows the mounting band on the cup. Here is the recess we made in the back of the cup for the backlight. This allows the use of the supplied autometer gauge backlights (seen to the left). Here is the tach still in its autometer cup, the front half of the factory Zcar gauge, the two backlights, and our fabricated cup (blue) to hold the tach, replacing the white autometer cup. Here is the cup by itself. The tach removed from it's autometer cup and now installed in our own. Now, loosly installed into the Zcar front half. I left one light out, and we also labeled the pins on the back for signal, battery, lamp, ignition, etc. And we have the tach from the front. Not quite shure if I should open it up just a bit to show a bit more of the gauge face. Also, since I will be useing these on my car, I still need to install a few LED's into the actuall face of the gauge for turn/high beam indicators. I'm still working on the design of the tach cup. I am not getting any light from the two backlights to pass the gauge and illuminate the face. I've thought about using strip LED's adheared to the outside of face, so to speak, but I'm afriad that this may be too bright. I've also thought about using ultra-violet LED's, mainly to bring out the text on the face. That and the purple hue would really accent the rest of the car, being that it is purple, haha... Thoughts and objective critisism is more than welcome. Cheers Ryan~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garvice Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 It looks like an odd fit due to only seeing some of the minor ticks on the face. If you open it up a little as you said I think that will help. Also, are the autometer gauges painted perspex? Can you do something similar to this for your indicators. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=143337 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharaohabq Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Well as soon as you get the prototypes finished, you can get someone like klearz to do injection moulding for production. that should bring your price way down since you'll only be milling the originals, the rest can be moulded and shaved and should be easy to produce. though I'm not sure what small lot costs would be. though you might already have a production house in mind... Phar they look nice though, and I will keep you in mind when I decide how I'm doing my gauges for my VQHR swap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetride2go Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share Posted April 20, 2009 Alright, so time for an update. I think we finished with the small cups, and as far as the big gauges go, well, I found an easier way to do it utalizing the autometer housing(thread - Also, Garvice, the faces seem to be painted aluminium, at least with these Pro-comp gauges. Here is what I hope to be the final version on the small cups, or the 2-5/8" autometer gauges. On these however, I'm still going to modify the factory side by removing the cross bar that seperated the original gauges. The big gauges; I ended up removing the small lip on the insert here wich opens up the face a bit and exposes all the lil 'tick marks' for the face of the gauge. Now I just need to repaint these in some flat black, and it should be just like new, hopefully, lol... Here you can see where I vary gingerly ground out the lip with a die-grinder. This is how it looked before the modification. And the final product from the side. From the front you can see how much better it is. Cheers Ryan~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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