After Market Round Guages in a '72

[binder56jd]

very nice indeedy

Jamie--the would be a great product

my thoughts are 2 large hole for speedo & tach

small hole for oil pressure, oil temp, vacuum, volt meter, water temp

so my layout would be


s,s,l,s,l,s,s

[Ranchero50]

OK, beat me with a stick and I'll do anything...

I've been really busy lately just trying to get caught up around the house and get some firewood stashed away. I'll do the gauges, just gonna be a month or three. I need to do another batch of dome lamp bezels and the ash tray pulls are about gone as well.

Jamie

[binder56jd]

that firewood will be worth it weight in gold or oil when winter comes--those gauge panels can wait for winter downtime

[sideoilerfe]

Those digital ones are kinda cool but what connection do they have on the back? 67-69 OR 70-72?

[F100builder]

I've seen the 5-hole and the 6-hole ones and that's where I got the idea for mine but mine was very low $$$. I made the bezel from scrap diamond plate and the set of 5 VDO gauges were $150 from Summit (the tach was an additional $60). Not quite as fancy as the machined ones but mine fits the look of my truck a little better and was far less $. The LED is for my high-beam indicator and there are two green ones for the turn signals. They're about an 1/8" in diameter and hardly noticed in the daylight. I'm considering a change to red or blue lighting for the gauges too.

[BiggDogg]

Hey TD, for the aftermarket gauges, as long as the new gauges are mechanical and not electric, your original speedometer cable will connect to the new speedometer fine. I think you have to get a new sending unit for the fuel gauge to work. I know you definitely need new sending units for the temp, charging, and oil pressure.

[F100builder]

Depending on the gauge or gauge kit, some come with all of the necessary sending units. My kit came with them including a new sending unit for the gas tank. The bolt pattern for it is a standard that is widely used. I just had to measure the depth of my tank and cut the rod for the float to the correct length. With the other gauges, I simply replaced them with the VDO units (water temp. & oil pressure). The voltmeter doesn't need a sending unit. My speedo is mechanical so the cable plugged right in. I'm not sure if it's 100% accurate though so I will be testing it with mile markers and using a gearbox or different transmission gear if I need to adjust it.

BTW, nice panel carcrafter.

[td]

thanks guys, well i already have machanical oil pre. and water temp so i'll have everthing covered there and i realize my 5'' monster tach will have to be replaced with a smaller in dash unit. my oil and water gauges are 2 5/8 and i dont know if the aftermarket billit dash bezels are offered with that big of holes in them or if their all the smaller size. any one know if they are? if i have to replace all my gauges it could get exspensive.

[mljjones67]

Are you going to be putting the pyro and boost gauge in there also?

[carcrafter22]

Yes sir, thats why I made it for 8 gauges. I couldnt find an aftermarket gauge bezel I liked ( not a fan of the ball milled panels) let alone one with 8 holes. The most I could find was 6 holes even then I couldnt justify $150 for a panel to hold gauges. I made the whole setup for $10 and still have enough aluminum left over to make a few more.

The 60psi (for the twin turbos )boost gauge is already to the left of the speedo I just need to install my water temp and pyro gauges.

[mljjones67]

That is sweet. I wonder what it would cost to chrome that?? I wanna do the f-500 or f-600 gauge cluster and chrome it. Hopefully have enough room for the the pyro and boost gauges.

[carcrafter22]

Off the top of my head I would say do just what I did but use some 16 gauge steel sheet metal and slowly weld it in place with a tig welder for a nice even bead then grind it all down nice and smooth to make it look like it was made there. After you get it all welded and sanded smooth drill your gauge holes and take it to chrome. If you cant weld very good I wouldnt do it yourself, I would take it to a good welder so there are no holes in it then just use a dremel with an abrasive pad to smooth the weld down until its nice an contoured to your likeing. I don think this would be very big project really and its something almost anyone can do.

The only real work you would have to do is get the flat steel to fit inside the instrument bezel nice and tight(not hard with some patience) and then grinding the weld down smooth, if you take it to a really good welder and tell him to make the smallest possible bead then there wont be much sanding on the weld at all.


After seeing td's chrome bezel (looks good by the way)I got to thinking what mine would look like with a chrome setup also, hmmm.... where did I put that bucket of money