James Mullins (Reedz) and I have been working on installing digital gauges in the head unit door. We've got the gauges already mounted in a spare door and the wiring partially completed, but we're awaiting arrival of several sending units before we complete the install. We're mounting oil pressure, oil temp, water temp, and intake air temp and/or under hood air temp. Here are some workbench photos of the work in progress:

First with the lights off.



This shot will gives an idea of how the gauges will look installed in the head unit door.



Here's a shot of the backside of the head unit door. With their plastic backs trimmed off, the guages are about 1/4 deep, so there will be no problem closing the door and hiding all of the wiring.



We'll report back as we make more progress.

 

Fantastic! I knew you guys would do a beautiful job. Consider me on the list of customers.

 

i would really like to get one of those. i only have two questions for now though...

1. how do you measure the intake temperature if the person has an after-market intake?
2. how much do you think it's gonna cost?

 

Rick, your usual great job. Put me down for a kit.

cal

 

Very nice, Rick and Company!

I'm in for this one!

 

Rick will you be marketing these?? Also, what brand sending units will you be using?

 

"Covkid48" did a similar install a while ago. See https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...?threadid=25996 for a full explanation on what he got up to.

Personally I think it defaces the cockpit (just MHO), but there is really not a lot of alternative installation places.

One way to improve on what Cokvid48 did would be to
get rid of the bezels and installing the meters flush with the door panel, preferably with just a rectangular lenses showing instead of the full round face. Shouldn't be much more work.

 

Credit is due to covkid48, who's given us some tips and lent us some hardware to cut the holes in the head unit door.

We're not sure whether we will be selling these until we have the first two installs done in our own cars. It's a lot of custom hand work and unless we can find a way to produce them in some volume at something resembling a reasonable cost, we'll just consider it an experiment. If we don't end up selling them assembled, we may sell a kit of parts with detailed instructions for a do-it-yourself assembly or just give the instructions to those who are interested.

The air temp sensor can be mounted anywhere in the engine bay, including, I think, in the intake pipe. So it doesn't matter what kind of intake you have.

The gauges are made by Nordskog. All the parts, including guages and sensors have cost about $600, for two complete sets, if my memory serves me correctly. But I'll have to confirm that with Reedz, who's made the purchases.

The gauges have a lead that, when connected to the headlight switch ground, dims the gauges when the headlight are turned on. The button on each gauge, when pushed, remembers the high point on each reading during a drive, dyno session, whatever.

The issue of cockpit appearance is one that concerns us, too, and we think this is the best option. We chose digital guages with black (not chrome) bezels, thinking they would be most compatible with the cockpit design.


Nordskog does make a single, rectangular, multi-function gauge that would be ideal for the head unit cover, but the metering options, frankly, are a disappointment and redundant (speedo, tach, etc, but no oil pressure or temp).

 

If only one of them could be that elusive clock!

 

There is a clock available!