I'm looking at paying a boat-load of money to New Vintage USA to make some custom rally-like gauges. I know it's a lot for relatively minor improvements, but I'm pretty excited about it.

Anyway, looking for ideas on the dash. My options are a 3 3/4" or 4 3/4". The 3 3/4" would either be mounted to the woodgrain panel, or I could use several clock deletes as folks have shown here.

What about the 4 3/4"? Anyone used gauges that large? From some poking around, looks like I'd have to make a custom panel to replace the stock woodgrain/plastic ones, but still not quite certain there would be enough room. There's less than 5" between the top and bottom of the dash, so the panel would take up something, because it looks like I'd have to keep the same mount points.

Anyway, anyone have pics of using larger gauges?

Thanks!

 

One of the key areas I looked for in updated gauges is night time illumination.
Most manufacturers don't show you how poorly these light up at night.

I can't say how good or bad Vintage would be, but before you dump your money into them,
I'd suggest mocking one up to a 12V battery to see how it lights up in the dark.
You will see most are AROUND the rim of the gauge lighting.

I prefer the newer LED backlit gauges. The difference is HUGE and it's THROUGH the gauge fact lighting.
But for me, I couldn't find a 4 in 1 modern gauge to fit the factory holes so I'm having a custom panel made.

These are the Ultra-Lite from Autometer which are incandescent around the gauge lit.
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These are the Ultra-Lite II's at night from Autometer.....all LED.

 

Thanks! I actually like the old perimeter lighting.

What size are you using?

My set will be based on the '67 gauge set - spedo, tach and quad - but with custom graphics to look more like the stock gauges and have indicators.

For reference, here's what they're starting from:
http://www.newvintageusa.com/1967.html

 

Hey,I put a 5" monster tach in the hole where a factory tach,or a clock could have been.My car came delete,so that hole was avalible.The acuall body of the tach,which i think is 3 1/4" fit perfect in the hole.I used a couple wraps of electrical tape to snug it up.Shift lite is on the steering colume.Take out the gauge panel and you can get a good look at how its assembled.Good luck,BO

 

I am interested in seeing what you get in the end. I have been wondering about what aftermarket gauges I could fit in the stock woodgrain panel openings in my '72 Cutlass.

 

Mine in the stock panel, I went with fake carbon fiber rather than fake wood stickers.
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