72 Electra Dash Update (Purists look away!)

Discussion in 'Interior City' started by Electra Bob, Apr 11, 2018.

  1. Electra Bob

    Electra Bob Well-Known Member

    The genesis of this project was a need to monitor the engine temp and oil pressure to get a handle on what was going in under the hood. I looked at gauge clusters but I'm not a fan of the ones that hang down under the dash and I didn't want to be looking down there while sailing the boat - I wanted front and center.

    The center instrument cluster in the 72 Electra (and several cousins of the same era) is an approximately 8 " x 5" bin housing the speedometer, fuel gauge and 'If you see this it's too late' warning lights.

    I looked around at gauge options and decided to go the tech route but maintain a tradditional look. I picked the Dakota Digital VHX 1050 5 gauge cluster.

    These are round analog dials driven by electronic sensors managed by a control box. I also acquired the GSS-2000 gear position sensor. This provides a signal to the control unit for gear selection and is displayed in the LCD section of the speedometer.

    My goal for any modifications to the Electra is to not do anything that can not be readily undone. Given the space constraints in the dash cavity with the standard instrument cluster removed I had no choice but to cut a section of the back wall out in order to fit the controllers and wiring in. I did manage to do this without disturbing the stock instrument mounting points so while there was some carnage it would be unnoticeable if returned to stock.

    I also had no choice but to cut the wiring to the panel connector. I initially extended these connections with snap on 'no strip' connectors but after 8 out of 12 of them failed to make a good connection I ditched those and fell back on trusted solder and heat shrink sleeve joins.

    The kit comes with coolant temperature, oil pressure, fuel volt and of course speedometer gauges. Coolant temperature, oil pressure and speed sensors are included with the kit and are pre-wired with plenty enough length to route to the controller.

    The digital speed sensor is a no modification screw on replacement for the stock speedometer cable.

    With everything installed and connected there are some calibration tasks to perform including travelling a measured mile to set the speedometer sensor. The cool thing with this is it can be re-calibrated at any time to account for a change in rear tire diameter.

    There is a one time opportunity during the first 100 miles to set the odometer. One of my remaining tasks.

    To mount the gauges I created a flat panel that mounts in the stock speedometer bezel. I toyed with and created a prototype covered with carbon fiber film but it just didn't look right so I went with a subtle matte black finish. This matches the two upper side panels in the stock dash.

    I have to say I'm quite pleased with the end result. I now know the engine gets up to and runs at a good temperature and that I have 60 psi oil pressure on cold idle, 25 psi hot idle and 40-60 psi hot at normal driving speeds. What those numbers will look like at the height of summer are yet to be determined but at least I'll know!

    So without further ado - pictures!

    controllers_wired.jpg panel_rear.jpg
    dash_wide.jpg
     
    Thedrew343 and red67wildcat like this.
  2. steve covington

    steve covington Well-Known Member

    Looks Very good to me. What, if any, color lighting options are there? Probably best with the blue. So that is what you were looking for that electrical connector for!
     
  3. sbrmd

    sbrmd Well-Known Member

    Fascinating.
     
  4. wildcatsrule

    wildcatsrule Well-Known Member

    Very tastefully done
     
  5. Electra Bob

    Electra Bob Well-Known Member

    These particular gauges come in white or back fascia with red, white and blue back-lighting.

    Details and images here: http://www.dakotadigital.com/index....ct_id=919/category_id=69/mode=prod/prd919.htm

    I went with white fascia with blue lighting because I like the look of white gauges and the car is already very, very blue. In practice though, particularly with my old eyes, without daytime back-lighting the white fascia makes the readings difficult to see and with the back light on they tend to be a tad 'fuzzy'. If I were to do over I'd probably go with a black fascia with white back-lighting.

    Cheers
    Bob

    Before and after pics:

    1-before.jpg 2-after.jpg
     
    Thedrew343 likes this.
  6. izanurse

    izanurse Platinum Level Contributor

    Nicely done!
     

Share This Page