Installed Camaro gauges

[Corts60]

Well, I haven't been doing much with the truck lately other than driving the piss out of her, but last weekend I scored a really clean set of rally gauges from a 1980 Camaro for $30. So, this weekend I installed them. Unfortunately the Camaro set didn't have an oil gauge, (what were they thinking?) it had a clock instead. So I still have the crusty old oil gauge in there but I am going to do some research to see if those years of Camaros did have an oil pressure gauge.

Basically, there was a lot of modifying going on and I only used the face of the Camaro gauges. I kept the trucks original pointers.

I still need to paint the needles and replace the clear lens, but what do you guys think?

[J Knight]

Looks good, what kind of mods did you have to do to make them fit and work?

[Corts60]

Originally Posted by J Knight

Looks good, what kind of mods did you have to do to make them fit and work?

To make a long story long. . .

For both speedos I pulled the needle off and the two little screws that hold the face plate on. I then just laid the camaro face plate over the top of the truck face plate and bolted it up. That was the easiest one.

For the tach, I took apart the camaro tach and my original big fuel gauge by drilling out the rivets. I sandwiched the fuel face plate between the tach face plate and the back part of the tach and then used the two screws left over from the camaro speedo to hold it together.

For the fuel gauge, I originally had a clock in my truck, so I ripped that apart because it does not work or even move. I ditched the clock face plate and internals and just kept the special bracket that allows it to bolt up. I pulled apart the camaro fuel gauge and put that bracket in between the face plate and back part.

For the temp and volts gauges, I just pulled the camaro gauges apart and glued those face plates on top of the existing truck gauges and then put the needles back on.

The reason I had to do so much to get it to work is because the camaro gauges were a smaller diameter than the truck gauges and there was no way to bolt them up properly. overall, I think it turned out great and was probably only about 4 hours worth of work. A little cussing here and there, but that is standard.

[MalibuSSwagon]

Unfortunately GM did not put a oil pressure gauge in the 2nd gen Camaro gauge package, just the clock. However, Gaugemarks, which specializes in restoring 2nd gen Camaro/Firebird/Trans Am gauge clusters, can convert your Camaro clock into an oil pressure gauge.

http://gaugemarks.com/

[Pro/StreetPete]

Looks great ...nice work !

[Corts60]

Originally Posted by MalibuSSwagon

Unfortunately GM did not put a oil pressure gauge in the 2nd gen Camaro gauge package, just the clock. However, Gaugemarks, which specializes in restoring 2nd gen Camaro/Firebird/Trans Am gauge clusters, can convert your Camaro clock into an oil pressure gauge.

http://gaugemarks.com/

Thanks so much for that link! I am going to contact them and see if they can just make me the face plate. And then I will just lay it over my factory oil gauge.

[GM-power]

So how many times you get it to 140? Lol. Looks killer
Posted via Mobile Device

[Corts60]

Originally Posted by GM-power

So how many times you get it to 140? Lol. Looks killer
Posted via Mobile Device

Ha. Sad thing is, 140 clicks is only about 87 MPH and I still can't even get to that.

[N2TRUX]

Very creative. I have seen Camaro tachs added to the truck cluster and it looked ok, but bothered me because it didn't match anything else. Thats the best install I have seen yet.

[Corts60]

Originally Posted by N2TRUX

Very creative. I have seen Camaro tachs added to the truck cluster and it looked ok, but bothered me because it didn't match anything else. Thats the best install I have seen yet.

Thanks! I know what you mean. It is bothering me so much right now that the oil gauge is different.

But here are the gauges with the needles painted. It is a little brighter orange than I wanted but still looks better:




Now if I could just afford a new bezel. . . .

[gramps77]

what are you going to use to paint the needles? I need to hit mine up cause they are faded as well

[Corts60]

Originally Posted by gramps77

what are you going to use to paint the needles? I need to hit mine up cause they are faded as well

I am not sure yet. I've heard of people using the fluorescent pavement marking paint, but I don't want to spend $10 on something I am going to use < 2% of. I might look at a hobby store and see what they got.

[N2TRUX]

The hobby shop will have what you need. Check the Tetsors rack