recessed gauge write-up/ BIGBLOCK73'S BRACKETS

[menace121978]

well thanks to Jeff's brackets i finally got the gauges mounted! as a few of you know i went with the 5" tach & speedo and the smaller 2 1/16th" fuel, oil, volt, & temp autometer ultra-lite II LED gauges. the reason i went with the smaller gauges is because the 2 5/8th gauge face seemed to large for my stock bezel. i didn't want to cut on the bezel itself either and the smaller ones worked out perfect.

i received Jeff's kit in the mail and was very surprised at the quality of the brackets. He included the 3 main brackets and 4 pieces of aluminum stock that have to be bent and screwed onto the bezel. he also includes 4 nuts and bolts. installing these brackets was very easy. i only needed a 11/64th drill bit and drill, a punch, screwdriver, epoxy, and a vice.(i actually made a vice with 2x4's) but thats an entire different write-up! i took a ton of pics and i'll do my best to explain most of them.

i had glued my gauges in before i got Jeff's brackets. ITS NOT RECOMMENDED OR NECESSARY!! i had to drill out the slots on 2 of the brackets because my glue job was slightly crooked. that is another great problem solved with these brackets... they will align and center the gauge faces perfect!

here i used the nuts that came with the gauges as a spacer to raise the brackets up away from the negative nut stud on the gauge.



as you can see i left the trim rings on the larger 5" gauges. they fit around the ring on the bezel very snug.


these are the pieces of aluminum that you will have to bend. (you only need 2 of the 4) Jeff threw in the extras incase i messed up the 1st go around.

here i cut 1 in half so i could bend and trim to size easier.

[menace121978]

here i drilled all the holes for the bolts with the 11/64th bit



heres the bracket bolted down

on this side i just epoxied the bracket. not enough room to get a bolt there.

[menace121978]

i bent the aluminum stock up and around for the small gauges. this takes some time and patience to get right. i ended up using spacers and ran all the diagonal brackets under the gauge brackets that way the gauges could be removed without any trouble if the need arises.
i epoxied the diagonal brackets down onto the bezel.

[bigblock73]

Dennis, I would put both screws on the big gauges (where mounting bracket bolts to gauge bracket), and epoxy the mounting bracket to the bezel where the nut/bolt currently are.

On the small gauges, instead of spacing the brackets up with the Autometer thumb screws, use a regular nut to space the brackets up, and use tall the Autometer thumb screws to scesure the gauges to the brackets.

Make sense?

The instructions are almost finished, had a death in the family that kind of messed things up.

[bigblock73]

Can you measure the stud to stud distance on the big gauges again for me?? Looks like the holes are not evenly spaced...but at least I factored in enough wiggle room.

[menace121978]

you can see the nuts i used as a spacer so it holds the gauges down with just enough force to hold them.

here's the gauges all mounted. they are PERFECT!!!

[Stitch]

at least there's no pictures of your feet this time...

[menace121978]

here's some of the finished product

[menace121978]

more...

[Stitch]

man that looks good...

[menace121978]

last ones for now

[menace121978]

Originally Posted by bigblock73

Dennis, I would put both screws on the big gauges (where mounting bracket bolts to gauge bracket), and epoxy the mounting bracket to the bezel where the nut/bolt currently are.

On the small gauges, instead of spacing the brackets up with the Autometer thumb screws, use a regular nut to space the brackets up, and use tall the Autometer thumb screws to scesure the gauges to the brackets.

Make sense?

The instructions are almost finished, had a death in the family that kind of messed things up.

i understand... its too late though buddy. i'm happy with how they turned out. they aren't moving for nothing and the brackets seemed to stiffen up the bezel itself a lot. if/when i take it out again i'll redo the spacers and make any fine tuning adjustments.

Originally Posted by bigblock73

Can you measure the stud to stud distance on the big gauges again for me?? Looks like the holes are not evenly spaced...but at least I factored in enough wiggle room.

i looked back at those pics and i'm pretty sure i had the nuts all loose so the gauge bracket wasn't centered and tight. the slots were perfect. it might be just the angle of the camera also because i centered everything up and remember thinking how perfect they were made.

[bigblock73]

Well, cool. Glad they worked out for you. The gauges do look great in there.

Thanks for the feedback, if you don't mind, I will be using the pics for reference like we discussed.

[menace121978]

thanks Jeff! your the man!!! anything you need let me know. i tried to do the writeup in word on the computer that way you could put it on your site but it didn't work out i'd love to see the pics used as a reference! thats awesome

[Fixwhataintbroke]

OH YEA!! That is most definitely nice!

[bucannon]

that looks bad as ****. how much did all that cost?

[menace121978]

Originally Posted by bucannon

that looks bad as ****. how much did all that cost?

thanks guys... total was about a grand. give or take

[sixshooter798]

Other than sticking the clear piece over your shift indicator, did you have to modify your bezel at all?

[menace121978]

i had to notch out a little bit of plastic (bracing plastic in the molding)around the large holes. you can see it in post #2 pic 5. and that was it

[78 Chevyrado]

Man that looks so classy... Also the Ultra lite logo kinda looks like a whits and gold bowtie if you cross your eyes a lil bit...

[LiveAnimals]

Another fine job

[Prerunner1982]

Purdy......

[N2TRUX]

Looks great. BTW- It's an FAQ now- 73-87 recessed gauges with BIGBLOCK73'S brackets

[justpball]

Very nice Dennis!

[sixshooter798]

Originally Posted by menace121978

i had to notch out a little bit of plastic (bracing plastic in the molding)around the large holes. you can see it in post #2 pic 5. and that was it

I see what you did there. Wish I had the cash to make this happen to my truck!