Among the ideas I have for modifying my RX7 include doing away with the factory instrument cluster and idiot lights (which are out of line-of-sight) with more accurate aftermarket gauges.

One of the latest designs I came up with is to put in a Defi-Link setup consisiting of a center tach, with 2 1/16" oil pres and water temp gauges between (to either side of the tach, upper), with the speedometer, fuel, and volt meters along the lower edge in digital (essentially two VFD displays in blue or teal to match the lighting of the Defi Gagues).

Defi offers a digital display with speedometer, but no odometer/trip odomter (which I want to retain). It also has the bonus of being able to read other gauges and centralize warnings. As for fuel, volts, and other warnings, I could build a micro-controller based information display. This keeps all the important instrument readings within the driver's line of sight and frees up the space left by the clock/idiot lights. For me, I could use that space to house another VFD display for a computer (song titles, GPS coordinates, etc)

So, if I went that route (it's just an idea, I'm a few years away from this), could I modify the factory speedometer by removing the needle, face, and cutting it down to where I still have the odometer, trip odometer, and speed sensor (allowing me to also retain the cruise control)? Or is there a standalone odometer I could get? I've found one from Curtis Instruments that is perfect, but I haven't found it for sale anywhere.

 

a friend of mine has a stack dash that has an odometer as well. It has all the functions of the original dash (oil press, coolant, mph, etc) in one small package.

 

I've seen them, and they're nice.

 

I'm thinking more about simply going with VDO gauges, with a digital speedometer with odometer. I'd still want to do some form of information display and I was thinking of doing a row of LEDs (simplier, cheaper, and much more reliable than a micro-controller based display).