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gauge install project

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Old Mar 30, 2005 | 02:50 AM
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gauge install project

oh no! another gauge thread. well it might be interesting to some people.

first, i cut out a panel to replace the climate controls. i've seen a lot of people put panels on the outside of the vent trim, but i thought it would look MUCH better on the inside. unfortunately i didn't have the proper size hole saw so i had to make do with a dremel.

the panel is jbwelded to the trim all along the sides and bottom, but only to the screw housing on top. this way the vents still turn.


then i painted the whole unit semi flat black.


i cut the climate control's harness and extended it about a foot so i could move it to the lower din.


there we go. very nice.


next, i installed the senders. i decided to use the stock locations. had to use an adapter for the water temp.
oil pressure:

water temp:


then wired up the power, and there we go.
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Old Mar 30, 2005 | 03:49 AM
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wow thats looks nice, what guages are those?
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Old Mar 30, 2005 | 03:59 AM
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Defi D-Gauge. I painted the silver trim on the D-Gauge black to help it blend with the interior a bit. I'll post a picture of my gauge in a bit...

EDIT: Heres a pic of it:

Attached Thumbnails gauge install project-d-gauge.jpg  

Last edited by Juan; Mar 30, 2005 at 04:15 AM.
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Old Mar 30, 2005 | 10:34 AM
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That looks great! Where'd you get the redish light up guages from? how much?
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Old Mar 30, 2005 | 11:37 AM
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that does look nice
good job
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Old Mar 30, 2005 | 01:34 PM
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Looks similar to elfking's setup
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Old Mar 30, 2005 | 02:09 PM
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Originally Posted by IaMtHeRuThLeSs1
That looks great! Where'd you get the redish light up guages from? how much?
I thought about Defi D-gauges in my old 91 N/A, but ended up going with VDO. The new TII will probably eventually get Defi gauges though.

RX-7 Store has the best pricing I can recall seeing on Defi gauges.

http://www.rx7store.net/index.asp?Pa...RODGROUP&ID=38

Great job on the setup. It looks good.

Last edited by JerryLH3; Mar 30, 2005 at 02:12 PM.
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Old Mar 30, 2005 | 02:18 PM
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wan, the black trim looks great. i was considering doing that too.

i got the gauges from egauges.com. the prices are the same or very close to rx7store, but free shipping for orders over $200.
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Old Mar 30, 2005 | 02:22 PM
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I guess they must have added Defi gauges within the last year or so, because when I bought my VDO gauges from them, they didn't have listings for Defi. That's good information to have.
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Old Mar 30, 2005 | 06:37 PM
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Does your water temp gauge work pretty good? I was told the location you used for your sender wasn't a real good spot
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Old Mar 30, 2005 | 07:33 PM
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water temp gauge location

That is definitely a bad spot and will not give a good reading. That location does not get good flow and can even hold an air bubble.
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Old Mar 30, 2005 | 08:17 PM
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very nice looking when guages are installed and it's painted black. ONly problem though, liked mentioned before, is your water temp guage is not going to read the correct temp that the block sees because you installed the sender before the tstat. Also when you use an adapter to fit in the stock location for the oil pressure sensor it will show lower than what it should, at least it did with me. When I had an adapter it showed 20-25 at idle and 50-55 at full throttle however when I took the adapter out I saw 30 at idle and 60 at wot. Nice looking gauge location though.

Last edited by hondahater; Mar 30, 2005 at 08:21 PM.
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Old Mar 31, 2005 | 12:06 AM
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temp reads about 181 after 20 minutes of driving. i would definately prefer to have the sender in the block though. i may move it in the future.

i'm getting 60psi on cold startup and around 20 at warm idle. i thought it should be higher than that! that sender may have to move too.

these are good for now at least though
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Old Mar 31, 2005 | 07:27 AM
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yeah if you ever feel like getting the correct reading you can get one of those oil pedestles that have the fittings for oil pressure and oil temp already drilled for them. I think they are like 60 bucks at fc3s.org.
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Old Mar 31, 2005 | 01:31 PM
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probably will do that
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