for those of u who preferd stock look
 

Tripower pod with auto meter 52 mm gauge, I know I am late but I had post this cause it look so nice.

Oh yeah that's pretty old.. :p

But its prettty nice anyway.. :)

I forget, do you lose the centerfill speaker with that setup?

nice gauges kris

it seems to me like you would loose the speaker.

i am sure with that pod u can drill many tiny holes in the base of it and keep the speaker and somehow install it so u can have both thet pod and the speaker so u will still ahve it in there :D

tri power says that it is necessary to remove the speaker. does it effect the sound much Rx7aholic?

Being halfway through my install I think it might be possible to retain the center speaker. It might take some creative wiring to feed the gauge wires past the speaker but I think it can be done.
FWIW pic of my refinished pod attached...to match the stock main cluster hood. I hate that plastic-y finish these pods come with.
Crispy

Crispy, That looks really good :D

Tankyouberry much. Yeah I think it turned out pretty good too :)
Now if I can only find the time to run the wires for my gauges, which BTW looks to be a royal PIA, I can wrap up this "small" project.
BTW the pod has a single large 2"x3" hole in the bottom so no drilling "little" holes is necessary.
Crispy
Another pic attached :)

How'd you achieve that look on the pod? It looks fantastic. At some point I might like to go for that unit and that finish (provided I can get the rest of the 93 interior parts).

BrianK> I don't have any center speaker so I can't comment on that level. Hey crispyrx7 can u tell how u got the pod to be that smooth? It does look better the way u have it. I did not want to mess with it at the time when I got it I was in a hurry to intalled the gauges now if I only saw your pod before I would have defnitely take my time. please give us a write up on how u got the pod to look that good. khris

The stock center channel speaker adds more distortion if anything. I didn't really notice much of a difference when i took mine out to put my turbo timer pod in there. (i have an R1 with the non bose stereo)

SanJoRX7/Rx7aholic,
My process? Well...a lot of sanding ;)
To be specific just attack it with some 100grit sandpaper until all the wrinkles are removed. It will look pretty scratchy at this point but then its time to move on to some 400grit. Sand until most of the larger scratches are removed. Then give it a good shot of black (so it' won't show if you chip it duing installation) *sandable* (important) primer. The primer will fill in most of the smaller imperfections. Then wet sand with an 800grit paper. Then give it another light coat of primer. Sand it again to make sure it's pretty smooth. I'd let it dry overnight at this point to make sure the paint is 100% dry and you won't leave any finegrprints on it when you are handling it for the final coat. Then it's just a case of a single light to medium coat of flat black laquer.
That's all I did. Some sore hands and lots of sanding but I'm happy with the result. I also used this process on my A pillar gauge pod and the finish has withstood the test of time for 3 years baking in the sun with no ill effects.
FWIW...good luck! Lemme know if you have any more questions.
Crispy

those are clean gauges... the other day a passenger in my car at a street racing meet asked me if my stock gauges were aftermarket.. mazda picked some good ones