[Mutt's37Buick]

I'm in the middle of designing a custom instrument panel and looks like I have room for Oil Pressure & battery Volts gauges below the water & gas. (See picture). The panel fits in front of an '95 OEM instrument panel.
Trying to make it look similar to the '37.
These will have to be 2 inch diameter gauges.
The gauges will have to be very shallow to fit in front of the OEM instrument cluster and fit behind the custom panel.

1) Connections for the gauges would have to be on the side and not on the back. Are there gauges with this type of connections?
2) What are shallowest after market Oil Pressure & Voltage gauges you have seen?

Thanks
Mutt

[67Mustang Al.]

http://www.hrpworld.com/client_image...ader/631_1.pdf

If you are looking for a thin gauge you may look at digital which would not suit your style anyway. I dont think you could find a side exiting gauge. I think you are up s---t creek without a paddle on this one.
Good luck
Al.

[MacEwen]

Is there a reason you cannot cut into the OEM Instrument cluster you are using? Perhaps find a junk one and disect it to see how much room you have. Could then see if you can insert an OEM armature into that housing and incorporate that into your cluster.

Most 80's GM oil pressure is 0-90 ohm like the fuel gauge. (2 wires). Also volt would be 1 more wire.

It's possible you could use pointers from dissected cluster to he consistent. Just because you add armatures to a housing doesn't mean they cannot be wired independent of the cluster.

I've made many custom faces and took apart a good deal of 80's-02 assemblies. Not sure what unit you are using. Sometimes you can add to a panel. More work for sure but you get what you are after within reason.

[Mutt's37Buick]

Thanks for the feedback.
I'm trying to use the instrument panel out of a '95 Buick Roadmaster primarily for the speedometer and the system warning lights. My plan is to hide the dummy lights behind hinged access panels. This instrument panel connects directly to my wire harness. May be able to insert pressure & battery gauges in the cluster, but it will be tight. Another option I'm exploring is attaching a 1.5" extension shaft on the speedo gauge to move that needle out 1.5". Then I could mount 4 support gauges in front of the '95 panel. This would provide more flexibility on placement of the support gauges. Attached is a picture of the '95 cluster and the '37 cluster.
See pictures.
1) has anyone else added an extension shaft to a gauge in this way?
2) would an extension shaft add to much mass and cause the speedo to not operate?
Thanks

[ogre]

use the speedo, ditch the idiot lights
idiot light are for idiots, not hotrodders
cut holes in the cluster and install the new gauges in there

[MacEwen]

Ok, I see your dilemma.

I have never used an extension shaft. The only thing similar I've done was repair broken armatures with tubes from a watch pin. Results were not perfect. I'd avoid this idea. However by all means experiment. Put your choice cluster aside. Find another to play with. eBay is a good source if you have some extra flow.

If it were me I'd get a hold of two schematics, showing pinouts for your cluster/harness, and schematic from a similar year which has a closer layout to what you want. (Camaro, or Truck). You may find the harness u have will support things like tranny temp, tach, etc. if you are making an entirely new appliqué, it doesnt much matter if it's a roadmaster cluster. A lot of Impala SS guys will use a Camaro cluster, and run my overlays. It's a direct fit. So, I'm thinking u have a good shot at making another cluster work. You can remove the circuit board from the face, and extend the wiring to the individual armatures. I have heard that many mid 90's Buick speedos go bad, and that may drive their prices higher in the used market.

Looking at your pictures a thought I had was leaving the speedo on the same plane. Use some plexi sheet, cut an opening for the entire speedometer. Mount the other 4 gauges to this panel. Screwing the armature housings to this plexi. You could mill out the back if it's two thick. I'd get a salvage truck unit and dissect it. This plexi idea is sort of inverse of the old design. The speedo is set back, and the 4 small gauges are in the top plane.

I created overlay kits for Camaros which avoid calibration issues, but the 4 smaller gauges can be calibrated using resistors or volts. The speedo is tru
Is trial and error even on a test bench; required any time you pull the needle. If you use a 2 good truck (or other) ones. You can at with one format, mock up, then get serious about the final one. May not have to remove its pointer. Many do NOT return to zero on there own.

Shoot me a pic of your plug, and jack on the back of cluster. Rmacewen1@yahoo.com.