I'm trying to keep my car as stock looking as possible and would like to know if anyone has had any success hiding guages in btw the center console and the driver seat or maybe somewhere else other then the a/c vents. I'm not big on A-pillar pods but want to put in a tranny temp, a/f ratio and a fuel pressure gauge. any ideas and custom fit pieces appreciated.

I also am very tired of the red back light on my 95 T/A and was wondering if anyone knew how difficult it would be to change that bulb from red to a white like in the Lexus RX300... Not talking white face gauges, just a white backlight instead of red.


TIA

 

Here I go..

Ages ago I found these at RK Sport...

The only problem with this goodie is it looks like they don't sell it any more..

It's probably going to be up to you to do a custom install..

I don’t like the car they make this for, but I can only wish that one day they make a 93-97 camaro version of this gauge pod...


Now as far as gauge/instrument lighting goes..
I went through a couple of phases from purple to blue then finally white.. I wasn't just wanting a normal white.. I wanted the same (bright white) look of the RX300 and similar vehicles.

Since the stock bulbs are incandescent, they are not very "white".. Well.. There's a couple options I though of. One was Cold Cathode Tube's, but there's no room for that.. So what's next? LED's!!!

So. I rig up a system of 2 ULTRA WHITE manually diffused LED's per socket. once installed in the socket with a proper resistor, I angled them a bit so the light would spread better.

Well this turned out pretty well. See below.



So.. What is the result??


Oops.. Why in the heck are they blue if I installed white LED's??

Well.. GM wanted the gauges white in the first place, and since incandescent bulbs put off a "yellow-ish" color of light, GM put a blue film/filter behind the gauge face to make the lettering and numbering white-ish.. This is the same thing most cheap "ultra white headlight" companies do to get away from the standard "yellowed" tint of light..

One thing I can say is that I would recommend using more than 2 LED's... As you can see in the night shot, the lighting is spotty.. This can be fixed with better diffusion and more LED's..

Since I didn't do this in a bird cluster, I dont know if the gauge back is lined with a red filter. It might not be since yellow wont hurt red hues..

I hope this helped..

 

I think I may just put them in the arm rest or the arm rest cubby hole and hide them there.

As far as the stock guage color, I'd be fine with blue if by putting an LED light in there it will turn it blue, then so be it. I just hate the stock orangish red color it has.

 

Well. I'm not sure if you will get a "blue" tint or not.. Carefully take out your cluster and pull the 7 or so bulbs, and if they are a red bulb, you can most likely make the gauges any color you want.. If the bulb is not red, the gauge face has a red filter behind it that you can not get rid of unless you totally change the face. Most older white face gauges have clear indicators but some newer ones have blue and or red tints beding sections of the face..

If you want in on a little project I'll be starting some day. I'm going to do what I have now, but with a 4 LED per socket setup.
The only difference is that I'll use RBG LED's and build a micro controller (or just use an analog box with 3 pots) to change the color/intensity to anything in the RGB color spectrum!!!

Just think.. One day you can be red, the next blue, the next green, the next yellow, the next white.....

Anyone that wants to steal this idea can go ahead. It could be an easy product to make.

Just make all the sockets with the 4 LED's with a lead of 4 wires (common, red, blue, green) and have them come back to the main control box. Just hide the control box in a place that can be accessed easily!!

Hey. If anyone knows how to program pics or eproms, maybe they can work up a simple controller that can digitally (with up down buttons and a 7 segment display) control the LED's, or maybe also include a button or two to do functions for random color on startup, or random color fading while on, and maybe have seperate control over each LED set and have a plasma/acid look going while you move down the road, and possibly have a tach imput to do variations to the lighting with RPM changes..

OR!! have a setting for a standard color, say BLUE, and when you hit a RPM you program into the control box, say 5,400, it changes all the LED's to RED!!! with maybe an intermedeiate color of yellow from 3,800 to 5,399

I'm feeding someone a great idea here..

I would love a product like this to come onto the market but I have no real development resources.. I would however appreciate a freebee of one when someone puts it into production

 

Do you rest your arm on the center console lid much?

 

Actually, almost never. Funny, I've driven manual for so long, that even when I drive auto, I drive with my hand on the shifter. Anyone know if they make kits to put guages in the center console or is this a custom job?

 

I would guess that it was a totally custom job - but it owuld be pretty simple. Basically all it would boil down to is to get a spare console lid, and cut your holes in it to make the gauges mount flush. Your wiring would got through the bottom of it (like in the corner or something) and run back up the center of the car to the instrument panel area, or wherever - just depends on what gauges you want there. You could even leave enough slack and cover the wires so that you would lose no funtionality of the "junk catcher" that the center console is.

 

That was my idea exactly, I just didn't know if someone already had a custom fit piece or if I just needed to cut up a piece of plastic myself. Figure no reason to reinvent the wheel, especially when someone else can do it cheaper

 

I wouldn't even bother with another piece of plastic. Just use the stock lid like it is, cut your holes, then mount it from the backside, since there is hard plastic on the inside of it.

Understand though why you would like just to have a piece - keep you from possibly screwing up, which is always a bad thought to have in your mind while doing a one of a kind mod.

 

Now are you talking about adding 3 holes to the plastic piece at the bottom or the plastic lid that covers the cubby hole? I was kinda of thinking of adding a 3rd piece in that slanted towards the driver side a little and fit btw the two. Not sure how visible they would be if added to the bottom piece or if I'd want to risk cutting up the top part. May be easier just to run the wires from the back of the console, under the center, and up to the cubby hole and then insert a plastic rectanuglar piece with 3 - 2 1/8" holes and fitting them in. Probably drop by home depot later and see what I can find.

If I change my mind, maybe btw the seat and center console would work. I don't want to put it where the A/C controls are or anything like that or changing anything stock about the car. May look @ putting them in the glove box but I like keeping my reciepts in there

 

I do believe that we are talking about different places.
I was thinking the actual lid that you lift up to get into the storage area of the center console. Part #26 here. I know that's a Camaro console, but it is similar to the TA.

I was thinking you could just drill your holes (or cut) into the top/side of it, right where it bends, angling the gauges toward you for an easy field of view. See the red circles here.

You could have the gauges almost flush mounted with the surface, they would be visible to you, and out of the way. Your wiring would be a breeze, and it would look pretty sweet. Hopefully we are on the same page now.

 

The circles look to be cut out of the corner of the arm rest. I dont know if that would be something I'd want to do as I'd have to replace it when I went to sell it. If I planned on keeping the car I'd probably do something like that though as I do think it would look quite clean. I was thinking of hiding it inside the console so that uninstalling was just a few screws and disc the wires and pulling it out. I'll work on it a little and let you know what I find

 

Be careful about that location... you don't want to be taking your eyes that far off the road to check oil pressure or whatever... at least by having it right under the stereo in the CD holder you can just flip your eyes back to the road rather than moving your entire head / arm.

 

I don't think the CD holder is larger enough for the guages... anyone have pics of it? I don't want ot mod the A/C controls or anything like that