Custom Dash Gauge Install - Gauges For The Ages

One of the tricks we used in figuring out how we wanted to layout our gauges was to scan the faces and print them out. Once cut out, we taped them in various layouts to find the one we liked the best.

We opted to center the speedo/tach combo over the column with the fuel gauge on the left and the trio of engine vital gauges on the right.

With the gauges roughly laid out and the center of the dash marked, it's time to start laying out where the actual gauges will end up.

Since the speedo/tach gauge will be centered over the column, we'll start there. The dash already had a small relief made to clear the column so finding the center was pretty easy.

We decided to space the gauges out 1-inch from each other and laid this out using a ruler and a circle template.

Here are the five holes, traced out to give the eye a rough idea of where the gauges will end up. We like the spacing so onwards we go.

Cutting the holes in the dash will require two hole saws; a 21/8-inch and a 33/8-inch.

Since the dash wasn't flat enough to fit properly on our drill press table, we opted to drill the holes freehand using a drill.

Once the holes were drilled, a file was used to deburr all the edges; fiberglass splinters are not fun!

Our Ron Francis Wiring kit included their Synergy Series headlight switch which includes the four different colored accent rings; black, tan, red, and blue.

A 7/16-inch hole was drilled for the headlight switch and it was installed, along with the gauges and then it was time to start wiring up the panel. The first step is to wire up the switched positive power wire labeled brown in the Ron Francis Wiring kit. The gauges are wired in a loop configuration starting at the fuel level gauge. The connector at the bottom will attach to the brown lead off the fuse panel.

The next step is to wire the water temp (blue) and oil pressure (grey) leads to the respective gauges. These will run through the firewall to their respective sending units. Both gauges are electrical as opposed to mechanical units.

The fuel level gauge is connected to the fuel level sending unit in the gas tank via the light green wire in the kit.

To illuminate the gauge panel, all the gauges are looped wired via a white wire to correspond to the correct wire on the headlight switch wiring harness to be connected later.

Lastly, each gauge is loop wired to a black wire that will be connected to a solid ground connection. Since our Willys body is fiberglass, ensuring a good ground connection is very important and will be addressed when the rest of the car is wired. For now, the ground extension is wound up and tucked away at right.

A couple of zip ties keeps the wiring harness nice and clean behind the dash.

Here's a shot of the headlight switch harness plugged into the headlight switch. This will supply power to all the lights, both exterior and interior, at a later date.

The speedo/tach will be wired separately from the rest of the cluster using the provided 10-pin connector from Classic Instruments. This connector provides everything from 12-volt switched power to tach and speedo signal to illumination, turn signal and high beam indicators, all in one connection.

This push button is wired into the aforementioned harness and is used to calibrate the speedo.

Here's the front of the dash with the gauges and headlight switch installed.

From the driver's perspective, the speedo/tach gauge is nice and centered with the steering wheel, while the rest of the gauges are balanced on either side, making for a clean dash.