Digital Dash Swap?

[arco777]

Cool, that will probably help. I know I've seen a cloudy plastic material somewhere before but can't remember where or what it was - any ideas?

 

[arco777]

Coffee fueled progress - maybe?

Trans temp gauge by Cyberdyne. Might fit well with the digital dash.

I've attached a picture of a general idea. It would barely fit with the stock face and bezel diameter but I am sure I could slim it down with some work, just cut a square piece outta the vent, with only the digital numbers and "TRANS TEMP" visible. What do you think? Do it?

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Trans temp gauge by Cyberdyne. Might fit well with the digital dash.

I've attached a picture of a general idea. It would barely fit with the stock face and bezel diameter but I am sure I could slim it down with some work, just cut a square piece outta the vent, with only the digital numbers and "TRANS TEMP" visible. What do you think? Do it?

See if you can find one that switches between F and C so when you hit the EM button, it changes too, LOL

 

[arco777]

See if you can find one that switches between F and C so when you hit the EM button, it changes too, LOL

Nice one, lol. I probably could do that with some of the $100-$150 gauges but that is too much for me to pay for a gauge. I did go ahead and order the Cyberdyne gauge and a sender, total was $47 shipped.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Cyberdyne gauge - great, your building the next terminator, lol. WTG arco, you start the war of man against machine. LOL But that would look pretty flippin' sweet. Too bad I have to deal with the push button 4x4 switch there and I looked, not much room to have some more switches, so I am going to have to figure something else out. I;ve already got a second gen center console promised to me, just don't know when I will get it...but there wont be much room left for my message center and floor shifter...

 

[MrQ]

Here is an idea.

Take a few leds and run then around the outside of the panels.

Put them sideways and paint the front side to let the light reflect off of the plastic backing. Also take the down the top and sides of the led with fine sand paper and polish them to also diffuse the light.

You could also look at getting lower output LED's.

 

[arco777]

Cyberdyne gauge - great, your building the next terminator, lol. WTG arco, you start the war of man against machine. LOL But that would look pretty flippin' sweet. Too bad I have to deal with the push button 4x4 switch there and I looked, not much room to have some more switches, so I am going to have to figure something else out. I;ve already got a second gen center console promised to me, just don't know when I will get it...but there wont be much room left for my message center and floor shifter...

Haha, I was going to mention that in my last post but figured nobody would get it. My purchase decision may have been influenced by that just a little bit. Good luck getting it all fitted, maybe build a flip down console under the ashtray or something?

LEDs from top and bottom were a consideration but the display circuit board blocks all from the bottom. There's plenty of empty space in the middle so I might be able to put a bright panel and spread it across the screen with a diffuser - may be as simple as a plexi lens with silver foil where I don't want light. Once I have a position, I could use a stock illumination bulb socket in a stock position to wire my lights to, then the rheostat control would be in place.

 

[geoph1986]

I saw the first Terminator movie in the theater and thought "wow these special effects are the greatest thing ever"!

"Cyberdyne Systems Model 101, a terminator".

 

[arco777]

I have the books : Highly recommend.

 

[geoph1986]

Some real progress made!!!

I wasn't going to post any pictures until I had the face painted, but I don't think I'll have anymore time to work on this today. Here's a rundown of everything. I've been cutting parts of the Cougar cluster housing to make my mounting points for the circuit boards, and I've been fastening them with this steel epoxy stuff. I have decided not to relocate the turn signals, because if I have to go back to stock, there will be some messing around to do. So I have decided to put the brake, high beam, and seat belt indicators above the center display instead. The displays are located with this gimicky stuff that's supposed to stop drafts at the bottom of your house doors. It is a little channel, that is the perfect height, and provides a ledge to keep the displays from moving. I still have to figure out back lighting, but it will be easier now with everything in a fixed location. I will still try to use LED's first, but will probably be buying two 13" CCFL's off of Ebay. My plan to try the LED's is to place them sideways (as MrQ suggested) in the channels of the stuff used to locate the displays. Anyway, here are the pics, and any questions or feedback (both positive & negative) are always welcome.

 

[arco777]

Wow that looks awesome! I made no progress on mine today, all the time was spent on the Camaro

 

[damarble]

If you need a cheap diffuser for the LEDs try one for a florescent light fixture. There's an opaque style with diamond shapes in it to spread the light. Should be available at any Home Depot or the like and cost under $10. Typically they are 2x4 feet.

Also browse allelectronics.com, they have lot's of dirt cheap stuff that might come in handy.

Do you know what kind of plastic those housings are made of? It should be cast into the housing somewhere. If it's ABS or PVC for example, use the cement for that plastic to get a chemical bond instead of just a physical bond those putties give.

Instead of messing around with paint, you could get tinted (solid or transparent) plexy from places like rplastics.com or usplastics.com.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Awesome work so far! This is going to be cool!!!

 

[geoph1986]

damarble,
I painted the backside of the outer part of the display sandwich, and I am planning to put a light tint on the outer face to give a uniform look. The whole point of using the paint is to try to block the excess light that will try to escape, like the cluster in the "inspiration thread". From what I can tell, the housing is made from ABS, and the epoxy is listed as good for ABS. I have used this product in the past, and I have found that it works well for things that aren't going to be under any great stress.

JoeDirt,
Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

hey bud thats coming along nicely! I like that all three of up are taking a different approach to making this work so we and everyone else can know whats works best. But i havent made any progress to mine, but i am having a friend from austin mail me her dremel set so i can start on mine. I might hook mine up to 12v tonight just to verify it still works! Plus im kinda holding off till i get my dash apart to replace the stock explorer oil gauge to see whether or not i am past this no oil pressure issue. arco, have you found where the 20 ohm resistor is on yours yet? I looked at my alldata and it tells me that in 90 is when it went inside the cluster, which is what mine is out of, BUT it was an august 89 production vehicle so i dont know if it has it external or not...any thoughts?
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

and i do apologize for some of the typos, as i am responding via my LG VU
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[arco777]

Well if it's in the brain board, which I'd guess it is, I have both a 91 and a 89 dated board - they're I identical as far as I can tell, all components are the same and the part numbers the same just with a different date stamp. If yours is marked PWB-795 over E9SF-10D952-BB, it should be the same.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Since I am not home looking at mine, is there a resistor on the cougar flex board that you can tell, just like the explorer cluster? Its a long shot, but it would make since that if they did it that way until 94 on the explorer, surely they would have done it that way on the older cougar

 

[arco777]

The Cougar's flexible circuit doesn't connect to any of the gauges or anything related to the oil pressure input. It just runs indicators and backlights. The resistor mounted to the Cougar's housing is for the charge indicator for the IAR. My money is on the resistor being somewhere on the brain board if present at all, though I am not certain there is one - pinout says "0ohms/Open Circuit" is no pressure, "1-5ohms" is the gauge range with 1ohm/bar.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

well, i guess I would just have to hook up the oil pressure as is with my new REAL sender (not switch) and see what happens, lol.