Limited Ex
Elite Lurker
- Joined
- August 25, 1999
- Messages
- 2,237
- Reaction score
- 2
- City, State
- Greensboro, North Carolina
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 94 Limited
I have been wanting to do this for the longest time, and I finally was able to tackle it over a two day period. After realizing that I never listen to the radio when I drive my Explorer, I decided that my Sony was way to nice to just sit and do nothing, so out it came. Of course, I ordered my Autometer tranny temp gauge first, got all the metal and screws next, and went to work on it Tuesday evening. Today I got it all finished up, and am really pleased with how it turned out, now I just need to get the wires all connected.
Of course, if an artist is going to work, he has to have a good canvas, so I went to Home Depot and picked up a nice little work bench. Working on top of the freezer was just not going to cut it for this project
Again at Home Depot, earlier of course, I picked up a sheet of metal so I could make the panel. Took many measurements, and added a few 16ths to them, and eyeballed a couple of them also. Finally was able to produce a decent panel.
Then I test fitted the whole assembly to make sure I was not going to have to trim the panel or any part of the dash where the radio was. The Dremel tool is our friends
After I decided all was good, I had to drill holes and put some screws in to make it all stay in place. Once that was complete, then I gave it a coat of paint and called it a day.
I plan on putting two more gauges in there at some point, but Mr. Credit Card Bill says "Not right now you aren't." A quick question for those of you that have gauges, do you think I would be alright in running the ignition switch wire off the one that was for my radio? As well as the ground? Because the harness is still there, and I know the instructions say to ground the gauge near the sender, but since those wires are just centimeters away from the gauge, I was going to save some time and use those.
One last question, I have the remote tranny filter, and I know a couple guys have ran a gauge off it, did you need to ground the sender or was it okay without?
Of course, if an artist is going to work, he has to have a good canvas, so I went to Home Depot and picked up a nice little work bench. Working on top of the freezer was just not going to cut it for this project
Again at Home Depot, earlier of course, I picked up a sheet of metal so I could make the panel. Took many measurements, and added a few 16ths to them, and eyeballed a couple of them also. Finally was able to produce a decent panel.
Then I test fitted the whole assembly to make sure I was not going to have to trim the panel or any part of the dash where the radio was. The Dremel tool is our friends
After I decided all was good, I had to drill holes and put some screws in to make it all stay in place. Once that was complete, then I gave it a coat of paint and called it a day.
I plan on putting two more gauges in there at some point, but Mr. Credit Card Bill says "Not right now you aren't." A quick question for those of you that have gauges, do you think I would be alright in running the ignition switch wire off the one that was for my radio? As well as the ground? Because the harness is still there, and I know the instructions say to ground the gauge near the sender, but since those wires are just centimeters away from the gauge, I was going to save some time and use those.
One last question, I have the remote tranny filter, and I know a couple guys have ran a gauge off it, did you need to ground the sender or was it okay without?