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VDO gauges
Having suffered 2 cracked cylender heads in the past, I thought that maybe this time around, especially given the high-performance mods that went into the rebuild, I would set up an early warning system to let me know when the car was getting hot under the collar.
You EEEeeeeediot!
The above headline should be read using your best Peter Lorre / Ren voice.
The stock oil pressure indicator is what’s known in automotive circles as an “idiot light”. It’s not clear to whether the idiot light sytem was named for the person who engineered it, or the person who neglected their car long enough to let it come on, but either way, it’s not the most usefull way to keep tabs on your oil pressure, since it only comes on after the sytem has failed.
So, I ordered up a VDO Cockpit series oil pressure gauge, and a matching water temp gauge, since the stock water temp instrument is acting kind of funny, and reads on a scale of blue to red rather than indicating a temperature in numerals.
Just for good measure, and because things look better in sets of 3, I turned to the aircraft section and ordered up a cylender head temperature gauge. Sounded good to me, after all, I keep cracking heads.
To integrate the new instruments into the car, I decided to go with a center console mounting position. First I cut out a piece of console-shaped, 5-ply, 1/4 inch baltic birch plywood.
Using a hole saw, I cut 3 holes for the new instruments. A jigsaw was used to open up a port for the Becker Europa II Stereo. Next, I gave a nice coating of contact cement to the back of an appropriatley-sized piece of upholstery vinyl, as well as to one side of the wood piece. Using staples at the edges, I stretched the vinyl over the panel. Then, just trim out the extra fabric and slide in the insturments.
Next up: Installing the new sensors and wiring for the gauges.