New instrumentation for my 81

While I think the stock 81 gauge cluster looks cool, I wanted something different for my truck. I was also concerned about old sensors, wire and gauges accumulating inaccuracies. So I replaced everything including all the wiring. I used the Vision series of gauges from VDO, and robbed a monster tach off my old race car. For monitoring air/fuel, I used a pair of Innovate gauges, since there were no Vision gauges available. Very few analog A/F gauges available at all, and I'm not sure of the "needle lag" of the ones that are available. So those are digital. This is all in preparation for road trials on the truck, gotta know what's going on under the hood.

I started with a sheet of 0.1" aluminum for the dash face, and arranged the gauges into it in a manner that would fit in the stock gauge cluster opening.



I sanded off the flaking old wood grain from the stock cluster surround and cleaned it up in general. The sheet of aluminum and the cluster surround were painted with SEM Trim Black. Here is a test fitting.



The dash face is held to the surround with 6 8-32 screws. I used taper headed allen screws, and cut a countersink in the aluminum so they are nearly flush. They do stick up a little bit, but I like it. Gauges are all nicely visible from the driving position.



Powered it up and everything electrical worked (never mind the gas gauge, no sender hooked up yet).



The red light left of speedo is oil pressure, the yellow light on the right is alternator warning. I have to figure out how to hook that up.

A different view.



The speedo does not work, not sure what that's about. I pulled the cable out of the transmission and hit it with the drill, still no movement so it has to be where the cable connects to the speedo - there is an adapter in there to go from the push-on style to the 5/8" threaded style that the speedo has.

I plan to do the same blackout treatment to the radio and heater control surround eventually, but that's not really neccesary for getting it on the road, so it will wait.

Nice job. Looks great.

Something different. LMC have some similar looking gauges available now. What is that attached to the tach? The thing that looks like a tactical scope...

Big old bright "shift" light. I should probably find the cap/shade that goes on it for night use, lest I find myself at the top of my RPM range and blind.

Looks good!

The Innovate gauges go to the different banks of the engine?

That fuel bezel painted up nice!

Maybe consider oval head screws, if the flatheads look harsh to you?


Individual round gauges sure change the Bullnose dash.
Yours is an incredibly finished look!  
I imagine that first drive can't come fast enough now.

Looks nice. That silver one did paint up good.

I did https://www.speedhut.com/ custom gauges in  another project but wanted them to look stock till you looked close at them and seen 160 MPH speedo, a 4 in 1 large gauge like the speedo, etc. and they have the make & model of the car printed on the face.
Dave ----

Gary Lewis wrote

The Innovate gauges go to the different banks of the engine?

Gary, that's correct, there's one sensor in each exhaust side, about 24 inches past the head. I know a lot of people only monitor one bank of a V engine, but I just can't bring myself to completely trust that. And in fact you can see just at idle that the banks are .3 off from each other. Not a huge difference, but it is different.

ArdWrknTrk wrote

That fuel bezel painted up nice!

Maybe consider oval head screws, if the flatheads look harsh to you?

Wait, what? How did you know the bezel on the fuel gauge was painted? Or are you talking about something else? I did end up ordering the wrong fuel gauge, with a chrome ring instead of a black one. You can see that it is a slightly different style bezel than the others. When it arrived I was too lazy to exchange it and wait for another one, so I just hit it with the same paint as the dashboard face.

I actually planned to use button-headed allen screws when I first set out to do this, but I didn't have any laying around. I had a bunch of the ones I did use, from my Lancia 037 Stradale project... I actually like the look of the flatheads, I'm not sure if I will change them or not. The inspiration for the dashboard actually came from the 037 project. That one used later Fiat 124 gauges, but the effect is similar.

Do the readings stay off as you drive?  Or do they come together?  I’m wondering about a difference in the sensors or the gauges themselves. Maybe try cross-wiring them to see if it is the sensors or gauges.

Your first pic shows the fuel bezel in Chrome.

Oval heads are something between flat and button, but I find they look better than either in many applications.

In my woodworking I often have to align all the slots of straight blade screws with the wood grain.
Oval heads are a little more forgiving because if they are a 1/4 turn above or below they still look okay.
We call this 'fairing the kerfs' and you'll find it on things like high end yachts.

Oval Phillips or socket head don't need to line up, but I still think they look better than button head or flat.

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Your first pic shows the fuel bezel in Chrome.

D'oh! Just noticed that...

Gary Lewis wrote

Do the readings stay off as you drive?  Or do they come together?  I’m wondering about a difference in the sensors or the gauges themselves. Maybe try cross-wiring them to see if it is the sensors or gauges.

That's a good thought, but you can't really do that with A/F guages, there is a "free-air" calibration procedure that pairs the sensor with the gauge. Once they are paired, you can't mix n match. I would have to go through the calibration procedure again, which involves pulling the sensor out of the exhaust system (they must be in free air to calibrate properly).

I haven't really done any driving, except around my yard. The numbers tend to change so fast that comparing one to the other "on the fly" is difficult. Once I get it on the road, I'll know more.

You've done a tremendous job!
While not everyone on this forum would consider this sacrilege attractive, I DO.  

Thanks everyone, for the kind words, different ideas, and compliments!

I forgot that you have to calibrate them.  So no, that won't work.  I'll be anxious to see what you find when you get it on the road.

Those are wide-band O2 sensors, right?

Edit: I forgot to ask if the Vision series of gauges have different ones for the different fuel senders on these trucks.  But I'll go look

Gary Lewis wrote

Those are wide-band O2 sensors, right?

Edit: I forgot to ask if the Vision series of gauges have different ones for the different fuel senders on these trucks.  But I'll go look

None of the VDO gauges (at least in the "Vision" series) work with the Ford sender ohm range. So I will be dropping the tank to install a new sender. That will be a whole nother adventure I'm sure.

Yes, they are wide-band. Not sure anyone makes narrow-band gauges anymore, although I had one on the old race car. But it was built in the 90's. Not a great deal of information you could get out of it.

What sender are you going to use?

TAN VDO 317136. Not sure what the "TAN" is, but I assume the company is related to VDO. The sender is a universal one, you adjust or cut and adjust everything to length. I'm not sure what the top of an 81 gas tank looks like, so I'm not positive how this will go in, I guess I'll find out when I drop the tank. Or if you have a picture of what the sender looks like on top of the tank, that would be much appreciated.