Lighting and Dash part 2

Ok, these updates are really getting behind. Job change with work and just wanting to get on with the build as opposed to talking about it is my excuse.

So where were we? 

I ordered the gauges back in Novemeber to take advantage of a Black Friday special discount front Speedhut. Due to my non standard approach of using the OEM Engine ECU  and having John at Speartech keep the canbus cabling in for gauge use I can then keep all the OEM sensors on the engine and therefore use the OEM output for gauges.

Speedhut do a great set of products that include GM canbus gauges that can be customised totally to your design. This is what turned up mid January....

First impressions count and these are packed really well and look excellent quality. I had them add the km/h to make obeying French speed limits easier when abroad. I also had their branding removed, and kept the font/gauge styling pretty similar to the original Smiths gauges. 

The other joyous things with this system is that all the gauges daisy chain the ECU signal between them, so it's one signal connection, power and lighting and then you get this...

The lights are on...

And below with the engine running too

At this point a work colleague seeing the above photo said... Those look like my old Golf mk3 gauges and the penny dropped... I've replicated my old VW Passat 4-Motion gauges with the blue and red scheme. Hmm. How to get out of this with least embarrassment? No answer. They are extensively easy on my eyes and I'm happy. Move on.

So after much measuring and fiddling about, the above arrangement is my final that I'm happy with and its time to start cutting the glass fibre again :-(

This measure a gazillion times and cut once might just have something to it though...

And after a short but necessary work trip to Houston Texas (great V8 soundtrack out there though) and the above is achieved. The masking tape tabs are mimicking the material thickness of dash covering. 

And back in situ and all lit up. I think I like this look a lot!

Next up my other Black Friday purchase that I ordered at the same time to be discussed - the oil pan swap!