speedog24

Alright, It's been a little while since I have been on here, but now I need some help. Or hopefully some of you do. I am currently working on restoring the Instrument Cluster for my 74 Dart I'm restoring. In doing prior research, I learned of the all to common ammeter problems. Now I know that it can easily be bypassed, but a pet peeve of mine is that cheap 3 gauge cluster with a voltmeter screwed to a perfectly original dash which IMO ruins the looks of the dash. So my thought was, why not put a voltmeter in the cluster while I have it apart? So thats what I'm doing. Being an engineering student, I was up to the challenge of replacing the ammeter with a voltmeter and making it look original. And I mean legitimately original look. I want non-mopar enthusiasts to be able to look at my dash and not know that it should be an ammeter.

To start, I completely tore apart an old parts cluster and removed the ammeter. After sifting through voltmeters, I found the Sunpro style-line voltmeter is so close to the ammeter its scary. Like it almost fit perfect without mods. Anyways, it was pretty simple to modify the face from the ammeter to fit the voltmeter. Now I have a dash with a voltmeter that has an ammeter face, but works perfectly!!!

Now where the help comes in. I am interested in have a custom face decal made to transform the ammeter markings to voltmeter markings. I am currently working with a graphics company to have faces made. The problem: its a $100 setup fee for me to have the custom face made. Now I am going to pay it anyways to have my gauges the way I want, but is there anyone else interested in this mod?

I am willing to put together either do-it-yourself kits with everything needed to transform your cluster, or I would be willing to transform your cluster for you. Either option would make me feel like my setup money was much better spent, and you could have a very nice, original looking voltmeter to protect your car from the ammeter woes.

PLEASE! comment and let me know what you think. If you would be interested in this mod, am I wasting my time, want it for a different dash? This is for the 71-76 dart swinger and valiant dashes, but I would be willing to setup this mod for other cars/dashes. Just let me know!!! Thanks for taking the time to read this too!

RacerHog

Neat Idea... Might get a few bites if you post a few pictures...
Going to need to have a "How to do Pamphlet" to go with it....
Dont forget to add the Plymouth Scamps to you list....Same setup

Just My 2 Cents....

Great Idea for those in need of or wanting to switch....

Ok...Now get to work on some good Small block performance cylinder heads....

TVLynn

I once put an oil pressure gauge in where the clock option was on a 66 Coronet not a stock look but worked
Have you looked into digital gauges ?

Sammy Taylor

I would be interested in this for a 72 challenger. I too put a oil pressure gauge in the clock section and works great.

440roadrunner

This, uh............has been done...........

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/...ter+conversion

speedog24

@ RacerHog, yes forgot about the scamps. Pics are definitely coming, just have to get the finishing touches done before posting. Pamphlet is definitely in the works too, just getting feedback while we're still in the design stages lol

@TVLynn, I have seen digital gauges as well as aftermarket custom clusters, but I really want to keep the factory look to the car's dash. Plus, the cost of this to "customers" will be far cheaper than replacing the entire cluster and will use there existing gauges.

@Sammy Taylor, I should be able to do any other mopar dash, the biggest obstacle for me would be getting my hands on a "parts dash" or someones dash. I'm doing 71-76 darts because I have 2 74s I'm working on, so I have 3 clusters laying here. But if you have an old one I'd be happy to set it up for you.

@440roadrunner, Yes I've seen some others do this, but I'm trying to make these look just like mopar would've done if they put these in during the 60s-70s. Some peoples do look nice, but I'm creating a custom face with the right markings and fonts that mopar would've used.

Thanks for the feedback guys, keep it coming!! Any and all is appreciated!!

Sammy Taylor

Im still interested in this and I do have a spare.

speedog24

Here's an update on this project: I have finished modifying the gauge and have it mounted in my spare cluster. I have verified that everything is going to work correctly. I currently have 2 different companies doing draw-ups for the faces, but it will probably take at least another week to get a decal finished. I will try to upload some pictures later today of how it currently looks.

@Sammy Taylor, I would be happy to do this for your challenger, I will pm you about the details.

440roadrunner

I'm not sure what you mean. If you build this into the original gauge just as was done on the FABO site page, it DOES look exactly as Mopar "would have" done it. There is no need for a custom face, because you can cal the voltmeter to read 14V at the center point of the original face.

This may be a matter of opinion, but I much prefer "that look" to a custom face

On my car there is very little to tell that this has been modified:

With the key off the "ammeter" appears to be at full discharge

and I left the original SunPro needle, which is slightly shorter than the other gauges. Unless you look close, you won't notice.

"Down the road" the needle runs at or near the center at 14V, just where it's supposed to be

speedog24

Alright guys, I seemed to confuse people about what I wanted when I said that I wanted a factory style Volt Gauge in my car. Well, now that my faces have come in I can (hopefully) better explain myself. People keep saying, "my volt gauge runs about the center of my ammeter scale so I know its about 14 volts." Well, I do understand that, but I want a "VOLT GAUGE", not an "Ammeter" that reads voltage. Therefore, I had my gauge face designed with the proper scale for my volt gauge, as well as proper markings (8-18 volts, not +-40 amps) and had a new label made that says BATTERY instead of ALTERNATOR. This way, it looks as if Mopar really did have a volt gauge from the factory, not an ammeter converted to read voltage. I hope this makes sense to everyone, but let me know if its still not clear. Anyways, here are the pictures of my custom face. I will upload more pictures after I have the time to get it installed in my dash.