5 gauges mounted in the center console

[Jesse IL]

Just got it back today. now all it needs is paint.

http://users.ameritech.net/trdcelica/gauges-11.jpg

http://users.ameritech.net/trdcelica/gauges-12.jpg

I might modify it slightly to recess the AEM UEGO gauge.

[BlackCelicaGTS3]

was that a jdm console? who did the work? looks like a quality job, be sure to put pics up when its painted!

[mukalicious]

looks good, how much did it cost? is it flat all the way across, or are the passenger side gauges aimed towards the driver?

i cant read my EGT without making an effort to look, cause its facing more towards the passenger. when i get mine done, im going to have them all angled more towards the driver.

[Jesse IL]

No that's the regular consile. They cut out the sunglass try and put a piece of wood in there. Then they bondoed over everything. The work was done by the stereo installer at Tweeter in Oak Brook, IL. One of the members of this site is a manager of that store.

[Jesse IL]

Originally posted by mukalicious
looks good, how much did it cost? is it flat all the way across, or are the passenger side gauges aimed towards the driver?

i cant read my EGT without making an effort to look, cause its facing more towards the passenger. when i get mine done, im going to have them all angled more towards the driver.
This is flat all the way across. The guy did a really nice job blending the edges though, so you don't see the transition. I paid something like $262 for the work, which was $250 in labor (5 hours I think) and $12 in materials.

[slidr]

Too busy...

[The Game]

i dont like it but atleast it serves a purpose

[KEnny Heiser 3]

looks nice jessie ,But damn $260 ??? you could have done that your self on a sunday afternoon . Its not like he put any countours or body lines in ,That would have been a great peice to do some practice body work on . BTW It would look good in CF to go with the gauge cluster surround hehehe .


sinc:Kenny Heiser

[slidr]

Originally posted by KEnny Heiser 3
looks nice jessie ,But damn $260 ??? you could have done that your self on a sunday afternoon . Its not like he put any countours or body lines in ,That would have been a great peice to do some practice body work on . BTW It would look good in CF to go with the gauge cluster surround hehehe .


sinc:Kenny Heiser

True.


Did he just drill holes and prime it, or is it not primed yet?

[TRD2000]

Originally posted by slidr
True.
Did he just drill holes and prime it, or is it not primed yet?
I'm the guy that works at Tweeter.

And are you guys kidding me with these questions and comments, do you know anything about custom work with bondo? He cut out the pocket, built a MDF piece to fit the opening, glued it in, routered out the holes so they were a tad smaller to pressure fit the gauges in, then bondo'd and sanded the whole thing to get that uniform look, which took 2 hours alone. The piece is as smooth as glass now and ready to paint.
He paid $250 that included the materials, well worth it.

[Jesse IL]

Originally posted by TRD2000
I'm the guy that works at Tweeter.

And Are you guys kidding me, do you know anything about custom work with bondo? He cut out the pocket, built a MDF piece to fit the opening, glued it in, routered out the holes so they were a tad smaller to pressure fit the gauges in, then bondo'd and sanded the whole thing to get that uniform look, which took 2 hours alone. The piece is as smooth as glass now and ready to paint.
He paid $250 that included the materials, well worth it.
Exactly. I have no qualms about paying for quality work. There is no arguing labor rates, and it looks like 5 hours of work to me. Sure, I could have done it myself for materials cost only, but I would have had no idea where to start with something like this, and frankly I had no interest in doing it.

I understand the comments about too busy, but I need the gauges. I hate pillar mounts (want to talk about busy) so where else would they go? Most people were convinced that 5 gauges couldn't fit in there. This is to prove that they can.

[celica70]

very nice.

[spaztikid]

looks nice... the wideband is tight.

[SuuPaSeDan]

nice... but where do you sunglasses go now?

[Beast]

Jesse, your car is going to be unrecognizable by the time you come to OBX.

[treeh8r]

Originally posted by SuuPaSeDan
nice... but where do you sunglasses go now?

my thoughts exactly!!!:rofl:

[Jesse IL]

Originally posted by SuuPaSeDan
nice... but where do you sunglasses go now?
I'll wear them permanently, Matrix style :chuckles:
Originally posted by Beast
Jesse, your car is going to be unrecognizable by the time you come to OBX.
That's the plan :cool:

[KEnny Heiser 3]

Originally posted by TRD2000
do you know anything about custom work with bondo?

Yes Body work is my profession . I'm not trying to cut on your shops work or anything bro . I am however more than confident enuff to say ,that I have just as much if not MORE experience than your stereo guy has . I was just pointing out that the job would not take alot of skill . It would take 30 min to cut out the MDF peice and fit it to glue . There really is next to no body work involved . So I could have the bodywork done on that front panel in 30 -40 min .Then it would take about 10 min to mill out the holes on a steel mill ,and its ready for primer . If anything he could have had you guys cut the MDF panel for him and he could have done the rest . Jessie has mentioned that he was going to do a little bodywork prep on his car before it gets painted ,I just figured a project like this would have been some easy practice .It would be a easy sunday afternoon project (like I said ) . But as he posted he did not know whare to start or begin with the project

My local stereo shop (Kartunes) would have charged just about the same ,I'm sure. It amasing to me how a stereo shop can charge 65+ an hour for "custom" body work ,when the most a body shop can charge is $50 or less depending on area . I think I'm in the wrong buisness LOL. Do your workers get paid rate on your jobs J/W ???


sinc:Kenny Heiser

[twistedGTS]

Looks good! I'm getting tired of my 3-gague-pod. Good choice.

Originally posted by SuuPaSeDan
nice... but where do you sunglasses go now?

:laugh:

[treeh8r]

Originally posted by KEnny Heiser 3
Yes Body work is my profession . I'm not trying to cut on your shops work or anything bro . I am however more than confident enuff to say ,that I have just as much if not MORE experience than your stereo guy has . I was just pointing out that the job would not take alot of skill . It would take 30 min to cut out the MDF peice and fit it to glue . There really is next to no body work involved . So I could have the bodywork done on that front panel in 30 -40 min .Then it would take about 10 min to mill out the holes on a steel mill ,and its ready for primer . If anything he could have had you guys cut the MDF panel for him and he could have done the rest .

There's always one...:faint:

[KEnny Heiser 3]

Originally posted by treeh8r
There's always one...:faint:

LOL

[Jesse IL]

Originally posted by KEnny Heiser 3
Yes Body work is my profession . I'm not trying to cut on your shops work or anything bro . I am however more than confident enuff to say ,that I have just as much if not MORE experience than your stereo guy has . I was just pointing out that the job would not take alot of skill . It would take 30 min to cut out the MDF peice and fit it to glue . There really is next to no body work involved . So I could have the bodywork done on that front panel in 30 -40 min .Then it would take about 10 min to mill out the holes on a steel mill ,and its ready for primer . If anything he could have had you guys cut the MDF panel for him and he could have done the rest . Jessie has mentioned that he was going to do a little bodywork prep on his car before it gets painted ,I just figured a project like this would have been some easy practice .It would be a easy sunday afternoon project (like I said ) . But as he posted he did not know whare to start or begin with the project

My local stereo shop (Kartunes) would have charged just about the same ,I'm sure. It amasing to me how a stereo shop can charge 65+ an hour for "custom" body work ,when the most a body shop can charge is $50 or less depending on area . I think I'm in the wrong buisness LOL. Do your workers get paid rate on your jobs J/W ???


sinc:Kenny Heiser
I do 99% of my own work, so I don't mind paying a price for something every once in a while. There are tons of things I do on cars that people pay lots of money for. While I have no doubts that I can do prep work, I doubt my abilities to do a good job on the MDF work, which is why I sent this out. I don't consider myself to be very good at making things from scratch. Modifying existing parts and things like paint prep and metal polishing are more up my alley. Labor rates are so out of hand. You should see the bill for the fabricating on my downpipe. I've done work on people's cars and billed out my time at $30 an hour and know that I'm still charging 1/3 of what many shops charge.

[evil eye]

Wow, I was one of the skeptics who thought 5 wouldn't fit. You proved me wrong. :D

A little too busy for my taste, but I like the functionality of it.

[Manny_TXtreme]

As long as ur happy then its all good. Looks nice IMO.

[twistedGTS]

it also reminds me of an airplane, i like that. The more gadgets the better!

[Jesse IL]

more gauges = more power :chuckles:

[evensen007]

Jesse,

You must have gained at least 15-20 hp with those guages. :chuckles: j/k.

Looks really nice IMO.

Chris

[oneflyasianguy]

nice, now what are you going to fill that double din with? a nice flushmount screen would be schweet

[Jesse IL]

I have a nice flushmount stereo that goes there ;)

[X-EVIL-X]

i dont like all the clutter.
ctrikers car is clean and they molded the gauges towards him. its pretty sick in person too.
http://www.teamhybrid.com/images/members/richardshen/dash1.jpg

[Jesse IL]

That looks nice, I like that alot. My goal was to get all five gauges in there more than anything. With the turbo, I really wanted to be able to keep an eye on all five of those parameters.

[S|Lv3rBu||et]

Looks pretty nice indeed Jesse! What are each of the gauges for?
And I agree with you when it comes to a-pillar mounted gauges and clutter. I'm in the middle of trying to find a better place for some of my gauges.... but I don't want to give up my sunglass case. ;)

[Jesse IL]

Boost
Wideband O2
Oil pressure
Oil Temperature
Water temperature

The "questionable" gauges would be the temp gauges. Oil temp I've heard is a killer of 2ZZ engines, its why Lotus put oil coolers on the Elise. Water temp, the whole radiator will be blocked by an intercooler. With the turbo adding extra thermal stresses to the engine, I want to be able to keep track of the fluid temperatures.

[lmac]

looks good, cant wait to see it when its done

[celica2k1]

Nice :thumbup:

[treeh8r]

Originally posted by Jesse IL
The "questionable" gauges would be the temp gauges. Oil temp I've heard is a killer of 2ZZ engines, its why Lotus put oil coolers on the Elise. Water temp, the whole radiator will be blocked by an intercooler. With the turbo adding extra thermal stresses to the engine, I want to be able to keep track of the fluid temperatures.

its nice that you justify them...
I'd have just said "cause I want 'em and I can have 'em"

[Jesse IL]

Originally posted by treeh8r
its nice that you justify them...
I'd have just said "cause I want 'em and I can have 'em"
I'm very much into functionality with the interior of the car. I still use the stock stereo.

[S|Lv3rBu||et]

Originally posted by Jesse IL
I still use the stock stereo.

Me too!!










...as a paperweight. ;)

[evil eye]

Originally posted by Jesse IL
Boost
Wideband O2
Oil pressure
Oil Temperature
Water temperature

The "questionable" gauges would be the temp gauges. Oil temp I've heard is a killer of 2ZZ engines, its why Lotus put oil coolers on the Elise. Water temp, the whole radiator will be blocked by an intercooler. With the turbo adding extra thermal stresses to the engine, I want to be able to keep track of the fluid temperatures.

I've been hearing this problem with oil and the 2ZZ and 1ZZ engines. My question is, if I added an oil cooler, would that be all that is needed to solve the problem. I have a 2ZZ btw.

[Jesse IL]

It couldn't hurt. If you wanted to go cheaper, you could get an oil temp gauge and just ease back if the temperature starts going too high. I believe the oil temp issue is the reason why with the Lotus ECU, you can only exceed redline and run to the actual fuel cut for 5 seconds before it cuts you off. They really don't want you doing the extended 8200 rpm runs.

[evil eye]

Very interesting. I'm going to have to check into the maintenance/performance forums more often. I think I might just get the gauge for now, like you suggested, and a water temp gauge too while I'm at it. Thanks Jesse.

Now I just have to find a spot to mount them. :chuckles:

[XmbalmR]

So when does the boost gauge become functional for you...and when it does I wanna ride!!!

[Jesse IL]

I might hit the track one last time N/A the first week of April. Once that's done, turbo install will commence immediately.

[fleetingglimpse]

Looks nice Jesse. I think the only think I would have changed would be angling the gauges towards the driver to make it a little more viewer friendly. Looks good.

[Jesse IL]

Originally posted by fleetingglimpse
Looks nice Jesse. I think the only think I would have changed would be angling the gauges towards the driver to make it a little more viewer friendly. Looks good.
We had a discussion about this when it was installed. Apparently, when you do fiberglass work and angle things all over the place, you need to use sections of PVC pipe to hold the gauges and that uses up alot of space. The only way to mount all five gauges was to basically make a panel and drill five holes in it.

[eurotoyz]

i've read that the oil sump is more of the problem...oil isn't flowing correctly. My car burns oil and I have thought of buying a baffled oil pan, but don't know if I am even gonna keep the car. tis a 1zz

[Jesse IL]

Here's updated pics after the painting. Will get the thing in the car soon...

http://users.ameritech.net/diabolus/gauges-13.jpg

http://users.ameritech.net/diabolus/gauges-14.jpg

[TRD2000]

Looks great, can't wait to see it in the car.

[GTSJASON]

yeah that looks really good
post some pics of it installed asap

[CeliKill180]

those look like the stock centerpeice color, is it?

[FrostsCelicaGTS]

They both look pretty nice I like x-Evils friends looks like the aimed more to the driver and not so cluttered. But a good job on both.

[Seige]

I want one.... ;)

[mkvirus]

i personally dont like it!!!! just my opinion!!!

[fleetingglimpse]

how come you didn't paint the center spec blue? it looks good though.

[Jesse IL]

Originally posted by CeliKill180
those look like the stock centerpeice color, is it?
Its a 98% match. Sheen and texture is perfect, but it turned out just slightly too dark. Silver is very difficult to match.
Originally posted by fleetingglimpse
how come you didn't paint the center spec blue? it looks good though.
I don't like that look really. Plus, I am not willing to paint over all the A/C readouts and use the stickers that don't light up at night. Not to mention the fact that even if you paint over all the A/C readouts, you still have silver buttons, knobs and a slider. I wanted to match the OEM appearance as much as possible.

[badceli]

I think it looks great. I don't think they will be hard to see at all with them being mounted flat. It's not like you drive a Hummer and you're 3 feet from the center console.

That's a great place to put them so you can just look in one spot to monitor all 5 at a glance.

Thanks for the tip on the reason for them. I didn't know that. I think I will get them also. Not sure where the heck I'll put mine though. My screen for the PS2 and DVD player will go where your gauges are, then the head unit, then the Greddy profec e-01.

So, I still have to find a good place for my gauges.

[canton_ph34r]

interesting. Nice work on the 5 gauges by the way. I thought I was gonna see a pic of 5 gauges spread across the dash before I came into this thread.

[Jesse IL]

Got them in the car finally:

http://users.ameritech.net/diabolus/gauges-15.jpg

[carboncelicatrd]

looks real good!

[SilverRide]

Originally posted by TRD2000
I'm the guy that works at Tweeter.

And are you guys kidding me with these questions and comments, do you know anything about custom work with bondo? He cut out the pocket, built a MDF piece to fit the opening, glued it in, routered out the holes so they were a tad smaller to pressure fit the gauges in, then bondo'd and sanded the whole thing to get that uniform look, which took 2 hours alone. The piece is as smooth as glass now and ready to paint.
He paid $250 that included the materials, well worth it.

Yes, I imaging it was well worth the $250 particularly for the obvious 1st rate qualty pictured.
Personally I reallty don't mind paying top dollar for quality work.

I suspect many who complaing about such prices probably want $10+ an hour to say, 'Do you want fries with that"? ;)

[nokiaman]

what paint did you use that matches very very well.

[nokiaman]

I just love it . looks great

[DYI01]

Yes how did you paint it the stock center piece color??? I have a scratch on my sunglass cover and it bothers the hell out of me.

[jway83]

i like the whole thing, except the fact that they're not angled at the driver. i would have to have that.