New Cage, Custom Dash, stuck on gauges

Ok so i have been working on a new cage in my jeep after finding areas where the old cage was ripping out sheet metal. I now have about 8x10 in plating plug welded and reinforced to the frame rails. I also wanted the cage to go behind the dash vs in front of it again. I was hoping to fit my stock dash back in but it didnt work out that way. So now im building a custom dash out of some square tubing for a frame and going to be making panels that attach to the framing that will be vinyl wrapped with a thin piece of foam padding. Heres where i am at currently. (Also I am not welding my cage a buddy is. I am just doing the dash myself. My welds arent pretty at all lol)




The poster board is for templates only. Im not going to use that.

Now on to a dilemma i am currently having. I have a temp, oil psi, and volt meter already as well as a vdo tach. None of them match and i have had them a while. I am kinda anal about things matching and since im going to the trouble of building a dash i want them to match. I found a set of VDO digital gauges locally for a decent price. (about the price for a basic speedometer). I am not sure if he has all the sending units for the gauges though. As well as i dont know if i would trust digital gauges over mechanical ones...

What would yall do? Im thinking of possibly making to stock speedo and fuel gauge work for now (i have the idiot light gauges) along with my other gauges and then swap them out one by one to some that match and are of a decent quality.

I redid my stock panel last summer, sorry the picture is slightly out of focus:



Speedhut gauges. They have quite a few options to set them up with. I used them most for the GPS speedo and wanted the rest to match.

those are nice, but not very affordable lol..

I did http://www.longacreracing.com gauges in my racecar/jeep and they work well. Nice thing is the light and gauge for each item. And affordable I feel.

Ive been looking at all different companies for gauges. Cant really decide. I may go look at these VDO digital ones a guy has for sale and see if he has all the senders for them. If he does i may just go that route for now.

I used autometer phantoms.

They've been holding up pretty well to the elements. Haven't had an issue yet, and I run mechanical gauges for water and oil temp, and oil pressure.

MoparManiac said:

I used autometer phantoms.

They've been holding up pretty well to the elements. Haven't had an issue yet, and I run mechanical gauges for water and oil temp, and oil pressure.

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what size plating did you use on your dash and center consol?

It's all 16ga

I dont have any fancy guages. But i prefer analog to digital. You can just glance at a dial and k ow your ok. With digital your brain has to process a number and decide if its too high or low. Way too much work.

chedisme said:

I dont have any fancy guages. But i prefer analog to digital. You can just glance at a dial and k ow your ok. With digital your brain has to process a number and decide if its too high or low. Way too much work.

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Stefan has sound logic. I hate using my brain when wheeling.


Im up in the air about keep my 97+ dash or going full custom, we'll see how this threads persudes me.

MoparManiac said:

It's all 16ga

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Ok cool thats what i was looking at using as well.

If i didnt have to go custom i wouldnt have. I had no real issues with my stock dash. But with this dash im building a center section as well, im going to be relocating the shifter to a better angle and height for me. (one i dont have to reach so far for). Adding cup holders, toggle switches for my accessories, and a mount for my radio, cb, and usb chargers for other goodies.

A couple of ideas for you...

holy carbon fiber batman!

I'm also not a fan of digital gauges. Not only is the info hard to process, but the display itself is distracting, especially speed. Nothing like a speedo that can't decide if you're doing 60 or 59 mph.

That said, if the digital set is cheap enough, consider buying it for resale to the tuner crowd. They love that crap.

Got some more done today. getting plating tomorrow.

Well got a bit more done over the week. Heres how it stands right now

A buddy says it is too boxy for his liking but to me the jeep is boxy so it seems it fits. Im going to be plating from the tubing to the apillar and b and so forth to tie the cage into the body of the jeep even more