porcupine73 Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 Hi. Installed these Cyberdyne gauges today in '00obw. Pretty happy with the look from the front. However, the look from the rear through the windshield is a little unsightly with all the wires and such. What could I use to clean up/cover up the wiring? Maybe I should have used a pod instead of trying to custom make something... these are voltage, engine oil pressure, engine oil temp, ATF temp Sorry about all the dust in this picture....there is a ton of pollen around here right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86BRATMAN Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 Wow. Thats a TON of wire exposed... If you don't care to drill into the dash, you could always make a whole right behind the guages and feed the wire through there. Or make a custom pod of fiberglass to hold them and hide most of the wiring... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted June 9, 2007 Author Share Posted June 9, 2007 Yes that is a lot of wire. I'd like to try making a custom fiberglass cover, I've seen that on pimp my ride and other shows, but how do you do it? Is there maybe a web site that would give instructions? I thought I might cover it with some black fabric of some sort....it might not look the greatest but it would cover the wires.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86BRATMAN Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 There is a write up on making fiberglass parts somewhere on legacy central. I can't really tell you what all it invloves not having done it myself. But I've seen some really awesome custom fiberglass stuff sone by some stereo guys around here... You could also get one of those carpeted dash covers and leave the wire under it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted June 9, 2007 Author Share Posted June 9, 2007 Cool thanks....hm...yes carpeted dash cover - that might just work. I would just drill a hole in the dash, but I didn't have the best of results doing that in my '96. I'll have to look for the info on making the fiberglass parts. Yes they do seem to turn out quite nice. I think you just use a lot of fiberglass cloth and that brushable filler....but what form to use to make it on.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 You can use a smaller loom to branch off the bigger loom to individual gauges. Go back and adjust your wire lengths. Where did you tap into the oil pressure, temp and tranny temp? nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted June 10, 2007 Author Share Posted June 10, 2007 Hi nipper. Hm...good idea on using the smaller loom pieces. That will definitely help. The engine oil temperature and engine oil pressure are tapped off the factory oil pressure switch under the alternator. The ATF temperature sensor is in the line between the factory cooler and aftermarket cooler. There are more gauges to put in....four was the most I thought I could fit in that location and hopefully stay clear of the passenger airbag. I think I'll put these on the pillar. They are vacuum, fuel pressure, and A/F ratio (not sure how well it will work), and something else...I forget what it was now. Bought these gauges over two years ago and never got around tuit putting them in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 One other thought is to use some thin gauge aluminum sheeting to make a box cover with. A sheet metal shop could make the bends for you. Then paint it when it is done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted June 10, 2007 Author Share Posted June 10, 2007 Hm.....another good idea. That could work too. Could be very thin; just needs to cover. This might just be an excuse to buy a box&pan brake from harbor freight..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartless Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 if you want to go the fiberglass route - use either a fine hardware cloth, or aluminum screen if you can find it, or some other such pliable substance, to creat the basic shape from, then lay your resin soaked fiberglass mat over that and work into the shape you created. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted June 11, 2007 Author Share Posted June 11, 2007 OK that's a lot of great suggestions and ideas. Until I figure out how I am going to cover, I just put a piece of black cloth over the wiring. It's kind of hard to see in the pic because of the glare. Also got the other gauges installed on the pillar. The camera doesn't catch all the gauge digits; I guess the gauges scan/strobe the leds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86BRATMAN Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 All I can say is thats a ton of guages... Almost looks like a cockpit... I like it, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 On the A pillar, i would have ran the wires through the trim, under the trim, and with alot of cursing (like i did for the aftermarket compass/mirror though a very tight acess hole (tight hand wise, plenty of room for wires). nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted June 12, 2007 Author Share Posted June 12, 2007 Hm...cool idea nipper. I wasn't sure how much room there was back there...I probably should've looked before doing it this way...I liked your jdm gauge pics. lol yah it did turn out to be a little bit over the top. It looks weird at night before starting because all the gauges flash when the reading is 'low'. I have to figure out which is the signal wire for the a/f meter...there's 5 wires on the front o2 sensor. Whatever wire I tried isn't working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmyowensfan20 Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 In no way am i knocking your job...But if i were to ever install gauges in mine. It would be exactly like Nippers! By far the cleanest and most important informaion needed guages I've seen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 In no way am i knocking your job...But if i were to ever install gauges in mine. It would be exactly like Nippers! By far the cleanest and most important informaion needed guages I've seen. The only thing im chainging on mine is the oil temp gauge. SInce it doesnt say which oil temp it is, i am going to use it as a tranny temp gauge. That neat thing comes from designing test equipemtn and buiding prtotypes, just dont look behind my computer desk .... ewwww nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmyowensfan20 Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 sell me a together with wiring copy...PLEASE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted June 12, 2007 Author Share Posted June 12, 2007 Yes nipper has a clean install. They do really look nice. Plus they're actual Subaru gauges which is nice too. I thought about trying to use that area but these gauges wouldn't fit. I think wireloom looks attractive....ok well maybe not... I don't think i'll use the digital gauges again. I have autometer analogs in the '96. They are much easier to read with a quick glance and knowing where the needle position generally should be. The digital gauges you have to actually read the value and think about it. Plus these cyberdyne's I don't think are extremely accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimokalihi Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 yes carpeted dash cover I'm thinking fire hazard for sure on that one. You really need to run those wires out of site through the dash and a pillar. The fiberglass idea wouldn't be bad. In fact, I would remove the driverside Apillar trim piece and fiberglass those gauges right into it. Fiberglass is not that hard. It just takes patience and effort. No cutting corners and being lazy/sloppy or it WILL look like crap. Here are some pics of my recent first time fiberglassing results... I don't think they turned out too bad. I ended up not using these but it was an excellent learning experience and I'm working on a custom fiberglass enclosure for my 10" Image Dynamics IDv.3 sub that's going to be mounted in the side compartment in the hatch area of my legacy wagon. I lost the link to a great fiberglass forum but I learned from a couple of videos I bought on fiberglassing from caraudiohelp.com and a lot of it I just learned myself from my mistakes. http://www.gadrivers.net/~dwicker/fiberglass.html There's a cool how to on making a fiberglass trunk enclosure that shows a step by step on how to make that. Which will give you a good idea of how it's done. These guys know how to fiberglass just about anything - http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/ Good luck! Also, those door pods are not the right shade for my interior because the body shop sold me the wrong spray dye. It said dark grey and came out light grey. They can also mix a dye for you that will perfectly match and interior piece you bring in and help it look stock. You can use a product called SEM(or 3M) fine texture spray that will give your piece the texture that the interior plastic trim pieces already have. Then you spray the spray dye over that and it will look OEM stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted June 12, 2007 Author Share Posted June 12, 2007 Good info. Wow those are nice fiberglass results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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