★★★★George Graves★★★★ Project Blog for e30 Gizmos and Gadgets - 2025 UPDATE

[deutschman]

i want some! really interesting work!

[george graves]

Well, I must be in a feisty mood today, cause I woke up and thought "I wonder how much trouble I could get myself into today"

See, cause I know if I show you, what I'm about to show you, I'm in a pinch. I'll have to come through. That's ok. I've come through in the past. The only thing that is preventing stuff like this from going out the door is time and money. I have some of the time, but not all of the money to fund these projects. It's basically my pocket change I use to create this stuff. (and trust me, you don't want to see my parts invoices) And the time I put into it, well, it's only what I can afford to take away from what pays the bills.

So yesterday, I broke out the clusters, and a soft towel.




I tore one cluster down to the nitty gritty. They actually are really easy to take apart. It's all just screws and the gauges just pop out.

I took off the front plastic see-through part. Despite what you think, they are barely glued in. The plastic trim around the idiots lights have a few clasps on the back. That came off too. What you are left with is access to a very nice spot in the cluster.



See the square "holes" That is where the light gets defused by bouncing around in there - the round holes deep in side are the bulbs that twist off from the back. Perfect for running some wires through BTW - how nice is that? The plastic colored strip? Yea, that is what makes up the idiot light icons.



Height wise it's a match, might need some triming end to end. Luckily - it's soft plastic. I'll come back to this later, I want to think about it more.


Now, here is something that recently has become quite a driving hazard, and I want out of my life entirely. The MPG gauge. It's like a nagging little girlfriend - "Oh, don't stay out too late", "Hun, no more cocktails for you", Blah, Blah, Blah. Yea gas prices suck - yea, I like to keep track of my miles per gallon when I'm on a road trip (I do that on paper or the stock OBC) - but it's time to ditch the MPG gauge.



So I sat my ass down - removed the stock gauge face, scanned it just to use as a reference, and then proceeded completely re-design the face of it to what ever I want.

Boost anyone? Pay attention...what do you think? Nice.



Yea, it looks right at home in there. And if you are wondering how I printed them, that is crappy Walmart copy paper that was spit out by a crappy 12 year old laser printer. Not too back for a mock up. I'll have kinkos or the like print them on something better, with better toner.


Sorry for the crappy pics - my digital camera broke awhile ago, and I refuse to buy another one - But, I can't remember why...


So, you don't have a turbo? Ok, well - it's just artwork, I can make it anything you want it to be. Oil pressure, temp, ect...


What do you think? I can't decide if the minor (the smaller) "tick" marks makes it look too busy or if it looks like the end-all-be-all fucking shit. I'll have to play around with the layout.


I need feedback on the gauge design - do you like something simple, or something with more tick marks?





Let me know what you think. I try and get a video up showing them working and moving tomorrow.

[Erick]

That....is awsome! I'm game for oil temp.

[318INPROGRESS]

WOW I'm definitely interested in the AFR Hazard one and the oil temp gauge. Just plain awesome!

[AlarmedBread]

Sweet. I mean, oh no! now everyone will have a gauge there!

I wasted a lot of time retrofitting a gauge before I realized the obvious that could be done with a bit of resistance...duh. :)

[george graves]

that could be done with a bit of resistance...duh. :)

Nope. Back on topic.

[AlarmedBread]

Its just a 4 wire gauge, why make things complicated.

[Mtriple]

haha....

George, I like the less tick marks myself like the boost gauge. Looks more factory-like.

[dj2xrated]

tickies!!!!

[Miasma]

That boost gauge is really slick, I hate extra gauges where they aren't suppose to be.

[alpinaclone]

Good stuff. Kinda partial to the extra tick marks. It looks like it belongs there, but with a little something extra.

[TwoJ's]

Sick. Nicely done. If you want my input, I think it'd look better without the small tick marks on the oil temp gauge.

And I like that you put correct units on the boost gauge.

[Bimmerman325i]

George, these look fantastic!

Personally I like the look of the small ticks, but I'll buy it no matter the style... I need an oil temp gauge. Out of curiosity, how accurate could said gauge be, and what would be required to run it hardware-wise?

I'm also liking the LED display where the non-existent idiot lights are in the cluster... if you could make one as an oil pressure display I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

[devonjordan]

Those are fucking badass, and now you have to produce. I officially cant wait to get into another e30...

[franco90]

pretty cool gauges george I like the oil gauge