Low cost gauges

[ianrobb]

I'm still deep in the interior planning stage, and looking for gauge options. I'd like to do traditional gauges, 5-6, of electronic only gauges. I don't want to run these $100 Amazon sets, but there's not much other options until the $400+ price point. I'm fine with pricing together a set of similar looking gauges, used is fine too.

What is everyone else using for "locost" gauges?

[tibimakai]

I have picked up a set of used Autometer Old Tyme set, for $100. But I had to work on them or even replace some of them.
Speedo was bed(got a new one from Ebay, for much cheaper than from proper sites), fuel level was the wrong resistance, and some had the bubble "glass" broken. Found some flat real glass on Ali, and replaced them. Some have the bubble glass and some have the flat glass. I will place them next to each other, to look the same. Two flat at the top and two bubbled bellow.
Also replaced the bulbs with LEDs. Look way brighter and better.

[ianrobb]

I'm totally fine with that approach, but I am looking for just regular, black face gauges with a red or white needles. My issue is finding used electronic gauges. Most of the ones I'm finding have mechanical speedos, or the tach only goes to 6k. I'm thinking of getting matching speedo and tach in the style I want, and then getting a 3-4 gauge set that are close enough to the style of the speedo and tach. That will still be $3-400, though. I guess building locost isn't always exactly what you want, though.

Also, I feel a GPS speedo may not work 100% in the Pacific Northwest, so I plan on doing a pulsewheel/sender for the speed signal.

[mikep]

I used $150 (cdn $) chinese ebay gauges (gps speedo, tach, oil pressure, fuel, volts, temp) plus a $20 AFR gauge from aliexpress, and a USB charging port ($10). Black gauges, chrome bezels, white letters, red needles.

To these I added another $40 or so in automotive LED lamps (aliexpress and ebay): left/right/high, oil pressure, ign/bat, eng, fuel warning, parking brake.

To make my 4AGE stuff work with the standard ranges I needed to modify the fuel sender ($20 from aliexpress), add a separate narrow band o2 sensor, a low pass filter to the tach (it was jumping a bit), a new standard oil pressure sender, and a voltage comparator for the fuel warning. I fabbed up a set of dial controls for the dash brightness since the original light switch was wired opposite to what the gauges needed.

I mounted them on a thin plywood dash with a cheap vinyl (carbon-fiber) wrap.

They look ok, but could probably be made to look better. My car was built for a low cost, it's for me to drive not to show . It's all lasted it's first season so far without issue. Reasonably accurate. Like you mentioned, I would have preferred a pulse sensor over the GPS as it drops out occasionally but it's not an urgent upgrade. Definitely low cost compared to even the most inexpensive proper set .

[ianrobb]

I actually just came across some gauges made by Marshall in California. Still on the high side(for me) at $400 for a 6-gauge set. However, they look great, are made in the USA, and meet all my needs. I'm still going to look at other options, but I'm going to keep these at the top of my list for now.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/276716342470?_ ... R76z_eKFZQ

[tibimakai]

Those were my options as well, but I couldn't find much info about them, so I steered away. They are 15 minutes from me, though.

[ianrobb]

Reading other forums, the Marshall gauges seem to be pretty nice, with good customer service too. I'm still a ways off from needing gauges, but I might go with them.

[tibimakai]

I went with used ones, and eventually with some new ones, and came out much cheaper, than $400.
Just keep looking on CL, or Facebook marketplace. Somebody will be selling some that you will be OK with.
Make sure that the fuel level sender resistance matches with the gauge's range. My Mazda NC requires 30-240 Ohm.

[rx7locost]

Search for marine gauges. The Speedos are generally GPS. The rest are the usual wired sensors.

[ianrobb]

Search for marine gauges. The Speedos are generally GPS. The rest are the usual wired sensors.

I did, but the marine speedo and tach usually had lower scales, like 60mph and 5K rpm.

[tibimakai]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... 4585%22%7D

[ianrobb]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... 4585%22%7D

Those were sold pretty quick. Trying to find some more local to me. Most of them are mechanical too, I need electronic.

[KB58]

Back when I priced gauges, once a full suite of dial gauges was totaled up, it was close enough to a flat dash price that I went that way for their much broader options.

[ianrobb]

Back when I priced gauges, once a full suite of dial gauges was totaled up, it was close enough to a flat dash price that I went that way for their much broader options.

I agree that an all-in-one digital dash is probably the more functional, more cost effective choice. However, I'm going for the more traditional analog gauge look.