Tools:
- Rotary Tool with Bit#53073 (or similar):
Difficulty: 
Parts Involved:
- Autometer 5″ Gauges
- Autometer 2 1/16″ Gauges
Directions:
This is a fairly easy project to do and should only take a couple of hours at most, assuming you have the correct tools for the job. As seen above I used a rotary tool with craftsman tool bit #53073, which is designed for cutting metal, and worked perfectly for this job. The first thing you need to do is decide which hole should house which gauge. In the case of the late 2nd generation Firebirds, the tachometer and speedometer are fairly obvious placement, as there are two 4″ diameter holes which housed the original tachometer and speedometer, and I put the new tachometer and speedometer in the corresponding holes to where the stock gauges went. For the rest of the gauges, however, there is a choice to be made as there are 5 holes available where any of the other gauges can go, and stock placement doesn’t truly exist because some of the gauges were combined in the factory gauge setup, and with these new AutoMeter gauges, none of them are combined.
If something is unclear to you, scroll down and look at the various pictures to see if they help you, if they do not, feel free to email me.
So what I decided was to go with the following setup (from left to right): |Tachometer| (Oil Pressure) |Speedometer| (Water Temp) ( Fuel Level ) ( Voltmeter )… The reason I went this way was because I felt I should put the gauges in what I considered the order of importance with the vital signs of the car. In other words, oil pressure and water temp are of the most importance of all the things I should be monitoring to make sure everything is going properly in the car, and preventing a catastrophic engine failure. If the oil pressure were to go too low or the water temp too high, if something is not done in short order to shut the engine off, something major would likely be damaged, or destroyed. Next in line is the fuel level, obviously if you run out of fuel the car won’t run, but if you run out of fuel it would not lead to severe consequences (with the exception of possibly leaving you stranded for a little bit). I have seen people put the fuel in the center, between the tach and speedo, but I decided against it for the reasons I have stated above. Finally comes the voltmeter, which I consider to be the instrument of least concern, so it if furthest away from my central view while driving. Again, this is all a personal decision (with the exception of the speedo and tach), and you can put any of the four small gauges in whichever hole your heart desires. Also, with the gauges I used, there is actually room for one more gauges, so in the future if there is something else I should be monitoring, changing the order would be very easy.
So after you have decided which gauge to put where, the time comes to put the new gauges in. I started with the small (2 1/16″ ) gauges because at the time I did not have the proper rotary bit in order to drill out the speedometer and tachometer holes. Order does not really matter, I had no problem mounting them my way, I am sure if you started with the big gauges first you would have no problem as well. The 2 1/16″ gauges are very easy, just push out the old gauges black bezels (they push out towards the front, and have some old glue on them, but they do just pop out) then push the new gauges into their proper holes. Mine took a little elbow grease, but I was very careful to work slowly and turn the gauges back and forth as I was pushing them into the slot, and when you get the black rim of the gauges all the way to the instrument panel front, it is time to stop (duh). You want them to have a nice tight fit, as all but the oil pressure gauge doesn’t come with a bracket to help secure it into place (you can buy them from AutoMeter if you need them however). After you are done, the gauges should look like the picture below..
Finally comes the ‘hard’ part of this little job, time to drill the 4″ holes out to 4.5″ (apprx). While, I think, the back of new gauges are a little bigger than 4.5″, that is a good starting point and will make sure your holes are nice and even and not too big. On the back of the instrument panel, draw a 4.5″ diameter circle in pencil, centered around the original hole, it should be about 1/4″ bigger around the entire circle than the old one. Now it is time to begin cutting out the excess material so the gauge will fit in. It is important to remember while you are doing this that you can always cut more out, but you can’t put something back after you cut it, so work slowly and diligently check to make sure you are not opening the hole too big. I had the back of the instrument panel facing me, and cut it that way, so if the while I was cutting the hole out the rotary tool were to get away from me, it would make the small make on the back and not on the front of the instrument panel where it would be noticed. You should keep the hole small enough so that the back of the gauge (white part) will slide into the hole, but not so big that the outer lip (in my case it was black) can (just like the small gauges). I worked the dremel (aka rotary) tool around the hole slowly, taking out a bit of all of the circle as to not make the circle lopsided or off-centered. After you have finished cutting the 4.5″ diameter circle out (you should do one first, then the second after the first gauge has been put in, just to help you fully understand what you are doing), it is time to fit the gauge to the hole. It is likely not to perfectly fit, and more of the instrument panel will need to be cut out, but it should be just very small ‘touchups’ around the new hole you just cut. I marked on the back with pencil what parts needed to be widened out a bit then slowly began cutting the marked part away, stopping to check for fit each time.
This ‘touchup’ period is where taking your time and checking the fit and position of the gauge really pays off. When all of the touchup work if finally done and the gauge has a nice tight fit all the way around, but not tight enough where you cannot get it into position, you know you have done the job properly. Just like the small gauges, slowly work the big gauge into place, with the outer rim of the gauge being the stopper against the instrument panel. Now there should be a bracket that will help to hold the gauge tightly into place, grab that and install it as the instructions that came with the gauge say to (bracket goes onto the big screws on the back of the gauge, then a washer and then a nut goes on each screw and is tightened down until the bracket holds the gauge securely in place). Note: In the case of the tachometer, I was sent the wrong bracket, it looked just like the speedometers one and that one does not fit because of the 3 prongs poking out of the back of the tachometer. You can see the difference between the correct bracket and the custom bracket I made, both work and who is going to see it anyway?
Now do the same process for the other gauge, and you should be done mounting your gauges. There is also a matter of giving light to the turn signals and warning lights that came on the old gauges, but as of right now I have not done this, but expect to do it in the next few weeks, so check back to this guide and soon it will be done.
Finished Product:
