Auxiliary gauges, one option

[GTE427]

While having gauges directly in front of the driver is ideal, the Thunderbird dash doesn't allow for good placement of auxiliary gauges.

I saved some pieces from a 58 TBird I had in the seventies, the previous owner did a great job of adding gauges to the glove box door and replaced the clock with a tach. While not the best spot for monitoring gauges when driving, I could easily read them during warm-up and when stopped in traffic. And your motorhead buddies couldn't help but watch the gauges while in the car. Additionally, the Oil and Gen lights remained functional in tandem with the gauges, I think having both is a benefit.

Aesthetically, this installation fit nicely, it looked built in, closely resembling what the factory might have done, didn't appear as an afterthought for deficiencies from the assembly line. If any maintenance was needed, open the door and all the wiring and lights were accessible, though use of the glove box compartment became limited. If anyone with a 59 or 60 considers doing this, today there are white faced gauges available that would coordinate nicely white dashes for those years.

Attached are some photos. I don't advocate cutting your original door, but my experience is that plenty of extra doors appear at swap meets and on-line if you look for them.

[6TB1RD]

no more light for me

Ken:
Though this is a great Idea, I still like to keep my eye's on the gages wile driving too much can happen at high RPM's (IE oil pressure drop ) and sense the oil light does not come on until the pressure drops to the big 0 it's to late at that point.

I had a 52 Chevy with the lights this was my daily driver in high school. (it burnt out some time wile I was driving) oil pump went out. I did not know the light was out until I heard the snap of the rod . Needless to say no more lights for me

Thats why I decided to remove the lights and install the gages, (though I do not push one brand over the other (I have auto meter gages in my truck) the equus just fit the need) the equus 1.5's look almost stock, if they came with a chrome bezel instead of the brushed they would look stock.

I have a picture on my home page.

[GTE427]

I wouldn't underestimate the benefit of an indicating light. A light is probably your best warning of a catastrophic failure such as a oil pump failure, broken drive or sudden loss of pressure. An oil pressure gauge will forewarn the driver of changing conditions in the engine in addition to loss of all pressure. But as drivers, we cannot watch the gauge continuously, at best, we can only glance at the gauges from time to time while on the highway. For myself, a bright red light is more easily noticed than a needle dropping on a gauge when my eyes are on traffic. Not long ago in a Bronco, a glance at the OEM gauge, at 70mph in three lanes of rush hour traffic revealed a gauge showing no pressure, among multiple thoughts was 'when did I lose pressure?'. I believe a light would have been noticed much sooner. No harm as the sender had gone bad.

The best protection for our cars is to have both when possible.

The light circuit is easy to monitor before starting the car, turn the key to the run position, the oil light should illuminate red, if so, the circuit is working. If there is no light, the oil light circuit has a failure.

Of course if I had to chose one over the other, the gauge would be my preference.

[6TB1RD]

One nice thing I did forget to mention, is that with the gage I got the sender has a connector for the original light if you want to hook it up.

[byersmtrco]

Someone on the site put them above the radio. Looked good. It had a real 69 Mach 1 look to it.
My idea is to make a gauge holder out of a factory AC vent. Obviously, if you have AC that won't work.
The only other spot (other than hanging them under the dash---yuk) is in the stainless trim underneith. But not in easy view there.

[6TB1RD]

TChicken

John

It was TChicken that did the AC vent gage swap, and I do admit it really does look sharp.