<VV> Paradise by the Dashboard Lights

[Sethracer at aol.com]

I  am testing the waters for a new product. I modified a Corsa dash for my  
competition car (65 coupe) last year. Aside from the slight tweak to fit it 
into  the dash after the installation of the roll cage, I had to pick and choose 
which  instruments to keep and which to replace. Since I was keeping the car 
registered  as a street car in California, I had to keep a  
Speedometer/Odometer in place, but otherwise, within the budget and  need-to-know, the 
instruments were mine to choose. Since the engine had a  functioning Cylinder head temp 
sender, and the gas tank had a functioning  sender, those two were easy 
choices. The Vacuum gauge was useless and the clock  – less than useless. But I 
hooked up the fuel and cylinder head temp gauges,  Mounted a huge warning light 
(15 PSI oil pressure switch) in place of the  original Tachometer and mounted an 
external Tach where it was easier to  see.  I mounted  large – 2 5/8” - Oil 
temp and Oil  Pressure gauges on the roll cage cross bar and went racing.  
Although I have spent some time getting  the car to run a bit better – and 
quieter, I haven’t reworked the gauges and  displays at all since the installation. 
Some of the recent talk on Virtual  Vairs, V8Vairs and FastVair, discussed 
replacement of the original Corsa gauges,  especially for the V8 guys, who have 
little need for the Vacuum gauge or  Cylinder Head temp gauge, but probably 
need that fuel gauge a bit more  <grin>. After some of the talking, a wire 
customer of mine recently  offered to supply setsof nicely finished aluminum adapter 
plates to use to add  standard type of gages to the Corsa dash. No cutting of 
the original hardware,  and the dash can always be returned to stock if you 
desire. Last night, I took  one of my Corsa dashes apart and replaced the gages 
with the adapters and a few  aftermarket gages. The adapters provide a place 
for an aftermarket industry  standard 2-1/16 inch gauge in all four center 
positions, and industry standard 3  3/8 inch gage in the Speedometer and 
Tachometer positions. Many of the  aftermarket racing gauges have flat faces which 
might result in reflections, but  Autometer, among others, has several product 
lines that have conical faces,  similar to the original Corvair gage. These are 
designed for the refined Street  Rod Market. There are several speedometers 
which will fit the 3 3/8” bracket and  Tachometers to fit the matching right 
side. But a great solution is a  four-in-one  3 3/8” gauge  which places a Temp 
(intended as water,  but would work fine for oil) a Fuel gauge – works with the 
stock Corvair sender,  an Oil Pressure and a Volt display all in the one 3 3/8
” round gauge. This is  similar to other GM cars circa 1967. On the opposite 
side, a matching  Speedometer has a small Tach showing in the bottom quadrant. 
And you still get  to choose four more small gauges! – An engineers dream! 
Probably not too cheap  though. But for us regular folks, these brackets allow 
our choice of 4 standard  gauges in the middle, a visible tach on the right, 
the stock or replacement  speedometer on the left, with no cutting or gluing, 
and returnable to  stock.  The adapters will likely be  sold as a set, each set 
will include four separate adapters. Two large ones, one  for the tach and one 
for the speedo and two smaller “doubles” one for the upper  pair and one for 
the lower pair. The upper mount includes appropriate locating  for the turn 
indicator bulbs. My estimate on the pricing is about $42 for the  set of four, 
with about $5 of shipping extra.  If you want to see what they look like,  
drop me back a note and I will send you a couple of digital photos. These are 
still a  ways from market.  


Seth Emerson

C's the Day! - Corvair, Camaro,  Corvette



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