01/26/10 - Cluster/gauges...
Went snowboarding on monday (awesome), so I didn't get any work done, but I DID order a few things:
-Optima red top from summit: I thought about getting a dry cell battery, but figured a 30lb weight over the rear axle was good ballast...
-New front tires: My old tires (245/45/R17) fit into the wheel
wells but rub considerably when turned. The new tires (still
Azenis RT-615) are 235/40/R17. The new tires have an OD of
24.4 (stock is 24). The old tires were 25.6... This
should give me the clearance I need. I thought about getting
215/40s, but with such a front heavy car I need all the meat in the
front I can get... Plus that tire would probably need some
stretch to get on there. I hate tire stretch.
-Carbon fiber door cards. This is something what they will
look like installed (though I don't think I will be able to run the
factory armrests because of my doorbars:
So then Tuesday rolled around. I was itching to get some work done, but didn't really feel like wiring, so I decided to make a holder for my cluster. I made a cardboard template, then cut it from some 18GA 6061. It came out pretty well and is very sturdy...
I finished this at about 11:30pm, but still had some life in me. Travis N came over and gave me a hand making a radio/gauge holding plate. The face is more 18GA 6061, but since the radio sleeve applies a moment to it, we made a steel backing plate that everything mounts into. It's a good thing no one can see this steel backing plate because we had a few issues with running a 60mm holesaw through 12GA HRS. But the finished product came out well. A note on the radio: Since the painless kit is fully wired for a radio, I figured it couldn't hurt to toss it in there. It adds maybe 5 lbs for the whole system. Oh well. The head unit is an alpine that came stock in my exige. I will probably try to source some cheap rear speakers and use the stock lotus rear speakers up front (also alpine). I wound up working on this until 4am!!!
A shot of this cluster:
And a few shots of both of them together:
That's all for now!
