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I have always thought it was strange for any 'turbo' car to not have a boost gauge or indicator of some kind. these are important to let you know if the turbo is functioning correctly. i decided to install an aftermarket 52mm gauge in my car, but the question was where do you put it?
i have seen pictures, where boost gauges have been installed next to the factory stereo, using a special bezel of some kind. however i was not crazy about this location, because i have plans to upgrade the head unit to a new double din touch screen. there will be no room for a gauge at that point.
next thing i found, was a really expensive ($160+) trim piece that you can swap in front of your factory instrument cluster. taking out the old trim and installing this new trim, gives you 1 or 2, 52mm gauge pods. the draw back i saw with this (outside of the price tag) was that the location of the pods seem to cover the information center locations. that just didn't work for me either.
then i saw here on IPD, where they mounted one in the upper left of the dash, at the bottom of the pillar. i thought maybe... but it just didn't seem to fit for me. so here is what i came up with:
my car had the lesser of the 2 factory stereos, so it did not have a center speaker in the dashboard. there was just a spot where a speaker could go. my metal cover was actually broken anyway and was just sitting in the opening on the speaker mount (which has no speaker). so i thought.. this would be the perfect spot for a couple of gauges.
it took some time for me to find a dual pod with the right dimensions to fit in the hole like i wanted. then i cut and trimmed out the speaker bracket that screws to the dash, to allow the pod to mount from the underside. this allowed me to make it lower on one side and kinda keep it level with the eye line. then i removed the metal screen from the plastic cover for the speaker, and cut/trimmed out a hole, so it would slide over the top of the pod. then wrapped the edges around the bracket, and pressed it all snugly back in the dash. the screen cut is a bit rough, but i love how it looks. Let me know what you guys think.
i have seen pictures, where boost gauges have been installed next to the factory stereo, using a special bezel of some kind. however i was not crazy about this location, because i have plans to upgrade the head unit to a new double din touch screen. there will be no room for a gauge at that point.
next thing i found, was a really expensive ($160+) trim piece that you can swap in front of your factory instrument cluster. taking out the old trim and installing this new trim, gives you 1 or 2, 52mm gauge pods. the draw back i saw with this (outside of the price tag) was that the location of the pods seem to cover the information center locations. that just didn't work for me either.
then i saw here on IPD, where they mounted one in the upper left of the dash, at the bottom of the pillar. i thought maybe... but it just didn't seem to fit for me. so here is what i came up with:
my car had the lesser of the 2 factory stereos, so it did not have a center speaker in the dashboard. there was just a spot where a speaker could go. my metal cover was actually broken anyway and was just sitting in the opening on the speaker mount (which has no speaker). so i thought.. this would be the perfect spot for a couple of gauges.
it took some time for me to find a dual pod with the right dimensions to fit in the hole like i wanted. then i cut and trimmed out the speaker bracket that screws to the dash, to allow the pod to mount from the underside. this allowed me to make it lower on one side and kinda keep it level with the eye line. then i removed the metal screen from the plastic cover for the speaker, and cut/trimmed out a hole, so it would slide over the top of the pod. then wrapped the edges around the bracket, and pressed it all snugly back in the dash. the screen cut is a bit rough, but i love how it looks. Let me know what you guys think.
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