I've always thought an oil pressure gauge would be a good idea for the old Magna. Question was where to put it? I could get a "cup" or pillar mount it (and hope the fuzz didnt pin me for it). But I wanted something that looked "factory".

Recently I'd done a tippy conversion and was left with the center display from a series one TJ...

So, I picked up a digital oil pressure gauge from Supercheap ($80, could get it cheaper I know). I went for digital because the idea was to replace the center display digital read out.

I'm no electronic wizard so I didn't want to solder or figure out where the magic smoke was. I wanted a direct fit.

So I gutted the gauge for its internals, then hollowed out the center display. Bear in mind though I needed the center display to retain the oil pressure and alternator lights.

Turns out that's an easy fix. In fact the whole job was pretty easy. I'll strip it all down again, measure and maybe do some drawings so it can be replicated by others if they wanted to.

Link to imgur gallery showing how I did this;
http://imgur.com/a/V6FNe#0

I used x-ray film to "black out" the display as it was pretty bright. I'm yet to install this but I'm confident it will be just right once its in the dash.

If my work looks a little rough just remember I did this one handed, with hand tools... while watching my baby daughter.... in the Queensland heat.:P

That's rather impressive! You may be starting a whole new breed of mods here, love to see pics when it is up and running!

Great effort, thats a cool mod

Hats off to you mate well done, it definately looks like it belongs there!

I like that idea, I think it would work rather well with one of these: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mini-DC-0-99V-Digital-Voltmeter-Red-LED-Panel-Volt-Meter-10-c-65-c-Three-Wire-/270848781487?pt=AU_B_I_Electrical_Test_Equipment&hash=item3f0fd86caf#ht_4478wt_1139

would work rather well with one of these:

I'd say there's still room for one of those. Easily in fact. I'm guessing you could use that to display readouts from other sensors? Measures voltage...

I just need one in blue.

I'd say there's still room for one of those. Easily in fact. I'm guessing you could use that to display readouts from other sensors? Measures voltage...

I just need one in blue.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DC-3-2-30V-blue-Digital-Voltage-Panel-Meter-Voltmeter-/250888795138?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6a233402 Blue. I'd use it as a volt meter. Always a handy thing to have.

Lovely work mate! Might have to look into this myself ._.

Hmmm even just a clock would be gr8 for us that have to use our decks for time!

Nice! definitely worth the mod for a car you'd keep. Battery voltage would be handy too!

UPDATE;

http://i.imgur.com/Vdd1N.jpg

I've hardwired the oil pressure gauge into the center display and made an adapter plug.

I also made the fatal mistake of gluing the x-ray film to the display cover (thin black/clear film that has the icons printed on it). It fogged up. Bummer. Not majorly, but enough to make it not perfect. It does look better without the screws visible - looks even more "factory". :P

Fortunately I'm pretty sure I know a guy who can re-print the display cover for me. Which was planned any way as I needed to add the seat-belt icon.



Thanks for the positive feed back. It was an easy mod though really.

Excellent work mate - top quality mod.

UPDATE:

It's been fitted/wired up and works!

Couple of things though; the X-ray film is waaay too dark for it to be visible during the day time. And, I'll be damned if I could find a T-piece adapter (on a Sunday) so I'm running just the gauges oil sender only - no standard sender... which I believe to be fraught with danger.

Getting the gauges sender on was tricky to. Thread was the same (1/8 NPT) but the body of the sender means you cannot get a spanner on it. Wrapped the thread in thread tape, then did it up hand tight, before wrapping it (the body of the sender) in old push bike tube and having at it with some multi-grips. So far no leaks.

Gauge "works", be it bit slow to catch up. Just idling I'm running 45psi and as high as 95 psi on short quick revs.

Ran the wire for the sender under the drivers side guard and through where the junction box lives.

Will update again with a pic' or two.

http://i.imgur.com/l0QsG.jpg

Working!

Its been working for a while now. Just re-hacked the face so I could SEE IT. Stupid x-ray film. Don't use x-ray film.

Having said that, I'm still using x-ray film. But that's after a light night arts and craft Friday night to create what we see here. STILL needs work. You wouldn't know to look at it, but I know it could be done better. Still needs a seatbelt warning icon.