Heres a quick rundown on my a pillar pod mod that cost less than $100. I purchased the VDO cockpit royale gauges (oil temp & voltmeter) and a 14mm VDO oil temp sender that replaces the oil drain plug. Also 2 viewmax gauge cups that come with 5 adapters and can swivel. www.egauges.com

First
Eye ball where you want the gauges to go, bear in mind the a-pillar panel has plastic flanges (below pic) that are located near the top and bottom so you will want to position the cups accordingly to avoid them. When positioning the bottom cup, place the gauge far enough up so your hand wont smack into it when driving. Just pencil a circle around the pod mount as close to the center of the panel. There is a center spine in the back of the panel that will help to get it 100% aligned later.
gaugeplace-1.jpg?t=1263755824 bottom one


gaugeplc2.jpg?t=1263756063
top one

second.
Remove the panel. The 2 plastic flanges (top & bottom) that fit into metal clips and, 1, or 2 (I might of lost one ), that snap onto the panel which are midway up and are a PITA to get to snap back on later! just a good pry down and out with an old fly swatter handle does the trick.




exposedaplr-1-1.jpg?t=1263756287 heres whats underneath

Now line up your pencil mark on the outside of the panel with the center spine on the inside. Drill your holes to bolt the cups on. I had to buy two, 3/4" x 10? bolts because the ones that came with the cups were to short. NOTE: after the cup is mounted in, drill a small hole aprox 1" behind the rear of the cup for the wires to go through. You might want to use small gromets to neaten it up. I used the shortest ball mount in the kit to get the cups as flush to the panel as possible.

onedone.jpg?t=1263760500

Wrap the exposed wires that run from back of cup to gromett in heat shrink tubing to give it a clean look.

How I wired it: I tapped a sheet metal screw into the metal a pillar and ran about 10" of wire for my grounds. It only connects at the screw and the other end just gets taped or capped. I ran a power wire up (from fuse piggy back, see below) and a spliced ground wire (from 10" lead) up through the gromet hole into the back of the cup to the gauge. Instead of running 2 additional wires, from gromet to cup, I simple spliced the light off the power/ground wires already installed. (Below pic)

one hot wire is all you need to run up to the bottom of the a-pillar. The Voltmeter simply taps (Solderless connector) onto this hot wire. It also will be the power source (& light) to the oil temp gauge.

fusebox.jpg?t=1263762633

gaugewire.jpg?t=1263757042 keep enough wire in the cups so you can pull the gauge out later if you want to get to the back of it

I replaced the clear light bulbs with green ones, 168 0r 194 will work, to replicate the dash lights. I took that one step further and painted black BBQ paint on the tip of the green bulbs to give it an eerie glow. I used male/female connectors at the base of the a pillar so the whole pillar can be removed eaisier.


The oil temp sending wire runs down the pillar to the firewall where there is an existing plug, below brake resovoir. just cut a small hole in it and run your wire thru it to the drain plug...very easy to get at
VDO part # for sender. Yorkie sold seperatly


Now all wires are in place. To better run the wires down the panel, i cut 2 small angled cuts in each fin on the back of the panel to create a recess for the wires. 2 cuts and fold the plastic over and it also makes a handy place to secure a zip tie too. NOTE: This pic doesnt show the holes for the grommets

backpillar-2.jpg?t=1263761879

Puting it back in. The middle clip is cruical to keeping the panel in place. It took several tries but you will know when its correct because the panel wont pull away at all. HINT. before you remove the panel, put a piece of masking tape where the top of the panel sat before you pulled it out. This you know the panel is back in it's right spot.

The forum limits the number of images I can post in one thread so see below for more pics.

hope this can help you folks out. The pics dont do this mod justice...for under 100 bucks Ive got a dual a pillar pod holder that can be adjusted!

Curtis