60Patrol

I have a little extra time today, and since Monday is off to a good start, let’s blow some time on a project

The Amp meter on my Patrol isn’t hooked up since I have a complete new wiring harness with modern fuse box and don’t want a full 50 amps running under the dash. I love ammeters because they indicate your charging state instead of battery voltage, but the downside is the fire hazard. With an ammeter all the charging current runs through the gauge and it’s too big a risk.

So, where to place the volt meter without cutting up the dash or hitting it with my knee? After careful consideration and trying a bunch of locations I settled on removing the ashtray and making a replacement with an integral volt meter. I don’t smoke and that ashtray has always seemed clumsy, so this could be an all-around upgrade.

I’ve got the metal cut out and formed to the curvature of the dash panel. (See photo). I’ll get it painted and mounted and then report back with a final photo.

Today I completed building the bracket (faceplate) for the gauge and am going to use the original ashtray surround as a box for the gauge. I welded some tabs onto the faceplate and can now screw the faceplate onto the ashtray surround. Tomorrow I will complete the wiring and install the new gauge.

Here’s the painted faceplate.

Completed the Voltmeter project this morning.

The idea was to use the ashtray box and original dash mounting tabs. So, as you see in the photo there’s room around the box and faceplate so it can be slide in behind the dash and pushed into place. It’s a tight enough fit that I won’t install the pins into the tabs.

Looks Awesome!

Here are the individual parts in case someone wants to make one.

The two parts on top are the tabs and the holes are drilled so I could easily weld it to the backside of the faceplate. Looking closely you can see a couple of score marks on those pieces and that’s where I later trimmed them to length.