When I bought my 1992 Galant VR4, it came with one of the first sensible mods already installed – a proper boost gauge. Unfortunately, the gauge wasn’t so much installed as velcro-taped to the side of the instrument cluster. When the tape began to fail, I removed it. Big mistake… or was it?
Now, I’ll begin by saying I don’t really care about the gauge. I seldom check it, and the light isn’t even hooked up, so it’s all but invisible at night. I’ve set the boost at 12psi, it gets up there when I need it, but otherwise, it’s a nice thing to have. Thing is, without anything holding it in place, every time I’d make a right turn, it would roll over toward the door. Fine. Whatever.
Of course, if I wasn’t paying attention, I’d open the door, the gauge would drop between the door and dash, and the closing door would bounce back into me as it squeezed the gauge. Believe me, you only need to experience this once or twice before you decide this needs dealt with immediately.
I do not want to install a pillar or gauge pod in the car. In fact, if I weren’t so lazy about removing the vacuum line and t-fittings, I’d just remove the gauge altogether, but it’s there, so what the hell. I needed to find a way to secure it. Enter spare speaker grille, two zip ties, and a rubber cap.
I set another gauge on a spare speaker grille I had from the other car and ran some larger zip ties through the mesh from below, over the top, and back down through the mesh. I don’t mind seeing zip ties, but I wanted to keep the locking mechanisms out of sight.
I used a razor blade to roughly trim a rubber cap I had left over from a swimming pool filter package to fit underneath the gauge. This would have a bit more grip between the fabric on the grille and the plastic gauge body, but also angle the gauge upward a bit for better visibility.
This is the final result. The unconnected wires for the light are simply tucked into the defrost vent, while the vac line remains routed as it’s been since I bought the car. You can see the residue from the velcro tape, which melted in the heat, dried, melted, dried, and just about ruined the dash. I’ll be trying to clean it up once and for all in the not too distant future.
This was a free mod, as I already had everything I needed. It took about 15 minutes to trim the grommet to my liking. Piece of cake.
(Speaker still works, too.)
Here’s another shot from the side.
And here’s a shot from eye level in the driver’s seat.
I’d also like to mention, since the car is filthy in the pictures above, I spent a few hours cleaning the inside of the car this weekend. Looks a lot better. Just need to treat the leather seats and it will be all done.
