Digital Dash Retrofit

[bedhedned]

Hey everyone,

I recently finished retrofitting a digital instrument cluster from a 1987 Opel Kadett into my DeLorean.

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I bought the instrument cluster off ebay from a guy in Lithuania. After bench testing the instrument cluster and verifying it worked, I began the retrofitting process...which took a while. I finally finished, though, and the gauges all work. The speedometer is GPS driven, I'm using this sender unit from Dakota Digital. The odometer is also accurate, it was relatively easy to disassemble it and put the correct mileage on it.

As to why I did this, a couple reasons. One, I always liked the look of old digital instrument clusters from the 80s and 90s. Two, I got tired of the DeLorean speedometer constantly breaking, I must have fixed it at least five times. I replaced the angle drive at least twice, the dust shield at least twice, replaced the speedo cable more than once, etc. So I used that as an excuse to retrofit a different one in. I have some more photos of my build process if anyone's interested.

[Michael]

Now that's classy!

[Mark D]

That's a really clean looking install and looks right at home with the rest of the gauge cluster. Great job on integrating everything so well. Looks like you also had to create a custom clear lens for the trip odometer reset? Seems like something that took a lot of time and patience to get right. Nice work

[Citizen]

All I can say is WOW!

...and, it sort of reminds me of the old C4 Corvette dashes. Always loved them.

Great work!

...

[bedhedned]

Thanks for the kind words. I did indeed create a custom instrument cluster lens, the trip reset switch is in a different location and I didn't want an extraneous hole in my lens. I used this guide here. I'd like to say I got it in the first try, but it took few, lol. I kept having issues with the mounting/trip reset holes not lining up right or the acrylic cracking. I have to say, acrylic drill bits work very well, I had no more issues with drill holes cracking after I got a set.

I the digital cluster to fit by extensively modifying the housing it came in, along with extensively modifying the DeLorean instrument cluster housing, here's a few build pics:

First I cut the front lip off the digital cluster housing:
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I then ground it flat with a stationary belt sander, then used a router table to cut a recess in both edges:
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I cut the back out of the DeLorean instrument cluster case:
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I then glued two strips of aluminum sheet metal to the recesses I cut in the digital cluster case, then painted the whole thing matte black. I had to make a spacer to get the digital cluster to sit right inside the DeLorean case, then drilled holes for bolts and bolted it in from the bottom:
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Here it is with the new lens attached:
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Made a modified printed circuit by cutting the DeLorean printed circuit, putting the printed circuit from the new cluster in the middle and soldering the appropriate contacts together so all the dummy lights worked as well as the turn signals:
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After that, I had to wire everything in, which was a big job. I had to swap all the wires from the old electrical connectors to the new ones as well as put new pins on them. Took a lot of studying the DeLorean wiring schematics and comparing them to the wiring schematics for the Opel Kadett to figure out which ones went where. In addition, I had to wire in a tach converter unit, as the Opel Kadett has a four cylinder engine, which is the type of signal the new cluster was expecting. The converter unit takes the V6 signal from the Delorean engine and converts it to a 4 cylinder signal. I also needed another converter unit for the fuel gauge, along with the GPS sender for the speedometer.

[Timeless]

That looks fantastic and 100% period. Kudos!

[Josh]

Amazing work, looks very well suited to the car.

[orangecrrrush]

Awesome. Love the 2 tone interior

[Tillsy]

That is freaking cool! 👍

[Quinn]

That is most excellent!