DIY Dashboard Panel Part 1 - Panel Design and Item Placements

I am making a custom dashboard cluster panel for The Dog. I'll try my best to document the whole process starting from the design until the cutting and finishing. This would be the first DIY post for this blog. Hopefully it would be useful for you.

This DIY guide will be divided into some parts. Do excuse me since I am too lazy to plan out the parts so i'll just add them when i feel necessary. This would be Part 1: Panel Design and Item Placement Planning.

I've done a mockup for my dashboard panel design. Below is the design. Click on image for better view.
As can be seen above, there are quite a number of items to be put on the panel. I am going to describe each of them together with the function below. There are three types of items on the panel: gauges, switches and lamps. I'll start with the gauges from left to right

Oil Pressure
You shouldn't drive with low oil pressure or you'll be overhauling your engine in a short time. Focus on replacing your oil pump anytime you see low oil pressure.

Oil Temperature
Indicator of how well your cooling system is performing. Low oil volume can also cause higher oil temperature.

Vacuum
Measures the vacuum in the intake manifold. Useful if you want to save gas money. Keep it on high vacuum and you'll get good mileage. There's a good explanation on vacuum reading here.

Tachometer w/ Shift Light
Shows engine revolutions per minute. A shift light is useful for either fuel economy or during those occasional weekend drifts just so you can focus on the steering works.

Air/Fuel Ratio
Also very useful to achieve good mileage. There are two types of AFR meter: narrow band and wide band. Mine's a narrow band. Keep the needle fluctuating between rich and lean to get a good mileage, since that's when you're driving on a stoichiometric gas/air mixture where all gas are burned and none is wasted. There's a good read on AFR here.

Water Temperature
Also an indicator of cooling system performance. Don't drive on overheated engine. Enough said.

Voltmeter
I don't know why i am putting this gauge. This is not very useful other than monitoring your battery charging system, which should fail very rarely. Maybe it's just there to keep it symmetrical, three 2-inch gauges on the left and another three gauges on the right. Honestly, if i can find a fuel level gauge that looks similar to the other gauges, i'll replace the voltmeter with it. The problem is i can't.

Next comes the indicator lamps.
Check Engine Light (CEL)
CEL hooks directly to one of the pins on my 4A-GE ECU. I shouldn't see this turning on when my engine is running if everything is normal.

Low Fuel Warning Lamp
I put it there since i failed to find a fuel level gauge. This is the most difficult item to put since i have to make a small electronic circuit using IC and some other components. I'll design it to turn on if the tank is approximately 75% empty.

Turn Signal
Duh..

Charge Lamp
If my charging system is OK, this should be off when the engine is running

E-Brake
"Hmmm why's the car running awkward? WTF! I forgot to release the e-brake!"

Is there any other indicator lamp i should be putting there? Do remind me if i forgot something. I don't put high-beam light since there isn't much use to it.

Last comes the switches..
Ignition Switch
I should turn this on first before cranking the engine. Pretty much an engine kill switch..

Radiator Fan Bypass Switch
Useful if my radiator fan thermoswitch is faulty or on those stop-n-go traffic jams. Keeps the radiator fan on all the time which is way better compared to an overheated engine.

Fuel Pump Switch
I should also turn this on before starting the engine. It's there for safety reason. Who knows if i am going to be in a very bad accident. This would prevent the fuel from leaking to the engine bay and.. well you know.. KABOOM!

Notice that i decided to put these switches waaay on the right side of the panel? The reason is that I don't want some smart ass sitting on the passenger seat to easily reach and play with these switches while i'm driving.

I also decided not to put a battery cut off switch on the panel as it is too bulky and would take up too much space on the already cramped panel. I also don't put a speedometer (and subsequently, an odometer) since i don't see it very important. What about oil changes, you say? I'll hookup an engine hour meter so i'll replace the oil based on how long the engine has been running, not on how far the car has traveled.

Sorry for the lack of pictures on this post.. I couldn't put pictures of each gauges since i am using a black face type of gauge which is hard to see with the internal lamps off.

The second part of the DIY Dashboard Panel would be how to hook up these items. That would be one very long post so be prepared..