Z28 Gauges in Roadmaster Wagon

Discussion in 'General Station Wagon Discussions' started by 81X11, Dec 14, 2011.

  1. 81X11

    81X11 Well-Known Member

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    You all know I love my LT1-powered Roady Woody wagon, but one thing that has always bothered me was the lack of gauges. The car only has a speedometer, fuel and temp gauges. All the rest are idiot lights.
    [​IMG]

    Well found a guy in New York, Gary Mier, that modifies LT1 Z28 gauge clusters for mid 90's Impala SS's. The cluster includes a 150mph speedo, a tach, the oil and bat gauges, in addition to gas and temp. He let me know that he's done a few Z28 clusters for Roadmasters, see the below pic "love that steering wheel too!":
    [​IMG]

    I'm sold. A fellow member on the Longroof forum was selling one of Gary's clusters and I bought it. It's all plug-n-play on the wiring side, with the exception of changing the oil sending unit on the engine, which he supplies. I will have to take a Dremel to the dash behind the cluster but he supplies instructions and a template. Says the entire mod should take no more than two hours. Very cool!

    The one thing I did not like was that the Z28 cluster does not have the PRNDL for the column shifter. It's not like I can't figure out what gear I'm in, but my goal is for the car to look as stock as possible....like something GM could have made. Some folks have added a floor shifter, but I often have kiddos in the middle up front, so have no plans to add a floor shifter.

    I reached out to Gary about this, and see below. He did a mock-up adding a Roadmaster PRNDL to the Z28 cluster. My cluster will have this. I had my cluster sent to Gary and he doing the mod now. Pretty cool!
    [​IMG]

    He also can add a woodgrain background to match the dash, as seen in the mockup above. I passed on that, want the gauge surround to be solid black.

    The only other issue is the backlight coloring. The dash on Roadmasters lights up blue-green and night, and the Camaro dash lights up yellow. There is no easy solution there, but he said some folks install blue dash bulbs in the cluster, and that tends to "green up" the yellow. See pics below with blue bulbs installed. We'll see!
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    I'll add to this post once the cluster gets here. He's supposed to mail it out tomorrow or Friday. Pretty neat!

    -Mike
     
    101Volts likes this.
  2. snooterbuckets

    snooterbuckets Well-Known Member

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    What a great addition. Sounds like this guy Gary knows what he's doing.
    Good luck on the install.
     
  3. straycat12

    straycat12 Well-Known Member

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    :dance: COOL additionS and updates keep us posted on how they work out.
    I thought about changeing my cluster in the 86 buick Lesaber with one out of a regal but still just in the :idea: stage .
     
  4. 81X11

    81X11 Well-Known Member

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    Just an FYI, the optional gauges used in the 1980-85 Buick Skylark can be made to work in a LeSabre-Electra. I have that '79 Electra Limited and on the Buick forums a few years back a guy had put Skylark gauges in his '78 LeSabre Turbo. Would love to add those to my Limited. Looks factory!

    The Skylark had small gauges in the space where just the fuel gauge is on our full-size cars. I'm not finding a full-size pic, but if you squint you can see the gauges in the pics below. These were optional in all Skylarks. In '80 they had silver backgrounds, but from '81 on they were black.

    See here:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  5. 200OZ

    200OZ Well-Known Member

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    Come on Mike put a floor shifter in it.... It's a great set up and it would go nicely with the
    Z28 cluster. 2 kids and a wagon= 6 other seats for them to chose from. Do it!

    Mike
     
  6. straycat12

    straycat12 Well-Known Member

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    I dont know about the rest of you guys but I like miss kittey sitin real close to me :evilsmile: I can shift just as fast with the shifter on the collum .:character0182:
     
  7. CapriceEstate

    CapriceEstate Yacht Captain

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    I have the same woes. Both my wagons are so lacking in gauges. I don't get it.
     
  8. 68GS400

    68GS400 New Member

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    I bought a set of Summit oil, temp, volt gauges and am trying to install on '89 LeSabre wagon. Challenge is finding the port for temp sending unit on Olds Y block. Haven't found a spare opening yet on block/ head. I like the Skylark gauge pack idea and have looked at Dakota Digital electronic gauges as future solution
     
  9. silverfox

    silverfox New Member

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    Yeah...the PRNDL was always the missing link in that set up...glad to see that someone addressed it and solved it, finally.(y)
     
  10. 81X11

    81X11 Well-Known Member

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    There is an easy solution for your Caprice. I installed the factory optional gauge package on my '86 Caprice Sedan. You just need to grab one from the salvage yard, and also bring your wire cutters and cut off the cluster plug too.

    On your existing car, you use the cut off plug as a model and move the pins/wires around on your existing plug until they match. You will also have to replace the oil sending unit, get one for a gauge, not a light.

    It's an afternoon install. I LOVED mine. See before and after pics below!

    Before- As purchased:
    [​IMG]

    After - Installed full gauges, Celebrity Eurosport steering wheel, and wood trim around radio and climate control from a Caprice Brougham
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  11. 81X11

    81X11 Well-Known Member

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    We'll see how it looks/works shortly!
     
  12. Krash Kadillak

    Krash Kadillak Well-Known Member

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    Would that also work in your Caprice, Mike?
     
  13. silverfox

    silverfox New Member

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    No, nor would I want it in the cappy. There ARE mods that can be done like the ones shown here but I am not infatuated with them for my car. I like a luxury car that is a sleeper. I prefer to keep my digital dash with the analog gauges just as it is. The only thing that I lack is the tach which is nice to have but unnecessary with the OBDII set up and auto tranny. If I really NEED a tach I can get one to play through the radio with codes...but...again, it is unnecessary, IMO, when you set the shift points through the PCM anyway. I have always liked a digital speedo.
    Here's a Z28 swap into a Cappy..... (note: no PRNDL)

    [​IMG][​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2011
  14. 81X11

    81X11 Well-Known Member

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    Here's a Caprice with the Z28 cluster and the stick-on PRNDL on the column. They sell those on Ebay. It looks ok, but I'd rather have it in the cluster itself. Glad there is room in Roadmaster for the PRNDL to be added.

    [​IMG]

    Such fun!

    -Mike
     
  15. CapriceEstate

    CapriceEstate Yacht Captain

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    I thought about doing the higher-end Caprice cluster in mine, but it still leaves me minus a tach. My Silverado's the only vehicle I've ever owned that had one. I like to know at what RPM's my vehicle is shifting.
     

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