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My Sicily cluster


Henning

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Well, what would we do without ideas? Waiting 'til the day is gone? Nonono.

I've got a lot of ideas. Good ones and new ones. Unfortunately, both of them have a disadvantage: the good ones are not new and the new ones are not good. Mh.

However, here's an old one I'd like to introduce: my custom gauge cluster. I call it the „Sicily cluster”. My parents used to have an 02, then they switched to a 3-series. When we got this car I instantly noticed the fine designed arrangement of the gauges and controls that nestled so perfectly under the steering wheel's upper bow. Not that I dislike the 02-cluster, absolutely not. But it hasn't got this harmonic thru'n'thru symmetry that I really like. I'm a big fan of symmetry.

In all the years, from time to time, I was thinking about how to arrange the gauges and controls in an 02-cluster like it is done in the 3-series. But since there was no necessity I never started any serious essays- until the electric power steering was installed. This SCU provides a control light turning on when the ignition is switched on (goes out when the engine is running) or when there's something wrong with the steering. And since this control pin is offered, the lamp has to be installed, too- but where?

My first thoughts went to something with an LED in the speedo or in the tach. So I took a speedo with poor optics, drilled a hole and held a green LED behind- absolutely awful, it looked like a cheap Volkswagen gauge.. I HATE Volkswagen, so this was no way.

Yah, and then I digged out this old idea and started a serious essay this time. This is the very first vision:

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Quite funny, but not what I wanted. The plan was to have a front plate with each a round hole for temp, tank, tach and speedo, two more for the control lights and one for the daily odo reset pin. But round holes wouldn't fit to the 02's „temp” and „tank”. I didn't want to have holes in the front shaped like a pie-slice. Round holes, please.

This took me to the Bavaria gauges. Round, same year range and at least the temp would probably fit to the 02-sensor. Tank we would see but I was confident that there could be found a way if sensor and gauge wouldn't work well with each other.

So I made some experiments, and here we have the first arrangment that I liked and what I was aiming at:

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Reset in the center, smaller gauges outside down and the controls into the upper corners. Already very similar to the E21-series, but in an 02-cluster. There used to be several 02s with the entire E21- or E30 dashboard but this is a kind of modification that's too heavy for me. Let's stay on the bottom.

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Here it is obvious: the 02-cluster is too small and no base as a gauge housing. I started to get free from it with an own creation:

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Aluminium L-profiles. Easy to cut and to drill and much better concerning exactness and measurements. Here I planned to give the tach the same hole system as the speedo. Later on I learned that this was not such a good idea. Tcha- learning by doing.

This is the way:

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Note that temp and tank are now located closer to the driver- in front of speedo and tach and not behind.. This allows to put them closer to the center and to get the rear carrier more narrow. The 02 cluster's hood is screwed to the aluminium backframe in its four corners.

Control trios:

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Glued together with epoxyde. Electric lines scratched into the platines with wires for temp/tank and reserve control bulb. Here you can see why the controls can't be arranged different, there's not enough space. The housing's rear threads are directly next to the trio capsules.

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And the very first impression of the entire thing:

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with temporary hard paper, pool folio and some transparent I found somewhere. Just to see how it may look like one day. Found some acrylic glass in dad's cellar and cut a front screen:

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Electrics:

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The central plug is taken from the 02 combi platine, but that's not good. The copper lines are too narrow to sold wires in and the'v got an awkward design. Too much holes around. Later I made an own one.

Oh yes, the wire colors are exactly the same as they are in the 02 stock harness. I've got a destroyed harness that gave the correct colors. Only the wires for the e-brake and the EPS have different ones.

Time to check out the new position in the car:

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The speedo and its bolts are now located 50mm to the left, but the height is the same. So I just had to mark the sideward position and brought over the opening for the speedo cable. A job for the air saw:

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Dad's frazer again:

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For those ones of you who want to know how to use a starter gear:

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/165624-new-purpose-of-an-old-starter-gear/?hl=%2Bnew+%2Bpurpose+%2Bfor+%2Bold+%2Bstarter+%2Bgear#entry1038363

The silver holes are sand papered to clean them from scratches and then rubbed with steel wool. I didn't want them to shine like chrome (the steering wheel spokes are shiny enough) because it's overdressed and getting me nervous. They've got slight funnel shape. Covered with self-adhesive velvet folio and in the car:

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The holes are too big and the trio lights need covers to stress the trapezoid shape, but that's how to get experiences. The small red section in the tank gauge is a tiny red light for the fuel reserve.

To be honest: if I had knewn before what a giantic orgy this project would become I perhaps may not have started it. But now everything is working, it's finished except some fine issues and I'm glad to having realized one of my not-new ideas...

Thank you for watching!

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Edited by Henning

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