Got my 914 gauges! I did a little mod to them...

[super vw]

Here are some pics of the fuel gauge mod, Most of you likely have not seen inside a 914 fuel gauge. so talking about it might be kinda hard for some to understand. (maybe its my explaining aswell.

Anyways, if you look you can see a little metal tab on the inside of the guage, i think this is a light deflector/ heat reflector? well anyways, you have to cut a corner off of it to allow the super beetle gauge to fit.
the other thing you must modify on the 914 gauge is a cover for the back where the stock 914 gauge insert goes. you will have to make a template from the metal one to make a plastic one (or any non conductive material at 1.5mm-2.5mm thick should work well). you will also have to drill holes for all the mounting screws(4 total), along with two larger holes for the beetle fuel gauge insert posts... for this you will have to play around with hole placment to get the gauge to fit inside corectly and not be all lopsided when you look at the guage faces. For this i used a temporary clear plastic backing plate to look down and play around with the position and mark its position once i found the sweet spot
You will also notice on the beetle fuel gauge insert that it has a square shape to its face, you will need to cut the edges at the bottom in order for the beetle fuel gauge face to line up with the window of the 914 gauge,here i used the stock backing plate inorder to get a nice clean radius that matches the inside of the guage. You will cut a little into the markings of the face, but if you cut them clean and take your time it will look clean! You will also have to bend the ends of the beetle fuel gauge face (there 90 deg bends stock, make them a 45deg or so) this will let the face cover more area inside so you dont see the inside of the gauge from the window.( a little will show, but nothing you would notice unless you looked VERY close from an angle).

You will also need to make a new ground conection for all the light, and wire up the stock beetle fuel gauge ground conction aswell (forgot that that little box thingy is called... but the ground concect to it then to one end of the fuel guage posts Via a conector.

Most of all BE CREATIVE! im sure there are better ways of doing this, or other ways. but i did it the best way i know how.

If you have more indepth questions, just ask but dont blame me if you scew up your mod if you guys atempt this

PICS!

[super vw]

Had to use another post

[super vw]

more pics

[hybrid_john]

Not bad man....not bad at all!

you did a pretty good job of explaining the prosess you took...

KUDOS!


John

[67yellowbug]

hi, Great job on the gauges. I have a stock vw speedo and the letters and numbers are getting somewhat faded. How did you paint yours without screwing up? also what kind of paint did you use. How difficult is the job? Thanks for your help

CJ

[super vw]

Originally Posted by 67yellowbug

hi, Great job on the gauges. I have a stock vw speedo and the letters and numbers are getting somewhat faded. How did you paint yours without screwing up? also what kind of paint did you use. How difficult is the job? Thanks for your help

CJ

Thanks!

If the numbers are faded, than im not sure on going about that. The only thing i can think of is to get a new gauge (can be found cheap at swap meets) or a new face.

I did not paint the gauge faces, only the inside (behind the faces) and the rings.
But if you are not going to replace the face and just paint the rings or clean up the insides than what you have to do is get a small flat blade screwdriver, and a medium sized one to.
You have to pry the bezzels from the back till they will slip off the housing... VERY CARFULLY and gently... you MUST take your time and be very cautious not to pry to far, slip, or go to fast. it takes me almost 10-15 minuites to just get one bezzel off. you pry a little at a time as evenly as posible.

For you it sounds that it might be easier to just get a new gauge.

Jonathan