My red needle mod - no, not a camaro red needle swap
04-30-2012, 10:38 AM
#1
Teching In
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My red needle mod - no, not a camaro red needle swap Hey Guys. I'm new here, but not the least bit new to cars or modding. The latest add to the toy car fleet is a 98 Trans Am convertible with only 65K miles on it.
Of course it has the orange needles like every stocker has. And since my car is all black with red accents, I wanted red needles. I didn't want to do the Camaro red needle swap though, I wanted something a little different. My winter beater is a 05 Grand Prix, and I like the shape of those needles, so I bought two junked clusters and did this conversion for the TA. A GP cluster has a short tach needle, so toss those, and you'll need 2 speedo needles, and 4 small instrument needles. All needles need a bit of trimming, as the GP ones are slightly longer as you can see in the pics. As you can see in my last pic, when the car was shut off, the needle wouldn't fully drop to 0. This is because the GP needle has a copper counterweight in the stubby end, and after I trimmed the long end, I guess it became a bit tail heavy. Anyways, I carefully drilled into the counterweight to remove a bit of material, and now they drop to 0 like they should. I also included a pic of the backside of the short needles, showing a little plastic stop you will need to cut away on the GP needle to make it fit. Oh, and the GP speedo needle has a longer shaft (no giggling), where it fits into the stepper motor on the cluster, so you will need to cut that shorter, then drill it out with a super tiny drill bit (sorry, I didn't note the size)
Of course it has the orange needles like every stocker has. And since my car is all black with red accents, I wanted red needles. I didn't want to do the Camaro red needle swap though, I wanted something a little different. My winter beater is a 05 Grand Prix, and I like the shape of those needles, so I bought two junked clusters and did this conversion for the TA. A GP cluster has a short tach needle, so toss those, and you'll need 2 speedo needles, and 4 small instrument needles. All needles need a bit of trimming, as the GP ones are slightly longer as you can see in the pics. As you can see in my last pic, when the car was shut off, the needle wouldn't fully drop to 0. This is because the GP needle has a copper counterweight in the stubby end, and after I trimmed the long end, I guess it became a bit tail heavy. Anyways, I carefully drilled into the counterweight to remove a bit of material, and now they drop to 0 like they should. I also included a pic of the backside of the short needles, showing a little plastic stop you will need to cut away on the GP needle to make it fit. Oh, and the GP speedo needle has a longer shaft (no giggling), where it fits into the stepper motor on the cluster, so you will need to cut that shorter, then drill it out with a super tiny drill bit (sorry, I didn't note the size)
04-30-2012, 11:24 AM
#4
Nice DIY mod! I can't tell if my camaro needles are red or orange. I ordered mcnord overlays and am wanting the needles red, and thought about ordering S86 needles but I think mine are red...enough lol
Trending Topics
04-30-2012, 08:28 PM
#14
Teching In
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
` Thanks for the props guys. 
My goal is always to make a mod look like it was factory intended. I think I met that with the needles.
Here's a night time pic for you. (no the speedo needles is not dimmer, just a stupid iphone pic)
My goal is always to make a mod look like it was factory intended. I think I met that with the needles.
Here's a night time pic for you. (no the speedo needles is not dimmer, just a stupid iphone pic)
