Sometimes, the stock gauges in a car just suck. They don’t have a full compliment of useful gauges. The speedometer was woefully unprepared for what you had intentions for, or worse, was one of those lovely 85 MPH units that the federal government mandated in the early 1980s, complete with the highlighted 55 MPH mark to remind you that Big Brother was watching you as you drove. Whatever the case, ditching the gauges for ones that serve a better purpose for what you intend to do is a must. We might show off big engines and flashy paint, but in the end you have to live with the interior of the car and the gauges are your constant interface with the machine…why not make them as good as they can be?

James Bishop’s 1986 American Motors Eagle’s gauge cluster was the definition of bad: fuel gauge, temp gauge, a whole host of idiot lights and an 85 MPH speedometer was all that came with the car. With a fuel-injected 258 under the hood, monitoring what the car was actually doing was a high priority, so Bishop created a custom digital dash using an Intellitronix kit. If electrical work is something you actually look forward to, give this video a view. Working with circuit boards doesn’t have to be as intimidating as most people believe it is, and the results are a far cry from what came from the factory!