Hi All,
I’d been planning to upgrade the backlighting in my '68 standar dash to LEDs and decided it would be an ideal time with the cluster out to add a mini-tach in place of the clock delete.
Rocketman makes some very nice mini-tachs for Cougars and Mustangs so I had a look at what was on offer at his web site. The Cougar version was fine, but with the core being based on the clock delete face it is heavily recessed into the panel making it more difficult to read while driving. It is also only available as an 8000RPM version and my stock 289 is never going to see anything like those sort of revs, so I started looking at the Mustang options.
For the '68 Mustang he has flat faced mini-tachs in both 6000 and 8000RPM calibrations, with the diameter of the gauges looking to be the same as on the Cougar. So I took a chance and ordered a 6000RPM Mustang unit:
So far so good - the face of the gauge was the same size as the opening in the Cougar dash panel.
Next thing was to find something to use in place of the clock delete lens. After going down a few dead ends, I found that the plastic base of a small disposable wine glass was an exact fit for the bezel of the clock delete:
As a bonus, it also had a reasonable amount of dish to it as well as a raised centre section to fit in with the general theme of the Cougar dash.
Here it is glued into place:
Next order of the day was to construct a small ring out of flexible transparent plastic to protect the tachometer movement while still allowing the backlight to shine through:
OK, ready for re-assembly. Fortunately the top two mounting holes on the flange of the Mustang mini-tach line up perfectly with the Cougar mounting points:
And here’s the finished product, looking like it came that way from the factory:
Hope this helps someone else out there and/or gives you some inspiration for your own project!
