Classic Ford Equipment Upgrades - Keeping Tabs

We've decided to go with an Auto Meter Sport Comp 331/48-inch diameter tachometer (PN 3991). The owner already has other Sport Comp gauges in the car, so this tachometer will match exactly. The tach can be found at Summit for $87.88.

This subject car is a '65 Mustang coupe equipped with a Paxton supercharger, so an Auto Meter boost gauge (PN 3301) was chosen for the secondary two-inch opening alongside the tach. The boost gauge costs $42.88.

The pod needs little preparation beyond completing the two gauge openings. Here we carefully put a final shape to the holes with a coarse convex file.

After careful test fittings, the two instruments were successfully installed into the pod or housing. The furnished hardware retains the gauges in the housing.

The electrical connections for the tach and boost gauge were completed underhood and the wires brought through the firewall. A small opening in the dashpad was necessary for routing the wires into the pod. Everything will be hidden when complete.

After completing the electrical connections, the pod was given a snug fit and the fasteners were installed.

Those of you looking for alternatives to a factory speedometer are also in luck. There are many offered, and one of the best is this Auto Meter Pro Comp Ultra Light Speedometer. It features an odometer, trip odometer, and a 0-160-indicated speed range. It retails at Summit for $99.

Here's the completed Shelby-gauge pod installation. It looks slick and authentic, the gauges work perfectly, and the pod is a good texture match with a stock black dashpad.

Here, a complete array of Auto Meter gauges is shown in a '65 Mustang. They are set in a six-holed bezel from JME Enterprises. Now you can have your speedo and tach side by side in an early car. As this photo shows, this completely-new instrument panel looks good. Sometimes we wish the factory had done it this way to begin with. The instrument bezel alone costs $425.95 at JME, and one complete with gauges starts at $899.95.

Haneline offers the engine-turned look with this six-holed bezel filled with Haneline's own white-faced gauges. The panel itself is ABS plastic while the engine-turned insert is stainless steel.

Those with '67-'68 Mustangs haven't been left out. Here's the Haneline engine-turned instrument bezel and gauges for those cars. This panel is also valued at $180.

This '69 Mustang instrument panel shows the standard instrument configuration. Once again, the factory tachometer is conspicuously absent.

Haneline also offers a compete line of gauges. This new Elite Speedometer has a digital odometer. A complete set of six Haneline Elite gauges with chrome bezels and white faces costs $399 with an additional $16 for gold bezels.

Here, a '69-'70-style cluster has been fitted with a complete set of Haneline gauges. It's a good-looking solution for cleaning up your instrument show as well as getting a tach into your car.

A factory tach has to be special-ordered on '69-'70 Mustangs. For this impressive instrument panel, we started with a replacement factory tach cluster from Perogie. There's no guarantee that this instrument cluster will be in stock, but Perogie is famous for finding or stocking hard to find parts. These instruments were completely restored and installed by Redline Gauge Works. This restored instrument panel makes our Mustang the exact equivalent of a factory-tachometer car in both appearance and function. It's the way to go for the OE look.