Click any of the pictures for a larger version.
|
The finished product. The label is the wrong direction but you'll see why.
I don't have pictures of the actual wiring, but that's easy enough to figure out.
Tools used: Dremel, small cutting wheel, "grinder cylinder", two drill bits, sharp
point to mark where you want the holes, and a vise. It stays in place even without
being glued in, at least the method I used. I used the permanent wire kit from Passport,
I assume that the hardware with the standard lighter socket kit is the same, but that more splicing
would be required. |
|
First take out one of the blanks, and cut it off as far down as you can with a cutting wheel.
Be careful not to hack off the posts that hold the blank into the dash. |
|
What you're left with is a mess, but we'll get back to that. |
|
Half of the Passport permanent mount plate. Notice that the "gauge face" is just a sticker. |
|
Here's what the PCB looks like. Notice the bulbs are 1/4" inch below the mute button. |
|
The most enoyable part of the proces. First, I sanded the back of the Subaru plate so it was reasonably smooth
using a cylindrical Dremel sander bit. Then I lined up the Passport PCB as best I could inside the back of the plate,
and managed to get the holes spaced correctly. The mute button hole needs to be very accurate, but err on the slightly
larger side (but still be careful) for the alert & power LED holes. The holes can be larger since the
Passport guage face blacks out anything beyond the LEDs. |
|
The Passport plate beside our custom plate. For a template, I removed the sticker and used the contours of
the Passport plate. |
|
To get the entire PCB to fit, I used the Dremel cutting wheel to make a slit in the larger Subaru plate post. |
|
The bottom of the PCB. Notice towards the top of the picture that the PCB slides into the slit.
On the smaller post (bottom of the picture) the PCB butts up against the post. It's a little loose in this
form, but once you put the Subaru plate back into the dash, the PCB is held into place. No glue has been
used. |
|
Everything but the gauge face installed in the dash. Make sure that the mute button operates freely. |
If I find another blank plate, I might attempt to flip the PCB the other direction so the labels look right, though that may require more substantial
cutting of the Subaru plate that I wanted to do, and will almost certainly require glueing the PCB in place.