308 gauges: Out with Veglia, In with VDO

Greetings to all. One of the more interesting aspects for me of this board is the "Show and Tell" postings of various folks documenting minor changes that they have made to their cars. I therefore thought it would only be fair for it to now be my turn and for me to similarly share with you all.

One of the features of my 308 which has never suited me from day one of ownership is the look and the overall performance of the various OEM Veglia dash gauges. I am color blind, and these OEM gauges feature blue-green needles with white tips which I find almost impossible to read without staring hard at them, forcing my concentration away from the road ahead.

So, I have just completed a complete swap of the various ancillary Veglia gauges for new VDO's. Before and after pictures follow for your reference.

There are a number of comparison highlights to note:

1) The blue-green OEM speedo and tach needles were replaced with proper red ones which I am told originally came from an older Porsche 911. These gauges are now MUCH easier for me to read, and the new red needles now closely match the color of the pointers on the new VDO ancillary gauges.

2) My OEM speedo had that goofy mandated 85 mph redline, which was replaced with the proper 180 mph face design. I also had the useless extraneous km/hr secondary speedo inner markings eliminated during the swap, which gives a much cleaner speedo face look.

3) I swapped the OEM black fascia gauge surround for a similar silver colored one from an earlier carb series car. I vastly prefer the look of the earlier silver - kind of reminds me of a Daytona.

4) The total degrees of VDO needle swing from one dial extreme value to the other is about 90 degrees, vs. the 60 degrees or so of the Veglia gauges. This makes minor needle changes much easier to spot, which is the whole idea behind having gauges in the first place. The accuracy of the VDO gauges with their matching sending units also seems to be much improved compared to the OEM Veglias. You can now actually see the oil pressure gauge vary with rpm (as one example) which never happened with my old Veglia oil pressure gauge. (And why on earth does the OEM Veglia oil pressure gauge even bother to read all the way up to a filter exploding 170 psi? Total madness.)

5) Since the VDO oil pressure gauge did not come with an internal warning idiot light as did the OEM Veglia, I converted the large but useless "fasten your seat belts" red reminder light directly below this gauge to a low oil pressure warning light. This light is MUCH larger and brighter than the teeny OEM warning light in the Veglia gauge face, and should therefore be much more notable should it ever go on whilst I am hard driving.

6) Similarly, the VDO fuel gauge did not come with its own built-in low fuel warning light, so this desirable function is now served by the orange useless OEM "your heater fan is running" warning lamp located to the upper left of the fuel gauge. And, thru careful gauge selection, I was even able to retain the OEM Ferrari fuel tank sending unit which now works splendidly with the new VDO fuel level gauge.

7) Further improving the look, the VDO gauges have useful and proper real words like "fuel", "oil", "water" etc on their faces instead of those idiotic and mysterious little pictures of funky thermometers and goofy dripping tea pots as featured on the face of the Veglias.

8) The night illumination of the VDO gauges is considerably better than the Veglias, so the gauge swap as a bonus also fixed this well documented original 308 / Veglia gauge weakness. Plus, I completed the matching look by using green tinted lamp covers for all of the lamps within each of the gauges so that the entire dash glows a soft cool green at night, which now nicely matches the green OEM console light underneath the handbrake lever and looks impressive as all get out after dark.

9) I have always thought the basic idea of the OEM Veglia console clock to be debatable. Aside from the questionable need to even have a clock in a sports car in the first place (why do you care what time it is when you are redlined in second gear? Go buy a wrist watch!), the tiny current drain of the running clock during periods of inactivity can't be doing the battery any long term good. Plus, for me, the Blaupunkt radio CD player that I now have features a nice digital clock display anyways, making the OEM Veglia clock all the more redundant. So, I have replaced this clock with a new VDO voltmeter which now allows me to better monitor the condition of the hard-to-get-to-under-the-spare-tire battery and charging system after periods of non-use and storage. Also, while not shown in these pictures, the oil temperature gauge in the console is now of course also a VDO so that all five of the ancillary gauges match one to another.

So ... whaddaya think?

Cheers - DM
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thanks to all for your (mostly!) kind words on this one. I was initially a bit apprehensive about posting these photos to this site, out of concern that any deviation from stock might offend some of the purists who visit this site. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained, eh?

Recall that the main reason for my doing this swap was due to my color-blindness, and I can say that from that perspective the project has been a success.

Some answers to questions posted both here and privately sent to me:

Each VDO gauge requires its own unique matching sending unit (with one exception as noted), and VDO has a whole catalog full of various sending units with differing thread types. The only one which caused me a slight bit of selection problems was the oil pressure sending unit (mounted just below the oil filter) since I could not locate a sending unit with the correct thread pitch so to fit directly into the OEM hole. But, I simply used a sending unit for this one with a standard 1/8"-NPT thread along with a bushing adapter to match the OEM hole threads, so even this minor hiccup was easily sorted. I will say that getting to the water temp sending unit location, mounted on the end of the small manifold in the middle of the V portion of the engine, was a bit of a bugger to reach as it required the complete disassembly and removal of the plenum above.

I was able to retain the OEM fuel level sending unit in the gas tank, however. VDO makes a number of different fuel gauges which vary one from another only in their resistance levels, and so I pulled the OEM sending unit from the tank, measured resistance with the float at both empty and full conditions, and then matched these resistance levels to the matching VDO gauge.

Scott, you DO need to use a new VDO oil temperature sending unit to be compatible with the new VDO oil temp gauge. This one is a simple swap of the OEM unit for the new VDO one, and the sending unit is located at the front of the oil pan beneath the car.

All VDO gauges and sending units can be readily ordered from various hot rod supply houses such as Jeg's and Summit. Figure around $25.00 or so per gauge, and also $25.00 or thereabouts for each sending unit. The VDO gauge outer diameter is an exact match for the O.D. of the Veglia units, so it is a simple matter to swap one for another without the need to enlarge the dash fascia holes or to do anything else permanent. So, if I should ever wish to switch back to the Veglia gauges it will be easy to do.

The tach and speedo are both the original Veglia units. The only tach modifications were the needle swap, while the speedo got a new faceplate along with the new needle. These items were modified by Palo Alto Speedometer.

I debated for quite some time about the oil pressure gauge range. I narrowed my selection down to either 0 to 80 psi, or 0 to 100 psi (with matching sending units, of course) and ultimately decided to try the 0 to 80 psi set-up for now. My reasoning was that this gauge would permit me to spot dangerous low oil pressure circumstances more readily due to the wider needle swing at lower values. While driving with this new gauge / sender, the needle stays mostly in the 70 to 80 psi range, and now that I have lived with it a bit I think that I might experimentally swap the current 0 to 80 set-up for the 0 to 100 psi pair so to avoid the look of the needle being 'pinned' towards the upper stop during normal circumstances.

Yes, as noted in my first posting, the night brightness of this set-up is dramatically better than the OEM Veglia, so the gauge swap fixed this well known 308 problem as an added bonus. And, with the matching subtle green tinted gauge lights, the overall effect is quite nice without being over-the-top.

Surprisingly to me, no one has commented on the swap of the silver gauge fascia from the OEM black. My 308 has a black interior, and I have always felt that the black fascia, combined with the black seating, console, dash, and console, was just too much darkness. It felt like sitting in a coal mine. So, I have swapped the original black steering wheel / gauge fascia / pedal covers / gearshift knob to silver units for all four, which tends to simulate the overall interior look of the earlier 308 carb models. I really like the brightened contrasting look, and everything seems to me to work well and to compliment one another. Here's a final overall picture which shows how it all ties together.

Cheers - DM
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Scott - I pulled out my old invoice paperwork for the oil temperature sending unit:

VDO no. 323-056
300 degree F temperature sender with screw cap terminal
Thread M-16 x 1.50

I paid $25.00 for it.

Enjoy! - DM

 

There's a company here in the States who did this work for me that has done a whole whack of the 85 mph. speedo conversions, which involves recalibrating the speedo innards so that the pointer shows the corrected speed. Check out their website: http://www.paspeedo.com/

 

If you can figure out an easy way to disassemble the tach and speedo so to get to the needles, yet not bugger up their cases, then you are a better man than I!

Has anyone successfully done this operation?

 

Several folks have sent me private e-mails asking me about the OEM Veglia clock that I have removed from my console, which I replaced with a VDO voltmeter. Lots of you folks seem to have broken 308 clocks and are seeking a replacement. Surprisingly, it looks like a number of you all do indeed appear to like to have a clock in your console. (I can't say that I personally see the practical use for a clock there, but to each their own, I suppose.)

At any rate, I wish to keep the old clock that I removed on my shelf so that I can easily swap all of the various Veglia gauges back to OEM in the event that I sell the car one day and the new owner does not share my enthusiasm for my new VDO set-up. However, for those of you who have broken 308 clocks and wish to locate a new working one, in my opinion this should be an easy task for you.

Fiat Spiders came OEM with Veglia clocks in their dashboards for many years, and there are a -lot- of these old Spider clocks available, both new and used. The casing size and configuration of the Fiat Veglia clocks are identical to the 308 Veglia clocks, but their face plate and hand design might vary one from the other, depending upon the year of the Fiat Spider donor and the year of your 308. Working Fiat clocks are regularly available on eBay, so looking there for one is a good first step. Or, go to a Fiat owners website (my favorite one is http://www.mirafiori.com), and once there click onto their Forum site and post a "Wanted" ad seeking a new / used working Spider clock. I am guessing that such a Fiat clock will end up costing you about $10.00 to $15.00 or so. Then, if the style of the faceplate or of the hands of your new Fiat clock does not quite match your old OEM 308 design, send both the working Fiat and your dead 308 clock out to Palo Alto Speedometer and have them do a simple hand / face swap. Another idea would be to buy a new VDO clock since they are also the same diameter as the Veglia clock and similarly do a face / hand swap so to make the new clock look like an old original. Or, as a final thought, I am certain that there are instrument repair places other than P.A.S. that can resurrect these clocks, and we can all hope that some one else will chime in here and post below the address and contact info for a firm or two that they have used in the past which can easily repair your original 308 clock once it is sent to them.

DM