Swapping OEM for VDO gauges

[VanillaThunder]

I'm thinking of upgrading the entire dash on my Spider, looking at Mark's one piece dash, and would like to swap out the original gauges for some new VDO gauges. For those who have done this, what are things I need to look for? I understand these won't be "plug and play", so what should I expect? I've read through the forum and have seen mention of senders, but I'm not sure what this all means. Also, one of the new gauges will be a volt meter, does this just run off of any switched 12v line? Thanks in advance for the help... This is one area I know nothing about.

[t24todd]

Just got done converting most of mine. I took out the clock and put in a voltmeter, coolant temp under, retained my speedometer and tach, oil pressure in the middle, need to get a gas gauge as my new sender still doesn't make the needle move. All were straight forward, standard 2in gauges slip right in. Don't trust readings on 40+ Italian gauges as most of mine were quite off compared to the new. Pm me any questions.

[vandor]

You will have to make adapter for both the oil and the temp senders, as VDO senders are different thread size from Fiat.

[vdesigner99]

Hello has anybody actually made a conversion from the VDO to fiat fittings. I think the VDO's are ASE and of course fiats are metric.
I haven't been able to locate an adapter. I would love this info as Id like to add a mechanical oil pressure guage as a test to the electric one.
Thanks!

Victor

[t24todd]

Retain the senders, 9 x out of 10 it's the gauge that isn't reading properly. I retained coolant sender, and used a autometer adapter fitting laying around from an old project for my oil pressure sender. It's m14x1.5 to 1/8npt like most senders accept. Now my gauges are nice and bright/ weigh less, and accurate.