240sx HUD in a roadster... silly idea?

[Tomakze]

I have a '68 Datsun roadster 1600 that is going to get a motor swap one of these days (KA24E) and I happened to find a 240sx in the junkyard today with the digital dash and HUD. I removed it and bought it with the intention of selling it on ebay to make some extra dough, when the gears started turning in my head... how freaking cool would it be to have HUD in my roadster??? I bought the cluster, HUD, and harness for a total of $16. My question is, does anyone know if it is possible to wire the harness in and have it work, or does the cluster need some kind of external computer for it to work? I would obviously be doing this once the new motor is in, and I would be building a custom dash. I had planned on doing that anyhow. This would be much cheaper and much cooler than the Autometer gauges I had planned on using! the cluster has a digital speedometer, tachometer, water temp, fuel gauge, and idiot lights. To buy all those separately and then install them would be a massive pain!

 

The gauges, HUD unit and harness

 

 

 

I have no idea why this car was in the yard! literally the only damage on the car is what you see in the picture! The motor was intact, and the car was all stock (other than a checker auto parts muffler with a carbon fiber sticker on it!) I wish the junk yard would let me buy the car, it would make a great drift machine! Shame to see it go. :( It is a 5 speed too!!!

[nismo dr]

the huds are very failure prone and very expensive to repair, did you get the windshield too, the deal to make it is work is built into the windshield - thats why windshields for hud 240s are $900, dont think its removable but never tried. The roadster windshield has a way diff angle too

[nismo dr]

imo i think autometer setup would look a thousand times better anyway

[Icehouse]

Dude I have that exact 240! Paint and everything. Wish it was closer so I could get the rear bumper, mine has been cut. yeah the chances of the HUD working is slim. My car is the only one I have seen that actually works which is funny because it has 230k on it haha. I like the HUD I wish I could get a boost gauge and other gauges that did the same thing. It shouldn't be that bad to hook up. I think it just needs the speed signal that's it. O and mine doesn't have the right windshield but it still shows up fine.

[INDY510]

I wanted to do a similar swap with my KA24DE

 

 

but it sounds like no gauges will be easier....... :lol: .......... why is it so complicated just to hook up a tach,, temp.... and speedo...... or is the HUD different from those?

[nismo dr]

O and mine doesn't have the right windshield but it still shows up fine.

 

Thats good to know! I get asked that all the time and couldn't say either way

[Laecaon]

why is it so complicated just to hook up a tach,, temp.... and speedo...... or is the HUD different from those?

 

 

The hud projects the information onto the windshield so you dont have to look down. Mid '90s Pontiac Grand Prix's had them too.

[Bleach]

The 1st gen Altima 93-97 GLE has the HUD as well, in case others look for something like it. Still a KA24 car.

[Tomakze]

the huds are very failure prone and very expensive to repair, did you get the windshield too, the deal to make it is work is built into the windshield - thats why windshields for hud 240s are $900, dont think its removable but never tried. The roadster windshield has a way diff angle too

 

I searched "HUD" at 240sx.org and found a thread with instructions to repair the HUD should it be broken. Apparently there is a capacitor on the circuit board of the HUD that goes out, but can be replaced. As for the angle of the windshield, I had thought of that. Because installing this requires building a custom dash for the car, I can tilt the HUD at whatever angle I need for it to work. The only problem I foresee is the distance from the window being different. The Roadster dash is quite shallow, and there is not much room to fit a HUD. I may still be able to change this, but I need to know how far the HUD is from the window on the 240sx... I forgot to measure it while in the yard. Worst case scenario, I can still use the gauge cluster though! I still want to know if I can simply wire it up to lights and the speedo, or if there is something I am missing. I need to know so I can retrieve it before that poor car is crushed!

 

Edit: I looked up what is needed for the HUD to project properly on the windshield, and apparently you can buy the film that is necessary, or 35% reflective tint works well too. So no biggy on that part!

[FoxyRoadster]

could try using a piece of light silver tint where you put the hud to help it be visible, wouldnt be very noticeable.

 

 

If you haven't yanked your dash out yet you'd be surprised at all the wasted space that foam dash takes up I'm going to just build my own wooden dash as it would save me some space allow for what gauges I want. Not to mention it will look classy.

[jputz]

hehehe my hud still works!!!! although it takes about 10min to warm up in the winter. Makes driving to work in the mornings and adventure to say the least. I toyed with the idea of tarnsfering the whole dash into my 510 but I dont know havent decided either way yet. Maybe if no one buys the whole car then I will give it a shot.

[Icehouse]

We tried the capacitor fix on my buddies S13, didn't work... That hole setup is super complicated. SO many circuits! I can't believe they went to such great lengths to project the speed onto the windshield! I don't think it would be that hard to make it work in a datto but the speed is really the last gauge I would want on the windshield. Boost or a tach would be cooler.

[Tomakze]

The car will be a driver, the most racing it will see is the occasional club event, so I actually prefer the MPH on the HUD. If it was getting a turbo or something, I would be inclined to agree with you though!

 

I decided to play with photoshop a little just to see how the cluster would look in the car, and to get ideas for how to make the dash look right with it in it, and I came up with this...

 

 

I think it would look pretty good! I admit, I got a little carried away with the image, and laid out my plans for the rest of the interior (very rough idea, anyway) just to see how I might do it. I haven't used photoshop in 4-5 years though, so if it looks shitty, just know that I am a bit rusty! I never was very good with the program in the first place...

 

To give you an idea of how the image started out, here is the picture I used...

 

 

It is a picture I took immediately after getting the car, so the interior looks much better now! I just used it because it had the perspective I needed. So, tell me what you think! It looks a little more at home in there than I expected, to be honest.

[]2eDeYe]

Nice chop :cool: