The Toyota MR2 Turbo is a great tuners platform, and has aged gracefully. In our project list was interior refresh. One of the simplest things we decided to do, was to update the MR2 gauge cluster. After looking around through the message boards, and the net, we decided to go with carbon fiber, bezel aluminum rings, and some kind of TRD decal.

We found both products on ebay. The rings come from a shop over in the United Kingdom--Their name is THE TUNING-SHOP. The carbon fiber was purchased from ebay seller called EliteMotoring. The great part is that its real carbon fiber.

Since we were combining two projects into one, the rings and carbon fiber backing, we figured we'd probably run into some issues. What we found was that the rings fit perfectly by themselves, and the carbon fiber sits on the stock gauge bezel perfectly. Its when you mix both together, that you get difficulty installing the rings.

After looking at the carbon fiber bezel backing, we decided to trim some of it using a drum on a drill. You could do this with any tool, but the sanding drum works great. In order no to go overboard, we temporarily installed the carbon fiber bezel backing, and from behind the stock plastic bezel, we marked the areas that needed sanding. Once those areas were sanded, we checked each ring. Some rings still put too much pressure against the carbon fiber, so we sanded it until the rings could slide easily and weren't pushing the carbon fiber bezel backing out of the way.

After the rings were dry tested, We glued down the carbon fiber with both the double sided strips, and some silicone in the corners. We clamped each section until the carbon fiber bezel backing was one with the stock bezel. We then began installing the rings using the technique shown by the ring manufacturer. They have a great youtube video, and consists of using a large blunt object such as a big marker or even a lighter. The rings have a lip, that once pressed on by the marker, it will curl over the stock bezel. This will allow each ring to securely grab onto the back of the stock bezel.

Since we are running a TRD GT2000 widebody MR2, we decided to dress the cluster with a TRD decal over the rpm gauge. We went back and fourth with either white or full on two tone red and white. We went with the two tone TRD decal. You can see in the pictures how the decal look. We are looking forward to snapping together the gauge, and installing in the MR2!