I took a bunch of pictures and this is the one that I feel best matches what my eye sees (exposure, shadows, etc).

if you want to compare night/day images a little easier…

 

What did your dealer charge to install the two gauges? I miss having a temp gauge.

 

$624.56
(184.00 labor, 458.96 parts, 18.40 10% service discount [should've been off the parts… but I didn't actually have the coupon on me and I didn't notice until it was too late])

yeah, it was a while before I could sit down again.
had to get one of those donut cushions.

 

that doesn't seem bad on labor actually. Can source the parts for somewhat less, but not way off there. I've done many car tweaks involving electrical, but this was somewhat fiddling. Wires to several locations, changing a few individual pins, several layers of trim to come off, drilling the hole for the gauge wires, etc. The connector under the steering wheel (where some pin switching was needed) took several steps of disassembly to get at, and was kind of finnicky. Having done it once, I could now increase my speed a lot, but it still would be at least 2+ hours, regardless of what the instructions say.

 

mine took a little longer, too, because the gauges weren't getting power at first and they had to troubleshoot. turned out to be a faulty something-or-other on the car that was replaced under warranty. I don't think they charged me for that extra time, though.

 

Anyone know of a place down in S Fl that can do this job for less?