Mechanical versus electrical gauges

I had two small gauges that were custom fit to my Grand National.  One was a water temperature gauge, the other was an oil pressure gauge.  Both were electrical.  For some reason, I do not remember why, Steve (the "ripper off-er") Colletti suggested that he replace those gauges with larger gauges and have them be mechanical instead of electrical.  Myself, I really saw no reason to do this, but he was supposed to be the professional and I assumed he had a good reason for doing this so I agreed with his suggestion.  One of the reasons that he said mechanical was better, was because you did not need electricity to run the gauge.  I could understand his point but it only takes a flip of a switch to use an electrical gauge.

When I see the new gauges installed, they are in a two cluster gauge panel and just sitting where my old gauges were with nothing but gravity and the wires to it, holding it in place, basically.  It was not mounted and not custom fitted like the previous gauge cluster.  I was completely appalled by the lack of concern in the manner it was just sitting there.  I just could not believe this company would do something like that.  Their motto is "we treat you and your car like family."  I would not have put the gauges in this way.  It looked completely amateur.

I did not complain about this though, it was earlier on before the multiple mistakes started piling up. What I decided to do is buy a new 4 cluster gauge panel that was made to be custom mounted in the dash on the passenger side.  Not only did this gauge panel work for the new gauges, it would be in a secure mounted spot.  It also accommodated 2 more gauges to monitor your vehicle.  So I ordered the gauge panel and two more gauges.  Since Steve (the "ripper off-er") Colletti had touted using mechanical gauges instead of electrical, I bought a mechanical fuel pressure gauge along with a turbo gauge.  When he gets the gauges, he said they had a problem installing the mechanical fuel pressure gauge and that I should have bought an electrical fuel pressure gauge instead.

Steve (the "ripper off-er") Colletti did not want fuel coming into the vehicle for the fuel pressure gauge.  The mechanical fuel gauge required some modifications to prevent fuel from going past the firewall.  This was actually a good decision, but he never should have said mechanical gauges were better in the first place.  Electrical gauges are actually far superior.  I have a degree in Engineering Physics, so half of my classes were electrical engineering.  Electrical gauges measure electrons and you essentially get an instant reading and also it is far more accurate than a mechanical gauge.  Mechanical gauges typically rely on the expansion of mercury (for water temperature, anyway).  The mercury has to expand and then this basically creates pressure which gives you a signal.  It takes time for the heat of the water in the motor to expand the mercury and create pressure.  It does not take long, but it takes much longer than readings from electrical gauges.  The only advantage of a mechanical gauge is that you do not need power to run it.

So right now I have mechanical gauges in my car, when I never should have listened to his suggestion in the first place.  Like I said earlier, I thought he was a professional and had good reasons for doing this.  But as his mistakes kept piling up, I realized how unprofessional he was and I never should have listened to him or even brought my car here for that matter.

The first picture is not my GN, but is a picture of a custom gauge panel like the one that I used to have in my car.

The second picture is of the custom made 4 gauge panel designed to go in the passenger side dash that I now have in my car.

The third picture is not my GN, but a picture of what the 4 gauge panel looks like installed.