f**k me it's COOOOOOLD outside
ok, a few cuts, a few tears and 2 10a fuses later

...
i now have 2 working gauges... woohoo...
volts and oil pressure both successfully wired in (and they now don't turn off when i turn the lights on

)
still got water temp to doo... need a deep reach 13mm socket to swap the sender over tho...
also i better hope my gauge mounting thingie turns up sharpish, coz the big bit of card thats holding them in at the moment looks shitter than a shit thing that's shit