Topic: Gauge Restoration

[CT Bird Fan]

Very nice! I really like the white gage faces on those.

[mrpontiac80]

Kevin, sorry I had to get off the phone the other night in a hurry, I need to visit this site a bit more to check out everyone's progress.

The dash panel and gauges look sweet! I really like the guages at night. So did the panel fit into the dash opening OK with the dash cap on?

The gauge upgrade is something I would really love to do at some point. Keep us updated when you get the speedo and tach installed. We'll need a finished pic you know

[Kevin]

Yeah it fits pretty well except for one thing, the headlight switch hole is too low. I told John Covan and he offered to send me a free new one if I managed to screw up the old one while trying to make it fit. It's a nice piece overall though, pretty pleased with it, really offsets the gauges.

[Rick]

Kevin, sorry I had to get off the phone the other night in a hurry, I need to visit this site a bit more to check out everyone's progress.

You need to get a handsfreee headset -- that way you can visit the poitty without having to get off the phone...

[mrpontiac80]

Kevin, sorry I had to get off the phone the other night in a hurry, I need to visit this site a bit more to check out everyone's progress.

You need to get a handsfreee headset -- that way you can visit the poitty without having to get off the phone...

Thats an area of peace and quiet Rick... unfortuantly that night was dealing with an 8 and 6 year old daughters and a hungry 3 month old Cant remember where momma went, but now that I think about it, I believe its my turn for a night off... Cruise In the Rock is next weekend...  I think I may be free.

[78ta]

Question, how do you ground the headlight switch when you use aftermarket gauges? Since I'm using a new panel and that metal tab is not going to be usable, so what's the plan?

Kevin,
Gauges look great.
I just browsed throught he thread fairly quickly and saw that you asked about how to ground the head light switch but didn't see that anyone answered you. The main dash harness is grounded to the chassis right near the driver side courstey light. You'll see a bunch of black wires come together and one of them gets screwed to the dash metal. All you need to do is run a jumper wire from there up to the light switch.

[Kevin]

But where on the light switch? There was just a metal tab there before that did it. If I recall there was a screw that held the tab onto the switch, maybe I can just get a wire and put two ring terminals on it and run it from where the headlight switch would be screwed into the tab and just ground it that way. I'm going to look into it soon though as my dome light doesn't work when I open the door and that must be it.

[78ta]

All you are changing is the bezel right? Why do you now have to mount the head light switch differently than before?

[Kevin]

No I don't but the bezel isn't metal... That tab used to connect to the bezel and used to ground it there as I recall.. That tab can't be used anymore to ground it therefore I have to do what you said, run a wire from the dash ground to the headlight switch... I assume that's what you meant right?

[78ta]

therefore I have to do what you said, run a wire from the dash ground to the headlight switch... I assume that's what you meant right?

Yes, that's what I meant but I would be surprised if they really used the engine turn bezel fora ground. I don't hink it attaches to a ground itself so how would it provide a ground....
I'm thinking that headlight switch screws to the dash frame metal and the spring/tab touches it for ground. This would still be the case unless you have to mount the head light some other way because of the new bezel.

[Rick]

Perchance, you're not talking about this, are you?

[Kevin]

Thats exactly what I'm talking about, and thanks Rick I needed that picture BAD.. How am I going to do this just unscrew that screw that would normally hold the bracket, put a ring terminal in it's place with a wire to that metal bar under the steering column?


And 78ta, thanks too man, it had been about 2 weeks since I took everything out and I couldn't remember exactly how it connected. I knew it was hooked somewhere behind the gauges just didn't know how exactly...

[Rick]

Yeah, as long as you have a solid connection to a known good ground it should work.  Ring terminals are very reliable.

[hada76]

very nice... when you get it all done i would be interested in the total cost involved...would love to do that to mine

[mrpontiac80]

very nice... when you get it all done i would be interested in the total cost involved...would love to do that to mine

Hey kevin, I too thought it might be time to invest in this type of project and was curious if its cool to ask, how much can I expect to invest in gauges similar to yours. I would probably go with a new fron engine harness too and of course I'd keep my current bezel.

I can find the costs of the gauges of course but are there hidden costs behind the bezel or anything?