[dcarr]

A friend has a '71 and wants to upgrade from the "sweep" speedomter dash to the tach/gauge "SS" dash. This is not intended to deceive anyone, he just likes the gauges.

Currently, he has a '71 gauge cluster (the plastic assembly with the gauges and printed circuit board that goes behind the dash face). He also has a dash face plate from a '72 Monte Carlo (with the simulated burled walnut finish - but that is ok).

Are there any other major dashboard parts that are needed ? Can he just remove the old speedo and dash face plate and bolt the new items on ? Are there any web pages that give instructions for this type of swap ? Can the existing wiring harness be adapted to work (assuming that a new gauge-type temperature sending unit is installed) ?
What about the ammeter ?


Thanks for any info !

PS: The '71 in question has air conditioning and the associated ducts.



------------------
Dan Carr
dcarr@chevelles.com
Team Chevelle Gold Member #11, ACES #701
Author of the GMC Sprint, El Camino, and '68-'72 SS Authentication pages.
See my GM A-body fleet at:
<A HREF="http://www.DesignsComputed.com/cars/cars.HTM
" TARGET=_blank>http://www.DesignsComputed.com/cars/cars.HTM
</A>

 

[Randy Mosier]

Dan, the entire dash has to be swapped out, glovebox and all. It's a one piece unit. It's my understanding that if you have a Monte Carlo dash, you can swap an instrument cluster with guages and do away with the old cluster with speedo, clock, fuel guage, and warning lights. By the way, if the old warning light cluster is in good shape with nothing broken off the plastic housing, I'm interested in buying it from him. So yes, this is a fairly straight forward swap. Notice I avoided the word 'simple'. It will be time consuming, and you have to take care not to break any of the plastic mounting points for the metal frame. I do have a suggestion for the woodgrain insert. Let me find my pictures in the showroom and post them for you.

 

[Randy Mosier]

Here are the pics. http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/tempdsh10.jpg
http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/tempdsh12.jpg
http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/tempdsh13.jpg
http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/tempdsh14.jpg

 

[Luis]

dcarr,
There used to be a link for this conversion. Maybe the moderator can bring it back to life.
http://www.azonline.com/~jimmy/conversion.htm
Canadian70SS

 

[rick]

Luis
The new page is: http://www.endrud.net/gauges/ But I don't think that it addresses dans question. It is a conversion if you already have the idiot light SS dasg & want to convert it to the SS gauge dash.
rick

 

[70Z15]

I'm sure this was stated in the links, but the sweep harness will not work with the round idiot lights.