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Dakota digital universal dash into non-rallye 69 b-bodys

I thought of that gauge package, but it is waaaaay to expensive. I went with the Intellitronix set up, all digital, comes with senders and I just bought a piece of plexiglass that was bigger to fit my instrument panel. You can find them on ebay for under 200.
 
I haven't done it. With the Aussie dollar exchange rate at the moment that instrument cluster would cost me about $1200 to get shipped down here. That's a lot of coin to shell out to find out it won't work for some reason.

Have you got a pic of yours 5.7Hemi?
 
Just came across this thread. I've been considering sending Dakota Digital a core to custom build something but this would be about half the price if it could be made to work.
 
Dash gauge panels are SUPER easy to do. Just buy your gauges (auto meter, stewart warner, vdo, even Summit brand work and look nice for short money). Then trace your existing panel out on a peice of sheet aluminum and cut it out (you can use a $50 dremel tool)...
Then place all your gauges where you want them and cut them out with hole saws. once it is all trimmed and fit, sand it, prime it, paint it, and clear it, or polish it, cover it with vinyl, the sky is the limit...

I have done them in 2-3 hours and they look factory in hot rods... The sheet metal is easy to source too, home depot sells it, lol I have sheets of it from years of doing this ****, but you can get just what you need. You can even take it to a machine shop and have them machine it out for you, machine in a design, or what ever. For a 68-70 b-body I would do the 3 pieces, (radio and glove box bezel).
I have been really liking the single gauge look, just a nice 4 in one gauge dead center.

Also a friend of mine who owns a hot rod shop does his with thick plexi glass, you can not tell the difference once it is painted or covered with vinyl, and he says its easier to fit and he can heat them up and bend and contour them pretty much perfect, he did a 40 ford dash that the entire left side lit and blinked for the left blinker, the right did the same, and the center lit up as a shift light, it was pretty cool, he used that 1 way pain so the leds shined through it...
 
I have a '69 coronet and wanting the same thing! Any way possible you could include some pictures for us Seventy? I am a visual guy and that would sure help to see how it is done from an "expert" with your experience. Thanks in advance.
 
Dash gauge panels are SUPER easy to do. Just buy your gauges (auto meter, stewart warner, vdo, even Summit brand work and look nice for short money). Then trace your existing panel out on a peice of sheet aluminum and cut it out (you can use a $50 dremel tool)...
Then place all your gauges where you want them and cut them out with hole saws. once it is all trimmed and fit, sand it, prime it, paint it, and clear it, or polish it, cover it with vinyl, the sky is the limit...

I have done them in 2-3 hours and they look factory in hot rods... The sheet metal is easy to source too, home depot sells it, lol I have sheets of it from years of doing this ****, but you can get just what you need. You can even take it to a machine shop and have them machine it out for you, machine in a design, or what ever. For a 68-70 b-body I would do the 3 pieces, (radio and glove box bezel).
I have been really liking the single gauge look, just a nice 4 in one gauge dead center.

Also a friend of mine who owns a hot rod shop does his with thick plexi glass, you can not tell the difference once it is painted or covered with vinyl, and he says its easier to fit and he can heat them up and bend and contour them pretty much perfect, he did a 40 ford dash that the entire left side lit and blinked for the left blinker, the right did the same, and the center lit up as a shift light, it was pretty cool, he used that 1 way pain so the leds shined through it...


I agree it can be done that way but it depends on the finished look you're going for. Budnicks has built a great example of what will work. To accomplish what I want I would pretty much have to gut each new guage for the instrumentation and adapt it all to one panel. The biggest reason I'm deciding on this route right now is I'd like to go to a GPS Speedo because my new Viper Tranny doesn't have the port for a speed sensor (on these year Viper they were in the diff)

Also for the 68-69 runner the panel is quite narrow top to bottom so you would need to use a pretty small guage.

Here's a pic from a buddy of a custom one Dakota Digital did

12033502_909398385808414_2070428581_n.jpg

- - - Updated - - -

The guage pod in the "Hammer" a minute into this video is pretty much perfection in my eyes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4lrWDYOeUc
 
Dash gauge panels are SUPER easy to do. Just buy your gauges (auto meter, stewart warner, vdo, even Summit brand work and look nice for short money). Then trace your existing panel out on a peice of sheet aluminum and cut it out (you can use a $50 dremel tool)...
Then place all your gauges where you want them and cut them out with hole saws. once it is all trimmed and fit, sand it, prime it, paint it, and clear it, or polish it, cover it with vinyl, the sky is the limit...

I have done them in 2-3 hours and they look factory in hot rods... The sheet metal is easy to source too, home depot sells it, lol I have sheets of it from years of doing this ****, but you can get just what you need. You can even take it to a machine shop and have them machine it out for you, machine in a design, or what ever. For a 68-70 b-body I would do the 3 pieces, (radio and glove box bezel).
I have been really liking the single gauge look, just a nice 4 in one gauge dead center.

Also a friend of mine who owns a hot rod shop does his with thick plexi glass, you can not tell the difference once it is painted or covered with vinyl, and he says its easier to fit and he can heat them up and bend and contour them pretty much perfect, he did a 40 ford dash that the entire left side lit and blinked for the left blinker, the right did the same, and the center lit up as a shift light, it was pretty cool, he used that 1 way pain so the leds shined through it...

I'd be interested in some motivation pics if you dont mind.
 
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