What are your opinions, Dakota Digital or restored one?

[Pool Fixer]

I had same issue with finding a Dakota dash. You might check Summit racing. They had 5 in stock. It was the non ralley dash, which is what I had anyway. I had it in 4 days.

I pulled out my OE 68 cluster about 15 years ago and "rebuilt" it. gauge decals, installed quartz clock conversion, and painted the bezels and use modeling "bare metal" foil to simulate the chrome. I also got a bunch of resistors and rigged up a DIY version of a mopar decade resistance box. Basically a box the dealers used to have you can connect the gauges to it and it uses set resistance to ground values- you then use the little calibration wheels in the back of the gauges to put the needles in the position that corresponds to the resistance setting.

I really enjoyed doing that and felt great when it was done and it was all back together and working. The other guy nailed it when it he said it's easier to work on one than to pull one. I enjoyed it so much that I bought up a few used ones and was able to restore a spare one and sell it on ebay.

anywho, here we are many many years later and It all has to come out again if I want to convert the amp to volts, the water temp is way out of calibration even with a new sender, the car never had a tic toc tac so i'd have to buy one of those which are hard to find lol.... and the stock backlighting stinks.

With all that said, I bit the bullet and ordered the dakota digital RTX cluster. Anyone who's looked for them recently knows how hard they are to find. I decided to email dakota last night and ask when they would be available. They responded this morning that lead time is 24-26 weeks but Affordable Street Rods had them in stock as of last week.

I just ordered 1 of the last 2 they have so if you want one right away, I would not waste any time.

 

[69 GeeTeeX]

I think I know what happened. I was installing a radio and was using the cigar lighter hot wire. I had to return the radio because I thought there was something wrong with it (turns out I needed new thumb wheals). In haste I wrapped the hot lead in tape, being in a rush I didn't do it well and it came off, so I had a hot wire hanging there while driving to get the car aligned. That's when the gauges died, so I believe that hot wire hit metal or something because I just shoved the wire in so I would be late to get the car aligned.

First thing to do is see if the fuse(s) blew from the hot lead temporarily grounding out possibly blowing a fuse like the system is designed to do to protect the wiring.
If this happened it doesn't matter what you do with the dash cluster there won't be any power.

 

[mpro69rr]

I pulled out my OE 68 cluster about 15 years ago and "rebuilt" it. gauge decals, installed quartz clock conversion, and painted the bezels and use modeling "bare metal" foil to simulate the chrome. I also got a bunch of resistors and rigged up a DIY version of a mopar decade resistance box. Basically a box the dealers used to have you can connect the gauges to it and it uses set resistance to ground values- you then use the little calibration wheels in the back of the gauges to put the needles in the position that corresponds to the resistance setting.

I really enjoyed doing that and felt great when it was done and it was all back together and working. The other guy nailed it when it he said it's easier to work on one than to pull one. I enjoyed it so much that I bought up a few used ones and was able to restore a spare one and sell it on ebay.

anywho, here we are many many years later and It all has to come out again if I want to convert the amp to volts, the water temp is way out of calibration even with a new sender, the car never had a tic toc tac so i'd have to buy one of those which are hard to find lol.... and the stock backlighting stinks.

With all that said, I bit the bullet and ordered the dakota digital RTX cluster. Anyone who's looked for them recently knows how hard they are to find. I decided to email dakota last night and ask when they would be available. They responded this morning that lead time is 24-26 weeks but Affordable Street Rods had them in stock as of last week.

I just ordered 1 of the last 2 they have so if you want one right away, I would not waste any time.

That's where I got mine, affordable street rods. When I ordered mine there were two in stock and I took one, I think you got the last one. I installed it and love it! I took my time installing and it wasn't that bad. I love all the information you can get from it and looks stock. I'm glad I went with it instead of buying a restored one, expensive but well worth it.

 

[Dajkzo]

I went with Dakota Digital for my 1970 RR. I still have the original cluster, however the Digital solved a number of issues. If it's not an "original" car or an exact clone, new technology makes driving a 54 year old car more fun.

 

[Chargerjase]

That's where I got mine, affordable street rods. When I ordered mine there were two in stock and I took one, I think you got the last one. I installed it and love it! I took my time installing and it wasn't that bad. I love all the information you can get from it and looks stock. I'm glad I went with it instead of buying a restored one, expensive but well worth it.

Can you post some pics of your new dash?

 

[Richard Cranium]

Well it looks like I blew the gauges in my instrument cluster so I will need to get a new one.

Saliva will do that.

 

[mpro69rr]

Can you post some pics of your new dash?

Here you go!

 

[Chargerjase]

Nice. It looks great.