The gages all had something to be desired. All had rusty connectors and none appeared to be in working order at a glance. The Speedo and Tach were actually in very good shape only needing a few paint touch ups on the dials and having the dishes blasted and repainted. Of course all gages received new lens. The Speedo and Tach will be reunited with the dash pad after they have been detailed and re-dyed Bright Blue.
The left and right dash pads had been dyed black to match the car when it was painted black back who knows when. There were several places where you could see the original bright blue showing through and all in all the pads were in good shape. I primed the back of the pads and cleaned and prepped the front. They look shiny in the pics due to the adhesion promoter that was applied. After that had a chance to dry the dye was shot on and the result was amazing! Now that the hardware and gages have been added back to these pads they just look great! I'm really getting the bug now to finish!!
The Center cluster gages looked the worse, but again turned out to be not so bad. The clock was totaled as the face was pitted and most of the gears were rusted together, but the other gages just needed disassembly, cleaning, touching up, and lubing. In all of the gage dishes rather than going back with the light blue factory paint I went with an aluminum / chrome paint that will reflect the light just a little better. I have done this before and like the results. The gages appear to be brighter at night and easier to read. I have installed an aftermarket 200 Watt stereo rather than going back with the 16 Watt factory piece.
The interior and engine compartment heater boxes were in terrible shape. Especially the interior box's sheet metal behind the heater core. Most of this metal had to be replaced and was fabricated from sheets of 20gauge metal. The rusting metal in the heater box had been the home to some kind of small snake as there was a piece of snake skin there along with several hatched egg pieces. The diaphragms are in working order and new hoses with correct color codes have been added. The blower motor was replaced as the old one had a 'small' corrosion problem on the coil. Now everything is complete and waiting on installation!
