Rapom's Rocket - just another Duster build thread

Because I had pulled the original unmolested harness with the Rally Dash I had every intention on utilizing it in my custom dash build. That was until I realized the spider web of interconnections in the electrical system caused by the government safety mandates implemented back in the '70s. Without a degree in electrical engineering I wasn't going to be able to untangle that mess. So now I needed to modify the stock '74 dash harness to work with the Rally setup plus incorporate all the wiring for the 7 added gauges each of which had multiple connections for things like dash lighting, sender leads and 12v power and grounds. In fact I counted 34 wires that had to be spliced into the stock harness not including all the other wiring mods I did at the time.

The first step was actually fitting the gauges into the bezel. I had read that the 5"ers would "slip right in" to the larger holes. NOT!!! The speedo did, with a little easing of the opening, but the tach required much more. This was done very carefully, with a drum sander attachment on my dremel at med speed. The face of the bezel rings also had to be worked so the back of the big gauge's face rings had a flat to sit against. The oil press gauge slid into the tach opening with no work required. The other three gauges were going to be mounted in the flat that the heater controls originally occupied. After carefully grinding off the front/back side ridges and lettering, three 2" holes (closest hole saw I had) were laid out and drilled on the drill press. It took quite a bit of fitting and grinding to clearance/elongate the holes so the gauges would sit at the correct angle to the drivers position. The angled gauge bases I purchased weren't angled nearly enough to get the gauges to sit right. After I figured out what angle I needed I took a piece of 2.5" exhaust pipe, which fit inside the rings perfectly, cut it at the desired angle, pressed on the rings one at a time, taped them in position and then using a metal cutting disk on my 4.5" grinder trimmed them to the new angle using the metal of the pipe as a guide. Then I cut a piece of heavy sheet aluminum for a backer to give the gauges something substantial to mount against which took the same amount of grinding and fitting to open up and elongate as before. A lot of freaking work!

Now that the gauges were fitted to the bezel step 2 was getting the pot metal frame modified to fit around the 5" gauges. I wanted this frame to not only give the plastic some structural support but to utilize the stock brake warning, high beam and turn signal lights. Once again hours of cutting, fitting, grinding and filing resulted in a skeletonized metal frame which cleared the gauge backs but retained all the indicator light housings.

At the moment I have no pictures of any of this and the dash is fully assembled. I will take detailed pics and post them when I blow it back apart to refinish the bezel. Then I will explain steps 3, 4, 5.....