70 duster: updating, and a no-dough pro-touring makeover

[dusterbd13]

so, budget total from the previous updates: 1766.64

for this one, it hurts. a lot.

740 in rear end rebuild, 15 in gasket and posi additive. gear oil was actually free (had two bottles of 85-90 Valvoline in my storage building, unopened, from god knows when.
so the new total is: 2521.64

that's a hellofalot more than i had anticipated spending to get it to this point. kind of discouraging, really, but then again I'm doing it right and not cutting any corners.

so, heres what 740 worth of hogshead looks like:

new clutches, gears, bearings, seals, and pinion yoke, plus setup. its quiet now.

if i had to do it all over again, i would have gone with the explorer 8.8. would have been considerably cheaper, and gotten rid of my wheel spacers and rear drums all at the same time.

i also got all my front wheel studs trimmed off 3/8 of an inch, but didn't take any pictures. you really cant see a 3/8 shorter wheel stud in a picture.

trial fit my new front air dam. still not finished with it. need to make a bracket to hold the center of it at the proper angle. after that, bodywork and paint. then ill decide whether its staying.

and a picture of the better of the two strut rods threaded portion.

got the ride height set right after this picture, sway bar reconnected, and did a quickie alignment on it. max caster on the eccentrics, camber wherever it fell, and 1/16 toe in. camber was right at -1 degree, caster right at 5.5 positive.

took it for a quick test spin (3 or 4 miles), and thought i heard some rubbing. couldn't really find where it was coming from, even after dong a thorough nut and bolt check. it rained all last week, so i didn't have any time to drive it.

Saturday, i was planning on getting some miles on it. it was actually sitting in the driveway warming up when my phone rang that my dad had totalled his brand new Z06 up at VIR. put the car away, and loaded up the truck and trailer to go take my mom to see him, pick him up, and haul back what was left of a 80,000 Z06 corvette. Saturday was a very, very crappy day. but my dad and his student were both more or less OK. just banged up pretty good.

today i got the car out since it was nice to put some miles on it and get a feel for the new setup. ran good, good turn in, drove straight, steering wheel straight. really liked it so far, except for an odd intermittent pull over slight bumps.

when i got down near work, i hit the crowned manhole cover with my right front corner, and immediately had the steering wheel pulled from my hands and point me towards the nice, shiny, new light pole. after i got the car squared away and quit cussing, i turned around and SLOWLY got home. nothing hurt but my pride.

this was not the fault of bumpsteer. what happened was that my right front corner actually locked up in compression. the lip of the UCA ground my wheel to a halt when it came into contact with it, causing my underwear changing course correction.
this was always the tight spot with my old spindles, but with the new found negative camber and taller spindles, it apparently has used up all my fudge factor. there's some nice shiny grooves in both the inside hoops of my front wheels where the higher side of the UCA is contacting, as well as some deeper gouges where the lip in front of the UBJ is hitting.

I'm going to grind the lip down about 1/8-3/16, and see if i get the clearance i need. if I'm still hitting, ill go back to the shorter spindles.

just as a reminder to all, CHECK EVERYTHING THROUGH THE FULL SUSPENSION ARTICULATION, NOT JUST RIDE HEIGHT. i usually do this, but got sloppy this time and it nearly bit me in the ***.

updates when i find my fix.

Michael

 

[Backtobasics]

Scary drive it sounds like.
When did 8 3/4 get so expensive?

 

[dusterbd13]

apparently in the last 10 years. when i looked at having one rebuilt in the late 90's, it was 300 or so bucks.

 

[jamesdart]

thats pretty wierd that the contorl arm hit the rim, i wouldnt have expected that one. diff work has been expensive for a long time, for some reason it seems 8 3/4 are even more expensive. i did 2 danas for the strength and couldnt justify what it would cost to do an 8 3/4. i like the front air dam

 

[SGGDuster]

Great thread and great car, Dusterbd! I used to go to school in Winston, nice little town. I've really enjoyed keeping up with your suspension/brake upgrades. I'm hoping to tear into the suspension on my 74 duster in a couple weeks with the goal of making her handle reaaaal nice. In your opinion, what one component made the biggest difference (in terms of good cornering and minimal high speed float)? Anti-sways? Body drop? Rear leafs? I appreciate your thorough documetation and will be referring back to this thread often! Props for taking the time and $$ to do it RIGHT.

 

[dusterbd13]

theres no one real component that makes the suspension package on this car stand out.

the best money spent so far has been, in order, steering box, wheels and tires, sway bars, alignment parts, lowering, poly bushings, springs.

the biggest thing to focus on first with yours is making sure that youre suspension parts are up to par before trying to make it handle better. you cant handle with work out parts.

and when you buy your parts, like bushings and shocks, spend the good money for quality components the first time around, or you WILL be doing it again as i have proven repeatedly now.

Michael

 

[SGGDuster]

Cool, thanks Michael!

I think for the most part, my suspension is in good shape, just 37 year old technology. A few years back, I replaced all the bushings up front because they were really shot and I put Mancini XHD leafs on the back, but I'm really not happy with them. The passenger spring is stiffer to account for torque, but I didn't realize just how different the two sides would be. The springs must just be for strip racing because they make the car handle pretty poorly. Left turns and right turns are two totally different cars. I bought them when I was 17 and I'm sure I didn't do a thorough job of researching.

I am a bit surprised that steering box was #1. I have to tighten the bolts down on mine fairly often and can't seem too keep the damn things in there, but I figured a steering box was a steering box was a steering box. Do you have a rebuilt unit or one of those fancy Flaming River type deals? I appreciate all the tips.

Blake

 

[dusterbd13]

i actually went from manual (pretty good road feel, actually, but really slow ratio and tough to turn quick) to a used cop car diplomat power steering box (way over assisted, and lots of play. no road feel) to a FFI stage 3 box. the box was a very, very good upgrade. great road feel, only slightly over assisted with a stock diplomat pump, and good ratio for quick turning. also put a smaller diameter steering wheel in it at the same tim, which helped.

thats pretty much why its #1. best money spent so far.

if youre rocking the XHD springs, theyre pretty much the super stocks. id sell them, and get some road race or hotchkis springs. that will make a more dramatic difference than the steering box bolts.

and i locktited mine last time ith blue. havent loosened up yet.

 

[DionR]

Glad to hear it was only one totalled car in the family, not two. Sorry to hear about your Dad's Z06, at least they are still building those. Hope that all turns out ok.

I thought about an 8.8 for my Duster, but I don't think I will do it. The biggest reason was that I couldn't get a vented rear rotor on one, they are all solid.

You could probably sell the A-Body housing and axles for a pretty penny and find a cheap 65-67 B-body housing and axles to replace them. That would get rid of the spacers and put some money back in your pocket. That's the direction I am probably going to go, except I am going from an 8.25" and wont be selling a housing or axles.

Keep up the good work!

 

[jamesdart]

he picked up the spacers from me, i sold my original 8 1/4 to a member on here and went with a 68+ b body 8 3/4 that i got from another member on here moved the perches and ran it for a while then i decided i needed some 3.55-4.10 and a posi in the near future and looked at the cost, i quickly bought an 8.8 and sold that 8 3/4 to another member.

 

[dusterbd13]

so my new update...

i mostly "fixed" my clearance problems with the UCA's and the rim. took my trusty old 4 inch grinder out and ground the snot out of the lip around the UCA. no more lockup problems. the wheels DO still hit the UCA's, but only in reverse. i have no idea why that is....

Friday after work, i surprised my wife by having our daughter at her grandmas house, the car cleaned up and packed, and reservations at a hotel. we both have VERY stressful jobs, and very limited downtime. it was a pretty weekend, so we went away and took the duster.

Friday we left from albemarle, NC, and stopped for dinner at canyons in blowing rock NC. good eats, beautiful sunset, good view. pretty good bluegrass on the jukebox as well...

we laded back in after dinner and headed over to mountain city Tenn. for the night. stayed at the americourt, which was a nice place at a great price.

got up late Saturday morning, filled up the car, checked the fluids, etc. found i lost 1 quart of oil in 200 miles from my leaking oil pan gasket. that's quite irritating, and only more motivation for me to yank the motor this winter.
drove from mountain city over to Boone were we picked up the blue ridge parkway and headed north.

somewhere in the middle of VA, is became very, very foggy. to the point that i could not see the end of my hood. try looking through a gallon of milk in a dimly lit room, and you get the idea. we pulled over for a bit at an overlook (of what, i have no idea). we decided to find something to eat.

this is where we made our most fun mistake of the trip.

we used the button on my new-to-me GPS that said food. selected a shoney's, and followed the voice that sounded like the librarian from when i was in4th grade.

it first took us down a rather poorly maintained 2 lane back road, but it got us mostly out of the fog. we then turned on a state road, which was loose paved. after it had narrowed to the point that it was hopeless to turn around, the road turned to gravel. beautiful area and countryside, though.

a little later, we turned off the state road to a place that was simply labeled "road". that was a less nice road, and i was starting to get nervous, as well as have the fear of needing a 4 wheel drive wrecker to get me out.

the GPS got us back on some two track

that stopped here

shoney's was about 1/2 mile across the interstate. we finally got over there just about the time it started raining.

we had a blast with that part of the trip, though. even though i heard rocks hitting body, bell housing hitting dirt road crown, and had no idea where we were or where we were going, we were both laughing and enjoying ourselves. just what we needed.
(my wife had to take a picture of me driving the duster on a dirt road, and smiling just to prove I'm not always uptight and anal-retentive)

we came home after shoney's due to torrential downpour and hail.

all told, we covered just shy of 550 miles in 2 days in a car that hasn't been thoroughly tested, and did not have a real problem.
best fuel economy seen was 16.25
the new suspension did not exhibit any worse bump steer than the previous, but was much more stable and predictable. felt more sure footed, tracked better, and was easier to drive than it has been since before the total resto
there were some small problems.
no armrest, but we temporarily fixed that with my cooler
the exhaust gets louder the hotter it gets. i think it may be contacting the body when the metal expands, or when the motor torques under constant load
an exhaust leak has started
the wind noise drove us nuts
there's an odd vibration in the steering wheel when under throttle with the wheels turned. i think my steering coupler may be contacting my header

the car is very comfortable for the two of us, not tiring to drive, and reasonably practical for weekend getaways. so right now, we have more "touring" and less "pro-"

up next is more "pro-" in the form of a tarheel autocross down at maxton next weekend.

Michael

 

[SD_R/T]

Great looking car. Very cool that it gets actual use.

 

[v8val]

Hey Michael, just spent the last hour (or 2) reading through your thread. Great reading man and thanks for taking the time to document it on here for all to read! Your car is really similar to mine in that i want it more user friendly with a view to handling and stopping. I also am making mine more family friendly too, plus i too have rushed things in the past that i am now going back over. Thanx for getting my enthusiasm back up too mate. Did you do the auto cross at Maxton?

 

[dusterbd13]

wound up watching my daughter that day, as wy wife needed to teach sunday school. im hoping to get out later this month.

and thanks for the kind words. i really appreciate it. watching other people making progress helps to motivate me, but right now is my busy season with the shop. iove got more work to do right now than i know what to do with. been doing a BUNCH of C5/C67 corvette work, at the moment i have a 68 hemi roadrunner torn down on my lift to install fuel injection, i need to finish the carb and ignition tweaking on a nasty 327 in a 60 corvette, ive got a 67 goat waiting in the wings for some resto work, and my duster is torn down for some leak repairs, as well as my 1/2 ton trcuk needs a clutch.

but i have to say that im grateful to have 2 jobs, both of which are going steady, and the ability to provide for my family.

more updatea will come on this car when i find the time to work on it.

michael

 

[dusterbd13]

small update:

theres an interior repair guy that i use for some of my customer cars. we got to talking about my duster, and he said he could renove the lincold emblems from the seats, as well as fix the few tears. for 140 bucks, i was game. his name is kevin kimble, 704-215-8763

before

after

not perfect, but a lot better. the dye he used looks splotch under the flash, but is unnoticable under true light.

up next is fix my leaking water neck, fuel pump block off, and clean up from the leaks.

Michael

 

[dusterbd13]

so, been a long time with no real updates.

and this isn't really one either.

since my last update, Ive been busier that a one armed wallpaper hanger. been working almost every night and weekend on customer cars. also got laid out for a little bit when i took a screwdriver to my left eye at my day job. and yes, i was wearing safety glasses. (picture taken a day or two later. caught both my eyelids, cut notches in them both. swelled my eye shut, and got metal shavings in it. it hurt. a lot. )

i did take a promotion at my day job, and have become a director over the mental health facility i work at. its currently temporary, but i find out next week if its permanent.

on my side job, i fix and restore other peoples cars. it helps pay the bills and get luxuries for my family. i also get to keep some of it for playing with my own junk.

Ive done a lot of work this summer so far, but ill fill you in on the interesting stuff, and even show some pictures of some of it.

1968 hemi road runner. fixed wiring gremlins and installed EZ EFI system. (lost some of the finished pictures in a computer crash. blame bill gates)

c5 vette. upgraded the shocks, sway bars, springs, and some bushings. aligned and corner weighted. also installed the corsas.

1960 corvette, rebuilt the carbs and ignition system, fine tuned the whole setup. its coming back for a brake job, wiper repair, and interior touch up.

and most recently, a 1967 GTO 400 4sp convert. re-resto work. the car is an older resto thats been driven a bunch, and neglected a little. i redid the engine bay, fixed some electrical gremlins, cleaned it up, mounted the redlines, dialed in the carb and ignition, adjusted all the linkages, painted the gas tank and exhaust, installed a new dash speaker (major PITA), etc. lots of little things that added up to almost 30 hours of work.
before:

during

after

1989 Chevy long bed. i redid the interior earlier, now i two toned it, added sway bars, and dropped it 3/4
before:

after

and now i can get back to the duster. which is a good thing, as Ive registered for RTTH in September, gotten the time off work, paid for the hotel, and arranged for my dad and a trailer to go with me.

Ive spent a lot of money on the car in last few weeks, but no real time. the last time i drove it, or even looked at it, was the 4th of July for a parade my little girl was in. just before that, due to the heat, i finally addressed my cooling system problems. i replaced my thermostat housing with a trans dapt unit that i picked up for 15 bucks, thinking that would solve the leak. i honestly figured the Chinese chrome one i put on the car was crap, but i didn't properly diagnose it before spending money. therefore, it leaked worse than ever before. turned out that i had the wrong thermostat in it. instead of spend more money on a new thermostat, i took the cheaper way out. i cut down the diameter of the mounting flange of the thermostat to fit properly in the recess of the new trans dapt housing. took about 10 minutes. hasn't leaked since.
i also used a JAZ surge tank on the radiator (23 bucks). this car has always had a coolant level thats 2 inches below the filler neck ever since i put in the crossflow radiator. never had any major overheating issues, but its always bugged me. since the installation of the surge tank, its staying full, and oddly enough operating temp has lowered 10 degrees.

so, grand total for this update is 2699.64

take a good look at the last picture of the engine bay. cause its all gonna change next weekend. i finally ordered my AC that Ive been wanting for the last 10 years. seems every time i got close, something came up. like wrecks, dead appliances, baby, wedding, etc. this time i finally got it. I'm stupid excited. absolutely stupid excited. ill take pictures and update as soon as the box hits my front porch.

Michael

 

[dusterbd13]

so, weve got a BUNCH of money to add to the budget. i spent 1397.50 on a perfect fit AC system from classic auto air. opted for the shorty sanden sd7 compressor, and the correct brackets from bouchillon to mate it up to my victor jr intake. bought the perfect fit, even though i wasnt too keen on some of the ways they did things. wouldnt have really saved any money to just buy the various components i need, and not the rest. well, would have saved about 50 bucks. id rather have the extra parts.

so it arrived thursday evening late. i did get my premanant promotion this week, and have been putting in a ton of hours learning and figuring out my new job duties. so i didnt even get to look at the boxes until i was loading them into the bed of my truck at 6:30 friday night. took them over to the shop wher i opened them up and took inventory to make sure i had everything i ordered. i did.

i forgot my camera, so no pictures of friday night.

first impressions were that the kit was VERY well packaged. custom made cardboard spacers, dividers, individually wrapped packages for various parts of the install, etc. i also learned that there had been some running design changes since the directions were made. so they arent the best instructions in the world. leave a good bit to guessing and figuring things out on your own.

started the install friday night. kinda. got my radiator drained, pulled my glovebox liner, passengers seat, and heater box assembley. got to looking, and found some things that mandfe me scratch my head in amazement. like the fact that other than the dynamat and factory cardboard insulation, i had done nothing with the frewall, cowl, and kick panels. this makes no sense to me whatsoever of why i didnt do jute and insulation on these areas. really no idea.

so i spent the remainder of friday night doin the firewall and cowl from the passengers kick to the clutch/brake pedal box in foil backed jute. add 20 for a roll of that. used some leftover 3m adhesive, so were good with that price. i also shot the chrome foil with some semi-gloss black paint so it wouldnt show through.

saturday morning, i planned to sleep in. woke up at 7am. dang it.
went down to the shop, and started working on the istall side of things. got my control head modified after some head sctratching and unjamming my pop rivit tool. the directions were not clear in this area, but i figured it out. also cleaned, tightened, lubed, etc all the controls. one tip: attach the wiring to the fan switch before re-install. will make life a LOT easier later.

then, went to put the underdash assembly in place. the directions call for you to bolt in in from the engine bay side through a pair of nuts on the box. then you cover those bolts with a plastic cover that is retained with self tapping sheet metal screws. i hated that idea. just looked cheap and tacky to me. also, they tell you to run the heater hose valve cable and compressor clutch wire out through the origonal heater core tube holes. again, looked cheap and tacky.

this is the picture from their website:

instead, i decided to recreate the factory style a bit more. used the lupplied body plugs in my prigonal heater core trim, and reinstalled that on the firewall. them made a pair of studs coming from the underdash assembly that more or less mimicked the origonal studs through the firewall. put a pair of bolts through the lower two blower motor holes. drilled the plastic plate in 5 places. 4 for the "studs" through the firewall, and one for the heater valve cable. also trimmed the plastic plate to match the origonal blower motor reinforcement plate.

came out pretty slick.
when i went to hook up the heater hoses, i realized that they were too short for how i wanted/needed to run them. went up to the parts store, and spent 42 on a pair of gates 5/8 hoses with molded in 90 degree bends. a little cutting here and there, bent the heater hose bracket into a new shape, and viola. i like how their routed now.

all ive got left on the interior side is to finish running the compressor wire through the bulkhead, and install my dash vents/hoses/seat. also need to install the new glovebox liner that i modified to fit my shift light controller and ipod jack.

so, grand total as of today: 4159.14

wow, this is getting expensive.
but im having a ball.
more next weekend when i work on the inderhood some.

Michael

 

[DionR]

Still cheaper than a new Challenger (or Mustang, or whatever). That $4159.14 wouldn't even make a good down payment.

I'm amazed at how close what you are building mirror's what I want my Duster to be. AC, stick, sport suspension, etc. Comfortable and fun to drive.

 

[mopardude318]

cool build man...that chevy alternator has GOT to go. lol sticks out like a sore thumb. lol

 

[dusterbd13]

it may stick out a little, but it works so well.

whats the alternative? any internally regulated high amperage late model alterbnator looks about the same.

thanks for the compliments guys.

and i know its still a lot cheaper. but for a "no dough" makeover, i sure have spent a ton of money.

michael

 

[dusterbd13]

well, i ran into some problems last night, which may actually be a good thing.

im adding AC to my duster, using a shorty sanden compressor, the classic air kit, and a bouchillon six pack ac bracket.

the compressor is trying to occupy the same space as the water bypass outlet port in my victor jr. apparently, there isnt an off the shelf bracket for this setup that WILL clear, so im back to square one.

this picture

came up in this thread http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=150494

this guy is in tasmania, and has done what i have not seen done before.
looking at the picture, he is using a drivers side mounted alternator of GM design, and mounted a shorty SD7 where the alternator used to reside on the passengers side.
it looks like he used to alternator bracket assemblies to do this, so he could adjust belt tension. only thing i cant tell from the picture is wether or not he has power steering. i do. so that will possibly affect my belt routing on the drivers side.
heres what im starting with for this:

i have a spare alternator bracket assembly, so....
it looks like i could use my spare and mount my GM alternator to the same location on the driver side of my water pump. have to adjust for depth of course so i have correct pulley and belt tracking. i would also have to clock it so i could access my power steering pump if it should ever be necessary.

so why cant i make this work with relatively little fab work? it looks in my head that this should be an almost bolt together deal, just having to make some spacers, and possibly a tensioner assembly for riding on the back ( flat) of the v-belt. i have seen a few on factory 60's AC belts, but wouldnt know what to look it up under.

i think that o ciuld realistically do this. i would have to pick up a 4 groove crank pulley for the extra belt to the AC compressor, though, would the grovves line up with the non AC power steering brackets/pullies?

thanks
let the ideas, experiences, and "what i thought about/saw/read about's" fly please.

and if you have done this deal before, share that too. please. with pictures.

michael

 

[dusterbd13]

so spent a couple hours piddling and raiding my parts bins today. i love having leftovers from all sorts of stuff In my magic bolt bins. Ive got stuff from Honda's, race cars, corvettes, tractors, industrial equipment, etc. so don't ask me what some of the spacer stock came from, cause i REALLY don't know. ill wind up remaking some of it so it doesn't look cobbled together from my magic bolt bins.


but a long story short: the guy from Tasmania's setup will probably work with power steering. i will have to use 4 groove crank pulley and a 2 groove water pump pulley though, due to my edelbrock heads being a little further protruding than his iron heads.


i used a spare Chinese chrome alternator bracket swapped around a bit, and located it on the drivers side. lined up perfectly with the existing drilled and tapped hole. had to use a couple of longer bolts, though, as the ARP's just didn't have enough thread engagement. also made a temporary spacer behind the bracket on the upper bolt, as the power steering pump bracket spaced it out too much from the water pump to fudge.

this led to some interesting belt routing necessities, as the alternator pulley was now in line with the power steering pump pulley. my solution is to solid mount the alternator above the power steering pump, and adjust belt tension with an idler pulley which also helps route the belt away from the water pump pulley where it would otherwise rub. the idler is actually an AC idler assembly from a d-series Honda motor from a CRX i built three times.

on the AC pump side, the compressor fit well once i removed the radiator fans as the motor on the one was contacting the compressor clutch. i also had to remove my previously fabbed fuel pressure regulator (that was leaking from the mechanical fuel pump block off plate) so i could tuck it in some more. i believe that with the AC style pulleys, i will have a good belt routing for this one as well.


anyway, on to the pics of what Ive done today and Friday. first, the condenser from the classic kit that did not fit per the directions. wound up removing radiator entirely, and assembling the bracketry in place on the core support. they were nowhere near correct in the directions.

also got my 2/3 of my vents mounted in the interior. and my glove box liner installed. their glove box liner is an absolute piece of crap. it doesn't even come CLOSE to fitting the opening. i have it stuffed in there for lack of a better option at this point in time. in the process of reassembly, i broke my latch striker for by glove box. tried to bend it to get it to line up better, and snapped it in half. have to find another one soon, so i can close my glove box and hide the liner.

and now the interesting stuff, the AC compressor/brackets. mind you, its nowhere near finished, but more of a proof of concept thing. let me know if you see potential issues.

more later when i have some more time. need to build a wiring harness for a mobile soda blaster in the next couple of weeks, then thrash on this car to get ready for RTTH.

 

[DionR]

Hey, question for you about your gauges.

What did you do to your tank to run the quad gauge? From the info I see online, it wont work with the stock sender.

How much cutting did you have to do on the dash? Any idea if someone could get a 5" gauge on the right side of the column without having to cut the dash?

I want a dual 5" setup like yours, but I'm going to have to roll my own since RMD is out of business (like I could afford one, anyways). Really don't want to cut my dash.

 

[dusterbd13]

hmm....

ill do my best to remember accurately, but there may be some things im forgetting. i built that part of this car back in 04. so....

to run the gauge, i took apart both the sender that autometer sent me and the factory sending unit. i drilled the plate thatw as welded to the pickup tube on the factory sender for the bolt spacing on the autometer. bolted the autometer sending unit on, and used locktite on the nuts. i remember having to bend the float a few different ways to get the readings for full and empty correct. i honestly should have spent more time there, as my gauge is an approximation at best. to get the wire, i soldered the wire from the autometer gauge toi the factory wire coming out of the sender. again, could have used something different from the fuel cell world.

on the dash itself, i used a cluster from an a-body cuda. dont remember what year. all i used from the donor was the bezel and the pot metal instrument cluster back. i had to cut the pot metal down to pretty much a support ring only, and drill and tap it for some fabbed up gauge retention straps. i remember making those out of thin aluminum, and bent them so they would have some spring actuin in them to force the gauge against the bezel. the gauges went in from the back side of the bezel. wouldnt fit from the front.
i had the body guy fit the cluster to the metal dash frame. i know he cut a lot of stuff, but dont know if i could have done it differently to make it a no cut to the metal structure.

the gauges are one of my favorite things about this car. they just work so well for my purposes. if i had to do it again now, though, id have used the bigger tach they now offer for the center. the 2 1/16 that i was forced to install back then is just too small for my liking. they now make a 2 5/8 or 3 1/8 in that series that would fit the center pod perfectly. but i cant bring myself to spend that money yet. i will eventually when i refinish my dash bezel though. someday i want to put the silver accents back round the thing.

hope that helps

michael

 

[DionR]

Thanks!