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Requesting opinions...


Andy_in_SD

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Part of the work I am doing on my 70 is replacing the dash. I am replacing the stock 45 year old crumbling foam wonder. Instead of putting one of those inserts over the dash (which never looks good) I am replacing the entire dash. I've always preferred the flat dash (67.5 and prior) and will be making my own. The car is an SPL with SRL drive train, so it is not stock already.

 

It will be zebrawood with a steel subframe (top & bottom), with padded black vinyl over the steel.

 

The problem I am trying to decide on is the guages. I have the full set for the stock guages of course, and having that "keep original stuff" mental condition we all suffer from time to time I am torn. The original guages have 45 yeas of fade on the white paint, so I would have to pull the glass off and repaint all of the markings, and after that ... I would have old guages that are obviously old guage (no matter what I do) on a new dash.

 

New guages (from the other thread) look awesome. And the color choices let me select white on black if I want originalish. And they would be new guages on a new dash.

 

So do I swap out for new guages? What do you think?

 

 

Last Question... since I have a U20 drive train, has anyone changed the oil pressure guage so it is electric? Does one just stick an electric oil pressure sending until onto the block or is there a bad day of discovery trying to do so?

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Oil press sender well likely be diff thread,but adpt r ez to get. As far as gauges, its ur car. Im a mini trucker,so stock is not my thing. In a 521, dash lighting sucks no matter what. So i did custom gauges from speedhut. Modern senders/sensors,ez to see at night and fully customizable

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Can you take a digital picture of the gauge? Then computer alter the color values to make the letters white. Then print out on sticky back paper and cut them out? Stick on the gauge face.

 

You are probably a purist if wanting the original gauges, and I don't blame you, but you could also reverse the black and white and have easier to read white face gauges.

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The more I think about it, the more I think I could ebay the original gauges and they can pay for new ones (buying a house atm, so wife probably not keen on me dumping a bag of cash on gauges). I'm not being an original everything guy on this 70. It is the first time in my life with a car I'm not doing it, and it is a mental pretzel to do so. All of my previous SPL's & 510's were always done to stock, so this is something new for me (not adhereing to the fix/replace original "whatever is broken today" mentality).

 

I'm leaning towards black on white antique look, red needles, chrome ring.

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I am replacing the entire dash. I've always preferred the flat dash (67.5 and prior) and will be making my own. 

It will be zebrawood with a steel subframe (top & bottom), with padded black vinyl over the steel.

 

Very curious to see how this turns out.  :thumbup:

 

Been wanting to pull the trigger on that also, as the '68 dash isn't much to my liking either. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Andy, the swap on the sending unit should work just fine. I never trusted the oil pressure gauge on my 2000. It always read low. I added an aftermarket it what do you know, oil pressure is great. Plenty of pictures of high windshield cars swapped to flat dash on 311s.org. Contact Alvin if you don't see what you are looking for. He has shots of pretty much every Roadster that go to meets in California. Amazing collection of documentation.

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