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

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