so if the gas and temp gauges don't work...

95, my understanding of the VR is that it fails with its points closed, so the gauges then get the full 12v rather than the required pulsed voltage. The 12v then cooks the nearly hair-thin thermal wire that is wrapped around the bimetalic strips on the gauges, and the wire burns open. I'd guess both your VR and gauges are toast, but that's just a guess. You should be able to unhook your gauges and put an ohmmeter on them to check if they read open or not.