Dash Power wire?????

You have to follow your wire(s) from the (+) battery back. (you have to understand what you have, to start troublshooting your problem) If someone put in a different wire for whatever reason it may not be red. If you can tell us what wires go where as it stands "now" it will be easy to guide you along...The guage wire he's talking about is the (+) AMP guage wire. It's possible that the melded wire you see is the "old orginal" wire, and you took out the one someone else put in that supplied the 12v?