interior research

[awesome79elky]

hello,
i am restificating a 79 elky and i am looking to so something different with the interior. when i got this car none of the factory gauges worked and i am pretty sure that it would take a minor miracle and a new harness to make it factory again. so i would like to transplant either an instrument bezel and pod from another g-body. could someone on this forum perhaps guide me in the direction of some photos of their dashboards or something that would be compatible.
thanks
James

 

[ONE EYE]

i have an '81 camino and i installed a complete dash from an '86 monte SS. its gray and black, the interior of the camino was black. so i used the lower half of the door panels from the SS (gray) and the upper camino panels (black, and also cause they are roll up windows) and all i need to do is install a carpet (black or gray, either will look good). everything looks good cause the gray dash has black inserts, i am thinking of a color for the dash pinstripe cause its only body pinstriping and its easy to change.
i also used the steering column from the SS, it looks a LOT nicer.
now all i need to do is finish the interior install and paint the car. lol

 

[ONE EYE]

i forgot to mention that my camino had a grand prix dash and column in it when i got it. and before i got the monte SS dash i had made a cluster that housed an AUTOMETER 5" tach and 5" speedo. and i used the factory high beam location and made a shift light out of it using the bottoms of five blue tinted plastic cups. it looked like those HYPER WHITE lights from BMW. i wanted to make sure i could see it with one eye while shifting so i substituted the weak dim bulb with a 50 watt fog light bulb. it was like a flashlight when i turned it on. lol
an was 3/4's done modifying the factory shift indicator spot. i was turning that into the signal and brights indicators. it looked neat and would have worked good, but i like gray and 99% of grand prix's are red. BLAHHH

i gave the whole cluster to my buddy cause he wanted AUTOMETER for his mustang and i dont know if he still has it. but if he does and never took it apart yet, i will take pics for you.

also forgot to say GOOD LUCK WITH IT.

 

[awesome79elky]

thanks for that information. i think i might have found a blackout on ebay that i could use, its from a 78-81 elky. it looks like it housed a long sweep speedo, but i don't know if he has the bezel that matches it. was there a difference in the bezels in 78-81. my 79 had a regular cluster with round gauges. i don't rightly know.

 

[ONE EYE]

i cant rightly remember off hand, but i am sure the bezel (you are talking about the clear one right?) is the same.

a little off topic, but just another idea. but in my malibu, i installed an autometer 3 1/8" tach in place of the fact. clock and i heated the clear bezel on it and then slowly pushed it down over the tach. it took two bezels to not melt the plastic with no depth perception, but it looked cool. and almost factory. cause i painted the flat black trim under the clear bezel silver to match the tach trim.

 

[awesome79elky]

i like your idea, i don't know the technical term for what i was trying to describe. it would be the part that goes over the the clear lens around the gauges and in my car has the panel with the headlight, wiper switch, and high beam indicator.