My el cheapo gauge/tach/stereo install.

[9a pilot]

Thanks to the ever sporty pontiac dash design, it lends itself well.
In place of the factory idiot lights, I finally decided that this location was ideal.
Also, when the car was given to me, the factory radio was long gone, and I had a local stereo place put in a basic pioneer head unit and speakers. They advertise a '1 dollar' install. Lets just say you get what you pay for. I got tired of the thing flopping around. I was going to fabricate something, but I found a kit labeled for 82-02 GMs. G-body GPs weren't on the list, but El Cams were, so I took a chance. I had to trim the plastic a bit to allow the unit to project through, but all in all, its perfect.
The gauges are Sunpros from AutoZone.
I really didn't want to mount them on the lower dash as they are hard to see and come too close to the knee with the bench seat slid forward. Thanks to Pontiacs dash layout, I didn't have to.

The water temp sender mount was a bit of a challenge on a 3.8 buick. I replaced the water neck with a new one from NAPA made out of cast iron. I was able to drill and tap it for the adapter. The oil pressure had to be run from a tee at the stock idiot light switch. I decided to run copper tubing, due to the length.As you can see, the 2 1/2" tach fits perfectly in one of the AC vents. All the idiot lights still work. I used red 194s to backlight its corresponding gauge

 

[1979ratrod]

looks really good man

 

[9a pilot]

The car was originally left over from an estate. It's a long story. I use it for daily 70 mile round trip commutes. It's the only car I own that runs on 87.
When I got the car in late 2009, it had 102K on it. It now has 118. It's a complete low option car, but weathered.
Kinda cool, reliable, but definitly obsolete(which is OK by me). It gets 22mpg(highway) and 15-16(!) on surface streets. The AC is pretty decent, even with 134a.

 

[Intragration]

Nice looking car. That's one of the cool things about the Pontiac dash. Good job!

 

[Longroof79]

Nice looking GP. It's cool when you can find them all original and not bastardized. You gotta love the Pontiac dashes. Great for aftermarket gauge placement. I have one that will probably get installed in my car.
As for the radio installation. I have noticed that they don't offer an install kit for a GP.
The gauges look good..but seem to get lost in the openings. Are they smaller than the 2 1/8" gauges?

 

[9a pilot]

Nice looking GP. It's cool when you can find them all original and not bastardized. You gotta love the Pontiac dashes. Great for aftermarket gauge placement. I have one that will probably get installed in my car.
As for the radio installation. I have noticed that they don't offer an install kit for a GP.
The gauges look good..but seem to get lost in the openings. Are they smaller than the 2 1/8" gauges?

I bought those gauges in a three pack. I thought I was just going to keep them in the supplied panel and mount them on the lower dash. I did that in my other G body a long time ago and hated that they were out of the normal scan path and limited forward seat travel. After mulling it over for weeks, and going into the dash to change a speedo cable and examining the construction of the idiot light cluster, it just made sense to put them there. I got lucky. In my opinion, anything bigger would have been much harder to retain the stock idiot light functions and general structure of the cluster.
The GEN light, as I later found out, MUST work or you end up asking a friend for a ride to the parts store for a new battery. Anyway, the 1.5" gauges still require some Dremil action to accomodate the sender passage leads. The stock idiot lights still function. I simply replaced the stock bulbs with 194 reds. This causes the affected gauge to back-light red. The stock array of white 194s is also still in place except behind the volt meter. There I used one of the supplied peanut lights and soldiered the leads to the printed circuit contacts. The gauges are perfectly visible.
My goal is alter the car as little as possible and blend everything. In reterospect, I think I would have gone with Stewart Warners, but this car being a low option base GP with a 3.8, I just needed something basic. I placed empasis on workmanship and clean routing. I didn't find anyone who added aftermarket instrumentation to an 80's era N/A 3.8 to advise me.
One thing else I did was incorporate connecters into the 1st three inches of tach leads to enable easier removal of the bezel should the need arise.
The gauge install actually snowballed into a timing chain replacement, but I wont go there. Lets just say the more work I do to the 'free' car, the more attached to it I get.


The stereo install kit I used was Scosche kit GM1504W(for woodgrain), BTW. It was the only one that covers at least a couple of G bodies.
I figured that was the best place to start.