Strange '67 Gauge Cluster Housing
 

So I was under the dash of my '67 last weekend finishing up the heater core replacement and noticed that the back side of my cluster was painted that light blue color like the inside normally is. I don't recall ever seeing one this way before as they are usually natural metal on the outside. Being a late built '67 (4th week of June), did they change the process of painting these cluster housings in the final production run? Are there any other owners of late built '67s that have one like this?

I may be mistaken , but that is what most reproductions look like ..

My 67 was an early May build, and it has the natural metal.

Never seen the back side of one of the early cars in anything but natural metal. Seems like the inside might have been that color???

If the car wasn't so amazingly original, I'd be really tempted to say that someone
swapped it. But *that* is based on the full blown restoration mindset that's so
prevalent nowadays. Let's look at it as some random used car in the 70s/80s.
Nobody, and I mean NOBODY went through that kind of trouble just to end up
with a standard gauge cluster.

For whatever reason (overspray, weird looking plating, boredom) one of their
paint guys decided to spray the entire housing. Done. I certainly wouldn't lose
any sleep over it not having being done on Day One. The only nagging question
I have is did it sit in inventory for ages because it was an oddball, or was it used
immediately? At any rate, it was the end of the year and they didn't have much
of a choice.

Survivors are awesome.

Yup,
Nothing better than a Survivor GTO.

About that baby blue gauge cluster ..... send out a tweet to Elon Musk asking him to go through the old ‘67 files of the late build Tempest Series cars from his Fremont plant.

Maybe there’s a memo in the file cabinet explaining that Blue.

60’s

Date stamp or ID tag somewhere?

My 06B ‘67 has a natural finished housing.

Not having an ID tag on the bottom is peculiar, too. If this wasn't such a low-mileage car, I'd feel very confident in saying that the gauge housing was removed and painted at some point. But given the car in question, I don't know what to think.

Yes, I expected to see a nice crisp ID tag, but there's no evidence of it having one. I really doubt that this cluster or dash bezel has ever been messed with.

More Photos Today
 

I was replacing the turn signal flasher today and took a few more photos. Sure looks untouched under there to me. Also, I noticed this harness has all plastic bulb sockets, not metal ones like most I've seen.

Ever try playing hide and seek with a freaking Ninja?
 

Is that the ID tag?
 

LOL... thankfully, no! I did see that, but was unsure what it might be. Looks like possibly some black overspray from the dash bezel there?

Looks like a tag that's circled. Warranty perhaps from an under dash fire?

I'll bet that the plastic sockets go in and out of the bezel easier than the metal ones! I put new LED bulbs into the bezel while it was in the dash, resulting in some serious hand cramps, a lot of sweat and some cursing...

Modern plastic dash lamp sockets vs. metal ones.
 

Just FYI: Those plastic sockets have a built-in improvement over the older metal can sockets.


You can use an open end wrench on that back of those (with a twisting motion) to gain some leverage to make it easier plug and unplug in case you someday need to replace a bad bulb.

OEM gauge clusters
 

Bare metal outside with their paper ID information sticker.

Three of my 66 “XE” cluster.
Note the Red overspray on the bottom of metal cluster and sticker.

Last two of my 65 “WA” cluster.

Chris.

Although its been many years since I replaced any cluster bulbs in an early GTO, I do recall those metal sockets being extremely tough to pull out.

Bingo!
 

Great photos, Chris! Thank you for confirming my thoughts regarding the overspray. I'll try to get some better photos of that tag.

Now that I remember, the rally cluster in the last 65 I owned was that color blue on the outside also. But I always figured it was a reproduction as the car was mostly restored when I purchased it.