Recommendations and/or opinions on dash gauges, please..................
 

I will be making a change to either repop rally gauges or Dakota Digital soon in my 67 Post Coupe GTO. Looking for opinions, if possible. I am particularly interested in how much of a pain it is to interface the factory harness with the Dakota control unit and how much space that control unit requires(?). I have done the Vintage Air conversion on my factory A/C car and the ducts take up quite a bit of space behind the dash. I have read that the repops have some gauge and/or needle color differences from the factory setup, again(?). My car was not a rally gauge car but I have obtained a new rally gauge dash harness so I can go either way at this point, just can't seem to pull the trigger one way or the other..............gettin' old, I guess. If I had a chance to score an original, I'd love to go that way but I know they are scarce and I am running an HEI so I don't know if the original tachs can be refitted to work with them or not. I would welcome any input that you would be kind enough to send along, should you have personal experience or a strong opinion. Many thanks in advance.

Chemnick:old:

FYI I have original in dash tach and HEI, works fine on 68

I bought the reproduction gauges from Ames and do not care for them. Speedometer is noisy, tach needle gets stuck on redline needle and oil pressure gauge grounds out.

On my TA I went with speedhut brand and am extremely happy with them.

I have the repops from Ames on my 67GTO post and have had only 1 issue. Every now and then the tach does not read correctly when I start the car. Usually all that's required is to shut the car off and restart it. The tach is supposed to do a full sweep to max and then back to 0 when you start the car. Sometimes it reads too low after starting. Shut off restart. More of a nuisance than a problem. 14,000 miles.

Since you're asking for opinions... I'm usually not a fan of replacing the factory gauges with aftermarket units. I understand the practical advantages of modern gauges, but the style and typeface used on most if not all aftermarket gauge retrofit packages is unappealing to me. They usually completely clash with the styling of the rest of the car. My vote would be to keep your original non-rally gauges and install a factory style in-dash tach in the 4th pod where the clock/blank would be. Then install a nice looking set of aux gauges under the dash for water temp and oil pressure, such as the Stewart Warner Green Line series (LINK).

Thanks
 

Appreciate the responses. I guess it's time to put on my big-boy pants and make a command decision. My non-rally dash is nicely done and I might be prone to consider the in-dash (4th pod) tach suggestion if I had not done the quartz movement conversion to my original clock. But still, a valid solution to consider. And so the quest goes on. Additional comments/opinions are still welcome.

Chemnick:old:

You can still do the rally gauges and keep the clock...Hood Tach

I have the Dakota VHX gauges in my El Camino and I like them so much I'm going to go that route on my '69 GTO too. I like the look of original but functionality is more important to me than the looks. I also hate the floppy circuit boards that the originals use.

No circuit boards in 67...they(printed circuit boards) actually make for a much cleaner wire harness

I have the Dakota Digital on my '65...

Take a look at the Dakota Digital RTX series..... vintage looking gauge faces....

Probably one of my future projects

I wish Dakota would make an RTX for the '69. If they did, I'd sure go that route. But since they don't, I'll get the VHX.

Hey Jeff:
How much hacking did you have to do to get your existing dash harness tied in with the control box? I read the instructions/setup manual and it sounds kind of involved, no? Thanks!

Chemnick:old:

Nick,
its been about a year since i installed these, but i remember it not being too much of a PITA since our cars are hardwired VS the printed circuit board.
theres only 4 wires that are for the gauges.. oil,temperature.volts and tach,and the directionals. Those wire are in the harness and IIRC, i cut them close to the gauge senders and they were long enough to connect to the gauge ECM. I used velcro and secured the ECM to the firewall side of thre dash. I did this so if I had to add more inputs, I could just remove the gauge ECM and make connections without having to lay under the dash.
There more more inputs on the ECM also... Brake light, neutral safety, Park.etc.
The speedo input and the temperature/ oil pressure inputs are electronic. Dakota supplies the sensors.
It really is a nice dash... but its pricey. I opted for the more expensive setup, but I like the ability of changing the colors of the backlight, making the min-max for the gauge ( a redlight in the gauge comes on if min/max setting is on),. also a low fuel light, plus a tach redline.( the info display flashes red and beeps when redline is met)

Pics of dash

Thanks!!!
 

Thanks, Jeff for all your help. You've gone way beyond. What you've done looks great. I am considering the newest version only because they are closer to the appearance of the original gauges. I'll try not to be a bother but I may tap you on the shoulder sometime again for further info if you have no objection. You are a credit to the forums.

Chemnick:old:

Sure.....let me know what you need.
FYI. I have pictures of installation of the cluster to the dash somewhere... If you need them.
Also, using the Dakota Digital cluster, you lose your original directional light and high beam light, they are intergrated in the gauge cluster,on the speedo face IIRC.
They supply a block off for the factory holes.
I actually installed a yellow LED in the high beam hole for a tach redline shift light.

Jeff