Hood Tach or no Hood Tach, that is the ?
 

Those of you that have added hood tachs to your Prixs, any pros or cons?

The pros are there's nothing like looking at a hood Tach on any Pontiac just makes the car so cool and I love Grand prix's with them they look right at home the con is no Grand Prix in 69 or 70 or 71 ever came from the factory with a hood Tach they were all all all dealer installed if you have a really rare Grand Prix I wouldn't do it to it like I have a 69 SJ HO that has the in dash tach I would love for it to have a hood tach but I won't do it to it but if it's a lesser car, absolutely add it.. it makes the car that much cooler in my opinion

Thanks for the opinion. Confirms what I've been thinkin'. Mines just a regular J, so I don't think I'll be doing any damage by adding one.

not a fan of a Hood Tach on a GP..but guarantee if i wanted one, no one could stop me...

It is without a doubt one of the best views from any Pontiac.

It's a big, wide, long hood, needs something in my opinion.

ive got a 68 gp with a factory hood tach. looks really good in my opinion.
don, have you ever read anything why they didn't offer it from the factory on the 69 up gp's? they seem like they would be a perfect look on them. something to break up that football field length hood.

I was in the same situation and said what the hell and added one.
Pro's-looks very cool at night and stops bugs smears on drivers window
Cons-Crapped out very quickly and had to order another,perhaps the car wash did it?

I agreed that that long hood needed something. Toyed w a shaker in my younger days but couldn't bring myself to it. Mine is stuffed with mini nitrous and fuel gauges but still serves the 'looks' purpose

I prefer the look of a dash tach on a 69 GP but one of my GP's has a hood tach now. It was added by the dealer in 69. As already mentioned hood tachs are a lousy idea from a functionality and durability point of view but the great look more than makes up for the negatives especially with the typical easy lifestyle of a collector car. I draw the line though on putting a hood tach on a car where it was never offered from the factory. The 69 GP is on the edge of this line since they never had a factory installed hoodtach option but since it was factory authorized for dealer install and factory brochures show the hoodtach on GP's I'll give it a thumbs up ;-)

Not worth the trouble is my 2 cents. As cool as I think they are, I would not install one on a car that did not already have one. If you don't care whether or not it works right, is bright enough at night, or doesn't leak, then go for it. But listen, if you decide to go for it, I support your decision! Just know what you may (or may not) be getting into.

I ordered my '69 GTO with one. As others have said, they're just cool ! :cool:

But, if you are actually gonna USE a tach, I definitely prefer an inside tach. We liked the kind that were strapped to the top of the steering column. So, after I took my car off the street, I left the tach on the hood, but used a column mounted tach to shift by. Rotated it so that our 5000rpm shift point was straight up. Worked great in all our racers.

Most racers like the big 5" face models, with a shift light, mounted on top of the dash. I think that may be a bit of overkill for a mostly street driven car.

But again, if all you want is the look, I agree with most of the others who say it'll look cool on a GP.

https://picclick.com/1969-Pontiac-Gr...106861632.html

https://www.smartmotorguide.com/L51902198

https://barnfinds.com/last-gasp-perf...prix-sj-455ci/

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2017/0...and-prix-lj-2/

They look cool either way. Do what you want, it's your car.

In high school my friend Steve added a hood tach to his 69 model J, it looked great and drew lots of attention.

Just make sure you put it in the correct spot on the or it looks silly

I think I'm gonna pass for now. Will see what it looks like after I get it out of the paint shop. May add one later.

Thanks for all the input!!!

I installed one on a friend's 69 J. It had a nice paint job and I was a little hesitant. Bought the correct size high quality hole saw , taped the area off and drilled it. Fortunately, it went on beautifully and looked and worked great for about 6 months. The tach died, vendor replaced it free, but had to go through the entire paint process again. He really likes it.

Repro hood tachs seem to often fail completely or “act up” soon after installation. Humidity is the obvious culprit but unlike factory tachs which generally failed only due to water getting in the repros seem to fail even if they aren’t ever exposed to water.

The best pic ever taken of a 69 GP. From the factory high perf brochure.

If you read the text it says ask your dealer to install one, confirming dealer only status.

The race car driver Jackie Stewart loved the hood tachs...
http://www.pontiacserver.com/pmbird1c.jpg
Caption reads- "HOOD MOUNTED TACH made big impression on Stewart, from race driver's viewpoint. "For most cars" he says "this is where the speedometer belongs". The driver need not take his eyes from the road to read the dial. An important safety feature."
Also from the article-
" One optional feature that appealed to me the moment I climbed behind the wheel is the location of the tachometer. It's directly in the driver's line of vision. Obviously, if it is going to be used to its fullest extent, this is where a rev counter belongs. "