[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by north

It can be done by removing the glove box, radio and heater control. Lack of AC simplifies the job substantially but still a knuckle shredder to get the mounting screw on the speedo side of the tach-clock in.

Yep, that's the process and have done it before, just a little time and labor consuming, but what isn't on these great old cars. Yes, thankfully no A/C!

Dennis

[OG68]

Didn't the later tachs/clocks have mounting posts that were open slotted to enable to just loosen the screws, turn and remove/install?

[north]

Originally Posted by OG68

Didn't the later tachs/clocks have mounting posts that were open slotted to enable to just loosen the screws, turn and remove/install?

Not in 69, perhaps later. BTW, there are two different dash tachs in 69, the early ones have a slimmer font and the later have the fatter font like a 70+, same thing for the speedos, gauges and clocks.

[north]

Other things to watch is that the 69 GP clocks and tachs look the same but they have two differences, first they have bulb filters to give a blue light but they also were painted differently in the case, The LeMans GTO ones are white inside, so if you put a GP clock or tach even if you remove the bulb filters you will get a yellowish light instead of the white it should have. Don't ask how I learned this... twice!

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by north

Not in 69, perhaps later. BTW, there are two different dash tachs in 69, the early ones have a slimmer font and the later have the fatter font like a 70+, same thing for the speedos, gauges and clocks.

Can you tell me if this is an early or late design '69 in-dash tach (sorry about the blurry photo)? Now, this is an older repop tach (don't know who's or where/when Dan got it) with the plastic housing. We need to test it first to even see if it even works, otherwise, I have an older Sun tach that is all black to hide a little more effectively.

Dennis

[north]

Your Speedo is the later heavy font. The early 69 font is the same as that on 68’s but with a black background, I believe the switch to heavier font happened pretty early in the model run. They didn’t change any part numbers so I guess they considered them interchangeable.

[SD455DJ]

OK, I have the later heavier font on the speedo (11D on the Trim Tag), thanks North! Does the reproduction tach have the later heavier font as well? The numbers are physically smaller, so it could just be all wrong and not match either early or later font?

Dennis

[north]

I’ve never really studied the repro tachs and I’ve never had one. Tomorrow I’ll take a close up pic of the original tach in my feb built Judge so you can compare it to the repro.

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by north

I’ve never really studied the repro tachs and I’ve never had one. Tomorrow I’ll take a close up pic of the original tach in my feb built Judge so you can compare it to the repro.

Thanks North! Here is a pic I found of the original in-dash tach in my '70 Lemans. It's font size matches the speedo. The repop tach's numbers do look smaller by comparison, so it's a copy of the '68/early '69 font then?

Dennis

[north]

Here are the two dash tachs in my collection, both are factory installed and both are February builds, the illuminated one is in a Framingham Judge and the other is in a Fremont GTO. Both have the heavier font speedo.

[SD455DJ]

Thanks again North. If the repop tach works, we'll install it regardless if it's the early font size...it didn't cost anything.

Dennis

[north]

My earliest build 69 A body is a LeMans (no tach) and it has the heavy font speedo (photo attached) so the switch must of been earlier. I had in the past two GTO’s built in late September and early October and they both had the thin font speedo.

It wouldn’t surprise me, though if you could have a car that would have the heavy font speedo, but might’ve been also built with the thin find tachometer simply because of consuming inventory of the relatively uncommon tachometers.

[SD455DJ]

So, the font difference is thickness, or rather, boldness, not height?

Dennis

[north]

Yeah, I’ve got a bin with a dozen clusters, I’ll see tomorrow if I have an early thin font one, if so I’ll post a pic.

[SD455DJ]

Got the repop in-dash tach installed today, it works and lights up when it's supposed to! It took a little finagling but went in in about 5 minutes without removing anything. We also dyed the original carpets with Rit black dye. We'll give it a second application tomorrow just to make sure it sticks. We also installed the driver front fender and wheel well loosely and will do the passenger side next week. The last thing we did was to fit a proper exhaust manifold pre-heater shroud to the engine.

Dennis

[SD455DJ]

Before & after rear carpet dying...

Dennis

[north]

Even vinyl upholstery paint (like Ames sells) works great on carpeting.

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by north

Even vinyl upholstery paint (like Ames sells) works great on carpeting.

We'll have to try that if the dye doesn't 'stick'. Thanks for the suggestion North.

Dennis

[GTO.PAUL]

Any chance you have some front and back carpet pics of the bottom side before install. Mainly want to see the seat track locations. Looking great! Thanks, Paul

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by GTO.PAUL

Any chance you have some front and back carpet pics of the bottom side before install. Mainly want to see the seat track locations. Looking great! Thanks, Paul

Paul, Here are the only shots I took of the backsides before reinstalling them.

Dennis