[Al T.]

So I tested (it worked!!), disassembled, cleaned, reassmbled, and installed the Tach I had last night. What a difference it makes in the look of the dash compared to the block off plate that used to be there!



Unfortunately now it makes the Sunpro gauges under the dash look really crappy.



I see lots of GTO's with the 3 gauge pod mounted right where these are. Was the 3 gauge pod ever sold over the counter by Pontiac dealers or were they just an add on by owners who wanted better engine status? What manufacturer of the gauge package would have been installed "in the day"?

Thanks in advance,

Al T.

[Keith Seymore]

I'm not aware of a Pontiac dealer "over the counter" gage package. I took a quick look at my '63 accessories catalog and didn't see anything in there.

Sun Tach and Stewart Warner gages were our brands of choice, back in the day...



K

[John V.]

Keith, Dealer Accessory Packages for the '64, '65, and '66 Tachs were listed in the '66 MPC.

I never realized how similar the old Sun Tach sweep was to the '64 Tempest style. Looks like Pontiac may have copied the style. Seems to me Sun went to the 270 deg sweep around that time, yours may predate the car? And of course the factory Tempest tach had the bigger sweep for '65.

Do you think your Dad would have installed the Sun Tach if the Rally Gauge option had been installed as planned?

Oops, misunderstood. I thought you were referring to the Accesory Tach packages til I read the rest of Al's post.

Agree with Keith, Pontiac did not offer an Accessory Gauge package.

One of the things I envy most about the '65 is that Pontiac offered the Rally Gauge package for the first time, only idiot lights offered for the '64 Tempest.

So yes, very common to see all manner of 3 gauge setups added under the dash of a '64 (and '65s too since many were not ordered with the pricey Rally Gauge option). A Suntune brand (surely Sun would have challenged that knockoff name?) 3 gauge cheapo set was/is hanging under the dash on my car, installed by a prior owner.

Actually, I think yours look pretty decent!

I agree with Keith, the "known" brands were Sun & Stewart Warner.

But I'm pretty sure you could find cheap "knockoffs" in the JC Whitney catalog even in the '60s. I'm sure they were selling them in the early '70s when I started getting their catalogs.

BTW, mine was setup just offset toward the right of the radio.

My first '64 did not have a gauge package, I installed an FM converter at an available screw location around that same place. FM converters were another common add on for our AM radio only cars back in the '70s.

[Old Man Taylor]

Originally Posted by Al T.

So I tested (it worked!!), disassembled, cleaned, reassmbled, and installed the Tach I had last night. What a difference it makes in the look of the dash compared to the block off plate that used to be there!



Unfortunately now it makes the Sunpro gauges under the dash look really crappy.



I see lots of GTO's with the 3 gauge pod mounted right where these are. Was the 3 gauge pod ever sold over the counter by Pontiac dealers or were they just an add on by owners who wanted better engine status? What manufacturer of the gauge package would have been installed "in the day"?

Thanks in advance,

Al T.

I had the 3-gauge pod installed by the dealer on my car when it was a few weeks old. It was not an option per se, but you could get a lot of stuff like that done at the dealer. I originally used the Stewart Warner gauges, but later I updated to the 2 5/8" Autogauge cluster. I still have the S-W's around here somewhere. The charge for the gauges and the installation was $50, which was more than half of a car payment at the time.

[FFD]

Agree with everyone and your gauges look good. S/W were most in black and white. The Sun had color like the Sunpro. Some of the popular were blue or green line which would match your tach a little better. Sun's come up on flea bay all the time with the green being the more rarer. 90-95% perfect would be about 50$ a gauge. I see Sunpro came out with a retro tach with Sun on it maybe a set of retro gauges is in the works