I am restoring my 1980 Olds Cutlass Supreme....While I know the car is not worth anything really, it was my first car. I have the body off the frame and have started cleaning the frame for paint and painting control arms and replacing bushings to get this thing back to a rolling chassis...

I want to make this car my own...I want to keep some stuff Like I it was when I was 16...Im 31 now. But I was wondering if I can put the 442 gauges from 1980 to 87 in my car without having to do much wiring. I would like to have the tach, oil pressure, water temp etc.

Thanks.

 

I don't see why not. IDK if the pigtails will be the same.

I put 1980 Delta Holiday 88 gauges in my 85 Delta that did not have oil,water,volts gauges from the factory. Pretty easy set-up. one ground, one 12v switched (ign) and one sending wire. (Except for volts, that's just ign and ground)

I'm still looking for an interior 194 light socket for the volts gauge

 

Yeah it shouldn't be too hard.

 

Yes it's do-able, but you would have to do some rewiring. The harness from the old gage cluster isn't a direct swap to the new one. I had 3 of these cars with the 'rallye pac' gauge clusters and I agree with you 100% they are the way to go. I don't think the gages changed in all those years except for subtle nuances in the appearance. Go for it. Get the shop manual for the car; it will have the info on the wiring you need.

FWIW, my first experience with this gage cluster was in a 1978 Cutlass Calais (burgundy padded vinyl roof over silver body - red interior c/w buckets & console) Wish I'd kept it.

 

Its nice to see someone keeping these cars out of the scrap yard.

 

Actually, they did change some. 78-79 are the same, then in 1980 there are two versions depending on whether the car had the C3 computer ignition. 81-later all had the speed sensor speedometer for computer input. Looks like a tiny propeller behind the speedo face.

Let me look thru the parts piles. I think I may have one of those gage clusters. Can't remember if I sold it or not or exactly what year it is.

 

awesome..glad to hear all of yalls thoughts.....I love this car because it was my first one...good memories.

When I was 18 my parents bought a 72 cutlass convertable that I put a 455 in....The 350 that was in that car is going in my 80 Olds. The old 260 and tranny from it are pretty much dead.

I kind of want to put some features from the early 60's to 80s on my car...maybe mirror the hurst olds from 80 to the 70-72 stripping....maybe in do somthing with the hood...I fear I have watched Overhaulin, Musclecar, Wrecks to Richest to much lately.

Ill post pics tomorrow....Thanks

 

I did this swap in an 80 that was an early car with no computer. I got the gauge set from a 79 and I rewired the plug in the dash. It's a direct plug in, but only the ground wire is in the same location on both clusters. I traced out both PCBs and moved everything around and it worked great. I just had to run an extra wire for the tach as the granny gauge plug never had one.

Just take your time and you'll get it working.

 

How would I be able to tell if my car had a "computer"?

 

Do you have a check engine light that lights up when you put the key in the on position without starting the car?