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Not much doing on the car yet. We had one freakish week of summer weather then cold and wet ever since.
I made a small wire harness to tap into the existing gauge harness without cutting or tapping into the existing dash harness that is untouched. This new mini harness is to connect the new gauges to the car. I have added some photos.
Last edited by maddoctor; Apr 30, 2023 at 01:05 PM.
The Dakota gauges are in and working. It looked intimidating at first but it was quite easy once I started. Friday I drove to the Catskills NY to Gardner Exhaust to pick up my system. Great material, workmanship and super nice people. Well worth the 16 hour round trip on Friday, even got to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs get robbed of a win, but that's another story. This is the concours system with chambered tail pipes.
Well the exhaust went in nice and smooth, sounds great. Only problem is I won't be driving my car until at the earliest October, if at all. I had a total shoulder replacement on June 19th. I have been waiting for about 3 years or four, but due to covid it was put off. Then, in early June the surgeons office manager called me with an appointment, two weeks later I had a new left shoulder!! I didn't have any pain to speak of but there was and still is a ton of bruising.
My exhaust and gauges look much better.
Heel Well and Quickly! You've got to get behind the wheel of that fantastic machine you are working on!!
19 staples. It wasn't, isn't painful, no pain meds required.
As for my car, I am hoping to get back behind the wheel before the snow flies here, looking for Canadian Thanksgiving, (October 7th or so).
Thank you for the kind words.
Happy 4th to all my American friends.
Vince
Not much doing on the car yet. We had one freakish week of summer weather then cold and wet ever since.
I made a small wire harness to tap into the existing gauge harness without cutting or tapping into the existing dash harness that is untouched. This new mini harness is to connect the new gauges to the car. I have added some photos.
Good luck with that shoulder.
I am in the process of installing my Dakota gauges and have been looking for control side connectors.
What connectors did you use?
I shopped an electrical supply store to see what would work. I used a type of wire connector that fit the car gauge connector.
I did not want to cut the car harness. I looked for connectors that fit the same as the pins on the factory gauges. They worked for both ends, and I used 14 gauge silicon covered wire.
The Dakota gauges are great from appearance to function. I am more than happy with them.
We are having some great late Sept, early Oct weather here in Southern Ontario and from the reports same for NY state and Mass. as well. I took my car out for a cruise the other day and went about 50 miles round trip and got almost 18 miles to the gallon. That was mostly in overdrive,(5th), and cruising at 60 miles per hour. I hope to put more miles on it and go further but for now it is baby steps 🚶♂️.
The crappy weather is on the way so it will soon be time to get it on stands.
Last edited by maddoctor; Oct 3, 2023 at 03:25 PM.
Even if you have the three hole pattern on the fender be prepared to modify the 69 hinges on the hood side to fit the 68 hood. The 69 and 68 bolt hole locations are slightly off requiring the hinge holes to be elongated.
Usually if the hood is high at the cowl you have to raise the hinges in the back. It’s totally counterintuitive to what you would logically think would work
I took my car in to a local body shop on the 29th of April. The plan was to have the doors adjusted and new hood hinges installed. The shop is owned by 2 brothers that took the business over from their father, they are in their mid 50's so they have worked on muscle cars. The doors now line up perfect and the original hood hinges were salvaged. They repaired the rivet points and adjusted the hinge mechanisms on the fenders. They knew what to do, looks great now perfect fit and finish. Now to drive it !!
