Finally got the gauges all in and bolted down ready for action once I get back into the motor, seats are already bought and paid for, just waiting to either have them shipped or go down myself. Still have to hook up the MSD 3 step and line locks, get a radio, paint the plastic, so hopefully the interior will be done shortly, sucks I gotta sspend $170 for the dash pad, just to cut in in half basically and throw the rest in the garbage-nobody has an intact dash pad anywhere in a boneyard. Oh, shifter boot needs made yet as well as a few other small items I'm forgetting or too lazy to write about.

 

nother

 

3rd

 

last for now

 

looks awesome man...i want!:hail:

 

BTW-YES the steeering wheel will be replaced-later!

 

Any troubles mounting the new door panels?

 

Yeah it looks really good....How hard was it to do the door panels??? I really like the colors of them....Where did u get them???

~RJ~

 

I bought the dash/door panels from Bruce at Hawks third gen, great guy to deal with. I wrote a guy back yesterday kinda explaining everything-waaay long. It sucks, plain and simple. Set aside the better part of a day for trail fitting everything back and forth on the door, I have brand new weatherseal as the car just got back from being painted and that made it harder yet cause the new stuff is some damn hard and non-compliant, so I had to trim around parts of the door panel for weather seal provisons, nothch out under the inside belt molding for the humps/bump outs on the tops of our doors, cut all the factory L shaped plastic brackets off the back of the panels for mounting in a 4th gen, cut the lock rod and rebend it so the manual door lock would slide back and forth, I kept the 3rd gen door handles, but I've read you can mount 4th gen and make them work, but none the less I had to cut my door handle so now it's L shaped (new pod is too small to contain the old handle, cut the hole in the door handle pod bigger to slide the handle through. Then I used those interior trim scres with the tapered washer underneath the heads-like in the rocker panel plastic, and screwed them into the outer lip surrounding the door panel. Had to drill new holes for the door handle so I could ancor it to the door itself-it was very flabby without the screws in there-no it's just like new. I used the guys web page that did this install step by step and kinda modified on my own where I saw fit-he did'nt retain the inside belt molding so he has a huge gap between the panel and the glass, where mine is tight. I guess I would say this is'nt for the faint of heart, becasue I paid a good chunk of change for this stuff and if I screwed up big time, what would I have done except bought some more pieces and spend even more money. But as I said if you have the tools, fabbing skills, and time I think it looks neat inside there, kinda gives the car a whole new feel on the inside.

 

Damn that looks sweet. My car will look like that soon I hope. I bought a black 2002 dash back in december but havent seen it since but thats another story. Anyway, what kind of guages are those? I was going to use the 4th gen guages but I would have to convert my speedo to electrical and haven't gotten a good answer on how to do that yet. So i may be going back to the idea of making a custom panel like you did. Is that just a piece of sheet metal the guages are in? what size are they(the tach and speedo) Any new tips on the dash install that haven't ever been posted? and for the dash pad don't spend $170 on one. They are all over the internet. I got mine for brand new condition for $50+$15 shipping.

 

Man, I've obviously been searching for the dash pad in the wrong spot, where did you have luck?, **** I'll order it yesterday for that price. Anyways, I've read the camero and firebird dashes are different, but I assume they basically bolt up the same. I just dropped my steering column, had a buddy help slide it into place, actuallay there were 2 holes that lined up perfectly in the old firewall and the new dash where I could put the screws in to hold it in place. I have it much easier than everybody else because I gutted the entire dash since this is just my nice day and every weekend 1/4mi. beater, so I did'nt have to go through all of the HVAC headaches and the rest of the required stuff for a daily driver-I cheated! All the gauges are Auto Meter Phantom series, this new dash layout only allows 3 3/8" tach and speedo. The ones in the old HVAC holes are 2 5/8" and fit PERFECTLY!!! I was pumped about that, saved alot of work. Behind the gauges I originally wanted vinyl carbon fiber for the "look" but nobody in a 75mi. radius carried it on hand and it would have took too long to order from my buddy as I'm trying to keep a schedule and have the entire car done in a 4 month stretch since the track opens in April, so I ended up useing gunmetal grey, not what I really wanted, but it'll work till next winter. I just pulled the glass off the cluster, and all the electronic BS off the back, laid out the holes and used the die grinder with a carbide bit and cut them out, I think next winter though I will use a thin piece of metal to lay the new grafics on, because with the gunmetal grey color and the texture of the dash insert it makes it look like duct tape. John if you can steer me to a dash pad for a 99 dash please help me. All the extra change could go somewhere's else. OR...pm me with a pic of yours and I'll pay you $75 plus shipping?!

 

damn... thats progress..

 

What website did you follow..

 

http://www.fortunecity.com/silversto...h/63/index.htm