Vintage truck builders invest enormous effort improving the exterior's appearance, but often ignore the interior. When you are in your truck cruising around, what do you look at the most? Most likely it's your instrument cluster. When we talk about old trucks, these can really start to show their age, and no amount of wax will keep the needles from fading. Dealing with early C10 pickups, '67-72, to be exact, the cluster comes apart very easily. There are even upgrades available. Traditionally, these trucks came with a few empty holes in their symmetrical layout that could house a factory tachometer and a vacuum gauge. If you want to restore what you already have, then you can get the parts that are too far gone to bring back. Alternatively, if you want all the bells and whistles, you can get those too, because as we all know, Chevrolet is the king of interchangeability.
We wanted to freshen up a cluster for one of our project trucks. So we phoned Stan, the man with the plan, over at Early Classic Enterprises-provider of all things early Chevy truck-to get a new bezel assembly and all the parts to convert to a tach/vacuum dash. Not only does he sell the components separately, but he also has complete instrument clusters available. We ordered all the pieces it would take to do the conversion and set forth to restore the rest of the cluster ourselves. Looking back, we should have bought the whole assembly. We found out the hard way that one of our original gauges didn't work. Spending a little extra money at the beginning would have saved us time and some consternation in the long run. Still, we learned how to renew Chevy instruments-a valuable skill considering the hobby we enjoy.
Here's the cluster we took...
Here's the cluster we took out of our non-running project truck. As we stated in the opening, it would have been nice to know whether the gauges actually worked or not before we restored the instruments.
Here is our baby after the...
Here is our baby after the conversion and restoration. We'll finally be able to keep track of the rpm via the tachometer and manage our mpg with the vacuum gauge.
First things first. We had...
First things first. We had to strip this thing down to its bare bones, starting with the printed circuit board. Since this circuit carries electricity to the gauges and lights, these components hold it in place. The bulbs come out by twisting them counterclockwise. Use a 51/416 socket to get the nuts off the gauge studs.
With all the bulbs and nuts...
With all the bulbs and nuts off, we gently removed the circuit. If you're restoring your original cluster, you'll need to reuse this piece. Otherwise, set it aside as we did.
Here is our cluster once we...
Here is our cluster once we took it apart. Besides the gauge studs, the whole assembly is held together with 11/44-inch screws.
Let's go over the different...
Let's go over the different parts we need for the conversion, starting with the plastic lens. It's quite apparent why we need a new one, because most of the numerical information is silk-screened on it, and what good is a tach with no numbers?