Black Gauge cluster for my 76.....

[jrhone]

So one thing that always kinda bothered me about the 74-76 cars was the faux wood gauge cluster. I never understood it. So I bought a clean older cluster. Popped it on the car and realized the speedo was not working. So I decided to pull the speedo out of my 76 cluster and pop it into the old cluster. Fit without an issue and works great. Its interesting that the new gauges have the lines on them while the old ones are just black...I guess this is a hybrid....Speedo has lines in the center...other gauges dont....Sometimes its the little things....

[Chamonix72]

I went from a hybrid cross-hair, black gauge cluster to this:

I always liked the silver dollars better. And I've tracked down a matching speedo that is calibrated for my upcoming LSD swap.

IIRC, the cross-hair are the latest gauges.

[Scott Sislane]

that woodgrain panel actually pops off, and then you have the black face the older style has. I think they're identical, but not 100% sure.

I have a blue interior so...

[Baikal.2002]

that woodgrain panel actually pops off, and then you have the black face the older style has. I think they're identical, but not 100% sure.

You'll need the glass retention rings to do that.

[JohnS]

I always thought the little "Brake Failure" button for testing the light that is supposed to come on when the brake fluid is low is kind of cool on the older clusters...

[esty]

someone will correct me if i'm wrong but there were the silver dollar gauges in the early cars, the 73 had the all black gauges, like your 2 outside gauges, without the cross hairs...74-76 had all cross hair gauges like your speedo

[Guest Anonymous]

If the miss-match bothers you, I think it would be pretty simple to pop in a functional 71-73 speedo. They show up on parts for sale forum all the time.

BTW, I did kind of the same thing on my '76: switched to the silver dollar instruments. Got a speedo from an old 1600, the other gauges from an early '02. Some of the indicator lights didn't work, so I brought back my '76 fuel/temp gauge and screwed on the silver dollar face.

Hugh

[Guest]

After you "pop off" the faux wood veneer, cannibalize an earlier cluster for the glass locking rings and then mount the crosshair instruments back in, this is what you get. macitz AT Gmail doT com.

mac.

[Napes]

As another possible solution for the cross hairs, if the difference is not something you want to live with, would be to get some white pin-stripe press on tape and add it to the outside guages.

It's possible only the terminally-anal would notice the way they are now, with the exception, of course, of yourself.

Bob Napier

[ought2]

If you aren't a stickler for originality, you can do some fun mixing and matching.

[ibjettin]

I never liked the fake wood either, it seems so out of place. I sanded mine off and worked it down to a 100 grit for a nice black finish. I also put in some chrome gauge rings and colored the needles red.

It makes my 02 go way faster

[02Coastie]

I never liked the fake wood either, it seems so out of place. I sanded mine off and worked it down to a 100 grit for a nice black finish. I also put in some chrome gauge rings and colored the needles red.

It makes my 02 go way faster

Nice looking setup! Where did you get the rings?

[ibjettin]

I bought them some time ago from another FAQer, but he provided this link:

http://tuning-shop.co.uk/e114-1502-1602-2002-chrome-dial-rings-surrounds-196677-p-814.html

[jrhone]

Nice. I'll do that with my 76 cluster!

[mrgesq]

I found your thread looking for instructions on how to get the glass out of the cluster. Maybe it was just a long day, but i can't figure out how to remove the aluminum retaining rings on the backside of the glass without going nuts on them and risk mangling the retainer ring or breaking the glass. What's your secret?

Mike

76 Malaga (Molly)