Harbone

Got the dyed upper and lower door panels installed Friday night. Used my original lowers, the uppers and new center inserts I bought on the net. Took a while to get the centers lined up properly and I ended adding an extra screw or two to make everything right but they look great!



Started putting the dash back together. Took my time and tried not to scratch anything. After some cussing and a few scratch's on my hands the dash is in. It did give me time to put a new wire in for the factory temp gauge. I also couldnt decide what to do about the sending unit for the oil psi gauge. After looking at the Sun oil psi gauge I realized I could take the braided line off the Sun gauge and the electric sending unit screwed right on it! Its too tight with my headers to install the sending unit on the block so now I am just going to make a bracket and install the sending unit under the dash and wire it into the gauge. Heres some pics of the refreshed and dyed dash installed.




Cluster is assembled with the oil psi gauge, I bought some LED'sfor the 6 illumination slots in the cluster and WOW, what a difference!




Finished up the lower dash and reinstalled my seat, not gonna recover those till late spring.

olds48

Looks great harbone! Where did you get the LED's for the gauges? I hate dim gauges :evil:

Harbone

I picked them up from Advance Auto Parts, they are about $10 each but worth ever penny! I only used them in the "illumination" spots. I put 168 bulbs in all the rest of the spots, turn signals, bright lights indicator, dummy lights, etc.
I couldnt believe the difference!

They looked like this...

olds48

$10 each :shock: Well,that puts me outta the game. My 66 Pimpala has 21 bulbs total in the dash. Subtract indicators and I'm still looking at at least 15 bulbs! The woes of an 18" long speedometer :lol:

Harbone

Wow! Thats a lot of bulbs!
Now there is one downfall, LED bulbs will not work with the factory headlight switch fader. They are either on or off. I think they need 12 volts and anything below that must have a "pulse" type signal to dim the LED's. You can buy a LED specific fader but would have to hardwire it into the existing harness. The good news is they are bright, but its far from overpowering.

Harbone

Well got a few things done.
Replaced the RS style front bumpers with a new standard front bumper from NPD. Fit nice and didnt have to adjust anything.


Removed thae air shocks and installed some new Monroes
Picked up a set of Z28 wheels and installed new BFG's with 255/60's on the back and 235/60's on the front. These are gonna be my driver wheels until I get the Bogart Fly Lites that were on it sold and look at getting some Vintique Rallys in 17"
Rolled her down the road and snapped some pics. I drove it maybe a mile but it feels a lot better than it did with the fat & skinny tire setup.









Bought a used console, have to clean it up and dye it black. Think I am going to buy a rebuilt factory bump shifter and install it to make the interior look stock.
Needs to get warm out so I can give a good tuneup and take her on the maiden voyage. come on spring!

olds48

Looks good harbone. I think you got a good idea on the shifter. I have been wanting to put a 700r4 in my Impala but I havent been able to find an aftermarket shifter that suits me. Stock is hard to beat. I would love to have a column shift for my car,but I'll never find all of the pieces of that puzzle. Oh,I really like the new tire and wheel combo. I wouldn't touch it

Harbone

I'm going to get some new trim rings and see how I like it. I kept looking at them all day and really am getting attached to the look!

TheYellaBrick

LOVE the orange / black with touch of chrome look !!!!

You going to do any suspension lowering ? It WOULD be more 'drivable' at the current height......

Harbone

I could lower it but if i want it 100% streetable I wont. If you look at that last side shot those big block, big tube headers hang down a bit. The roads out at my house are old blacktop with lots of dips and woops.
I like the stance right now, might throw some Hotchkis swaybars on her just to firm up the ride. Oh yeah, the wheels are dark grey. I was taking pics with my crappy camera. It makes the car look red in the pics, its as orange as orange gets!