Here are a few more pictures of the Vintage Air AC install, as well as the pictures of the dash pad and gauges install! The OER repro dash pad isn't that great, but I think it's going to turn out ok once I'm done... I think I'm going to glue the pad to the metal on the left side to lock it in place. Otherwise, things are mostly ok. If you want to see the pictures/writeup of the Vintage Air install, click here.

First step was cleaning and dyeing all of the newly acquired dash pieces. Some soapy scrubbing, and coat of lacquer thinner, and some SEM black later and they looked like new! :)

Before I could re-install the dash pad, I needed to connect up the end AC vents to the flex hose for the Vintage Air unit. Unfortunately, the flex hoses and the Vintage Air attachments are 2.5", while the AC vents connections are about 3". Hmmm.. Time to get creative. After yet another trip to the local Lowes HW store, I came back with some interesting rubber plumbers tape and some duct tape. The rubber tape is a stretchy rubber substance that you wrap around the item you are trying to seal, and as you wrap it it sticks to itself and forms a seal. I used that first, and then covered it with duct tape so it wouldn't come undone... See the picture below.

Ok, now time for some cursing, shoving, 'persuading', and the dash pad goes in! It's not an easy job to get everything lined up by yourself, but it can be done! :)

And the other side

Here are a couple of fun shots... Don't think I'm gonna have much of a glovebox! :)

Now, while no glovebox is not a problem, tight quarters for the radio are! :(

Ok, now back to the instrument panel. With the dash pad and wiring harness in place, it was time for the gauges! Unfortunately, since I've been lazy, I had never hooked up my Painless Wiring harness to all the gauges... So, 2 hours worth of labor later, and I was in business! :)

And a bad shot of the front side... Since the last pictures, I've added the turn signal lights, high beam indicator light, and the wiper and headlight switches.

To get the cluster in the car, I had to drop the steering column, again... Ugh! Once I did, the panel and gauges went right into place! :)

I'll wrap this up with some pics of the final stage of the install for the day.... It's so nice to make some progress like this!!!