The big thing planned this year is a custom wire harness. Gauges and a few other things are "sub-projects" relating to the harness.



I officially got started this past weekend with the fitting of a 3 3/8" tachometer.



I started with a spare instrument panel, cutting the hole with a 3 3/8" hole saw. This is a pretty easy procedure on 61 - 66 trucks as the center is already marked if you choose to use one of the locations to the right or left of the speedo.







My original plan was to hammer the bead flat. I even made a dolly out of some 4140 steel. But a friend was with me and suggested I see how the tach looks with the bead. I'm glad he was around because I think it looks good. It gives it some extra dimension.







This presented a problem with the clamping of the tachometer to the panel as the clamp does not sit flush against the panel. My solution is to make a ring that takes up the space. So I took a trip to my local metal supplier and found a piece of .080" 6061 aluminum sheet in the drops bin. I didn't want to get another hole saw so I marked the center, applied some layout dye and scribed a line for the OD of the ring with a compass scribing thing - I'm sure there's a technical term. I then cut the center out with the hole saw, rough cut the OD with a hack saw and finished it with a bench grinder.







And now it should clamp quite securely.







The speedo should arrive some time next week.


Lawrenceville, GA