Irreversible Modifications

I have modified just about everything I own to better suit my needs. Houses, cars, computers, tools, furniture, phones – all of it can expect to be changed from the way I received it in some way. Everything from appearance to functionality. I guess I haven’t modified my kitchen utensils. Are plates an example of manufacturing perfection?

This is why a restoration is not something I’m interested in, though I do get it. 50+ year old cars are pretty rare and get more so every day. Having a pristine example is a neat way to kind of travel back in time. There are places that license the original GM manufacturing processes and reproduce near OEM parts, such as that center console gauge set I have. If Pandora had the original engine and transmission, I’d feel compelled to restore her. And doing so would instantly become no fun. It becomes even more expensive. You are unable to take advantage of more recent improvements in areas like handling. My focus would shift from getting the car the way I want it to be to details like making sure the sticker under the hood is in the correct location.

Still, I don’t want to hack my car up excessively. I don’t want to cut up the body or hack out the rear end to tub it out. I avoid even drilling new holes, though I’ve had to. I intend to keep the original parts I replace on her, like the heater box, with the idea that I could always return her to the way I got her down the road. I never will, of course. I’ll have a box in the shed full of stuff that will never see the light of day again because of this nostalgic idea.

Some things will have to be changed in a way that they can’t be brought changed back. The first of these changes happened last night with the instrument panel. Mine isn’t in exceptional shape – it is scratched up with use and an area around one of the mounting holes broke off, having cracked at some point in the past.

The fuel gauge is being replaced with a tachometer, and a smaller fuel gauge will go in the center where that Camaro script is. The instrument panel is a solid piece of plastic, including that center area. There is a small cutout in the center of the fuel gauge well for the gauge connectors and mounting holes. The tach requires a larger center cutout for the connectors and different mounting holes and that center section just has to come out completely. I found a template for the tach that helped out a bunch, but that center bit was just kind of eyeballing it and taking the plunge.

Making the first cut was hard, but once I did I was committed. The tach cutout went pretty quickly, but the center bit was a lot of slow enlargements until the bezel fit in. It ended up coming out better than I thought it would.

I don’t have screws that really fit, so a hardware store run is in order. However, with clever use of a bag of candy, I was able to get a mockup of what it will ultimately look like.

It looks so good! I could have gotten by with a tach strapped onto the steering column or went with ultra slick digital gauges, but this is what I’ve been envisioning for decades. Maybe it will change again in the future, but for now, this is perfection.