Ive got a few progress pics. I got my adapter plates in, and I didnt have to trim the tunnel lip to get everything to fit. I am on the fence about trying to fab a full engine cover out of aluminum, or just using the stock cover and having the coils showing, Im going to have to look at it some more. I also cleaned up my harness with directions from LT1swap.com. It was really pretty simple once I got all of the old tape and wiring loom off.
I still need to put new loom on the harness and figure out where I am going to mount everything. I am using the stock fusebox from the donor truck, so Im sure I will just mount it near its original location.
I picked up a cluster from a 02 camaro, because I have seen on here that a few guys tried to make them work with their swaps, and I figured it would be worth the 75$ to try to make it work, as opposed to 400$+ for new gauges, or trying to get adapters to make the old ones work. My little brother did this whole conversion while I was at work, so I have to give him credit on how well this turned out....
Heres what I started with....
Got an old gauge cover from a friend that was pretty thrashed. Cut it out to get the new cluster to fit in. Theres a bracing piece around the backside of the gauge cover, so we figured thats where we would cut to, to keep it strong.
sheetmetal template to figure out what parts of the faceplate will show thru and what will be blacked out.
We made it out of 1 piece of lexan, taped off what we wanted to show thru, and painted the rest from the backside, so its all one smooth piece, and the black will never get scratched off. This is how we do our lexan racing windshields.
The gauges are set in a little bit to make it look natural, and we made L brackets to hold it nice and rigid.
I am very happy with the way it turned out, nice and clean, and doesnt look too out of place. What do you guys think??
Next on the agenda is get the fuel system rounded up, PCM flashed, finish wiring, get a cruise control switch from an early 90s truck/van, and get a 1 piece driveline to replace the 2 piece. Then its time to figure out what I want to do for a seat, either recover the original( has a bunch of broken springs) or get something else, find a 6 lug disk brake kit for the front, and figure out if I want to lower it some more.