My new dash guages came last Friday!
The dash gauges have been an on going issue with me. The original gauges are in pretty bad shape and needed to either be rebuilt or replaced. Rebuilding is an expensive option and when you are done the best you can say is that you have rebuilt 1956 analog guages. The major problem with replacing the guages is finding a speedometer housed in a 5 7/8″ case. A couple of years ago I got a Haneline Gauge catalog that said they were offering a guage set for a 1959-60 Chevy Impala, which had a very similar dash layout to my Dodge. The Impala speedo was just under 6″ in diameter and the 4 smaller gauges were around 2 3/4″ which was also a good fit to my dash. On the plus side the speedo was supposed to have a high beam indicator and turn signal indicators, the downside was that it didnt have a tach or clock.
Long story short, I ordered their gauge kit and after 4 months, I still had not received it. After several calls I finally was told that they were out of the black face guages which I had ordered and the white ones as well. I said okay, when will you have them in stock, they said we dont know, but we can send you a set of cream faced guages. I told them that would work for me and told them to ship them. After another 4 weeks they were finally delivered. The 4 smaller guages were indeed cream colored. The speedo was several shades darker, almost gold in color and it didnt have the damn built in indicators! Oh and the font used on the smaller gauges was different than the one used on the speedo! After several calls to Haneline, I was told that I could return everything and they would send back my money, or I could live with it… ah American customer service at it’s best. Not having any other options I lived with it. I talked with a local jeweler that restored clocks and had him set up to redo the speedo face to match the other guages.
At the Goodguys Show last spring I picked up a Dakota Digital catalog and lo and behold they had a replacement guage set for the ever popular 1959-60 Chevy. Thank god for Chevrolet, it seems like I can always find a Chevy part that will work. I called Dakota Digital and talked with a very helpful sales rep that told me they were preparing a universal 5 guage set that was based upon the Impala guages. I put in a pre order at that time and was notified last week that it was ready to ship!
The faces are a graphite gray design with blue LCD displays, back lighting and pointers, and it has a tach, turn signals, high beam indicator and also a clock and a readout for what gear your transmission is in! Life is good. I unpacked everything today and hooked the system up to a battery to check it out, it is pretty neat!
Dakota Digital VHX-1015 Guage Set
If you are looking for guages for one of your builds, I strongly suggest that you contact Dakota Digital, excellent quality, good price and CUSTOMER 1ST SERVICE!