What is Will Thinking: Working on my truck

OK, so I got an early Christmas present this year, and it was something I really needed. One of my sisters-in-law got me a new dash instrument lens for my 78 Chevy truck. Sweet! Figured I'd do a little post on the installation of the lens. Took me about 20 minutes to complete, and the difference it made was night and day.

Difficulty: easy - pretty much anyone who knows which end of a screwdriver is the business end should be able to handle this one.

Tools: Phillips screwdriver, 1/4" nut driver, and a teeny tiny flathead screwdriver are all you need. I also kept some plastic ziploc baggies around to hold all the extra screws so none of them would disappear.

First, some before pics:

As you can see, it's hard to even tell how many miles are on this poor truck, which had a good 25 years of being used as a company vehicle for a landscaping business before I bought it a few years back.

On to the installation!

Using the Phillips screwdriver, remove all the screws you can see that hold the dash bezel on. I think there's 8 or so, and they're pretty easy to find. Remove the knobs for the radio controls by just pulling them straight out. Also remove the lower steering column cover, which is held on by 4 screws. They're the same size as the others, so don't worry about mixing them up. Here's a pic of the lower steering column cover removed:

CAREFULLY remove the dash bezel from the dash. The only part that took a little finesse was the HVAC vent at the top right of the instrument cluster, which is attached to the dash bezel itself.

This is what you should see once you get the dash bezel removed:

Next, remove the little knob that adjusts the clock by using a tiny little flathead screwdriver.

Once that's done, switch to the 1/4" nut driver to remove the 6 bolts that hold the instrument lens to the gauges. Two on the left, two in the middle, and two on the right are all you need. I put these into my second ziploc bag so I could find them later. Remove the instrument lens, and this is what you should see:

Installation of the new instrument lens is pretty straightforward, there are even guide holes to keep you straight. This is a good time to clean the new instrument lens, since it's out and probably a little dusty. Also try to keep from getting any fingerprints on the new lens over any of a gauges.

Once the lens is in using the 6 bolts, don't forget to reinstall the clock adjuster knob now. I found it was easier to do this part now rather than with the bezel reinstalled, since you have more room in which to work.

Reinstall the dash bezel while keeping in mind that you have to be a bit patient with that upper right HVAC vent. Once it's in place, grab the ziploc baggie with all those screws in it and your Phillips head screwdriver and get to work putting all the screws back in place. I like to not tighten any of the screws down until I get all of them started. Doing that just makes it easier to maneuver around to get the holes to line up correctly, in my opinion. Once you get them all started and the bezel arranged, tighten them down until they're snug. There's no need to really crank down on any of the screws, as doing so can crack your bezel, and those aren't nearly as cheap as the instrument lens.

Lastly, re-install the lower steering column cover and you're done. Here's a couple pics of the finished job:

As you can see, my dash bezel needs a little help. I think down the road I'm gonna go with a billet aluminum cover to go over my dash bezel like this one, from 73-87chevytrucks.com

Anyhoo, you're all finished. Here's a few comparisons between the old instrument lens and the new one. It's amazing how nasty this thing was, and also pretty remarkable how easy it was to put the new one in.