Tach mounting in 71-74 B Bodies...

Just curious as to where some of you have mounted tachs in your 71-74 B bodies. Mine is mounted through the dash pad right now only because the pad is cracked like crazy. I'm going to put in a different 5" tach but would like to mount it more permanently as I will not be drilling holes in my new dash pad once I decide to put it in. I was thinking about making a bracket to come through the map light plate or through the vent block off plate and had thought I'd seen pics of both. Any input or pics are always appreciated!

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Mine is a 69, but this might give you some ideas:

Location But I don't want to put holes in anywhere else.

Sorry for the blurry pic, but you can see the tach is at 4,000 blasting down the hightway. Yeah, that's a bag of groceries.

Not a great picture.

There was a guy called "the car farmer" I think that made brackets that mounted under the speaker panel for 71-4 B-bodies but I heard he is outta business. I e-mailed him from a recent post a few months back and he never got back to me. It was a nice piece that was bent around the pad and once bolted in it never rubbed the pad....Maybe someone has one,they could make a pattern and start them up again...I need one....

3/8 rod , bent it to conture to the dash board ,made a mount that bolts under the dash and a mount that the tach is bolted on the rod


















outside pic

mine's similar to pinkduster but i have my tach located where his oil pressure guage is so i can open the ashtray yet..its a 5" autometer with light..1973 charger also..

I have mine mounted in place of the original gauges in the cluster housing. I didn't want the gauges to look "added-on" and a 5" tach and 1 5/8" gauges fit perfectly in the cluster's holes. I had to make an adapter plate for the 1 5/8" oil pressure gauge that is in place of the speedometer. I don't have any pics right now of it tho.
Steve

a couple of times I have removed the map light and fabricated a bracket to attach in it's place. probably won't work for the big tachs but works fine for the regular sized tachs.

It work out well. Easy to mount and won't ruin a good dash pad.

Lots of good looking installs guys. I'm kind of fond of the pillar mount. I have two 73's, both have perfect black pads waiting for install so I want to make sure I don't ruin them with the tach mounting. I also want to make sure the tach is mounted firmly yet placed in a convenient spot for easy viewing. I'll look into it when I get some time in the next day or two and let ya guys know what I decided to do. Thanks as always for the input!

DEPENDS on where you want to mount-it

There are TWO GUYS on-here that probably have 300 lbs of gauges TOTAL ... on both of their cars.

I think they had to BEEF-UP the dash, steering column and even the rear cowl to support all that Xtra weight.

A special note ... the guy with the blue-car did a muchO BESTer job hiding them-there gauges ....

Here's the one in Gina's car.

Dash already had some holes in it so I just bent up a peice of 1" wide 1/8" aluminum.

I bent a piece of aluminum and attached it on the bottom with a longer screw for the map light and velcro on top between the pad and bracket to help position it. I've had it like that for probably 15 yrs.

I was going to do it somewhat like PLUM BAD did on my 72, but now the dash has cracked, so whats the point. If i was going to keep the car i'd just drill it. Right now i've got it hanging out ov the ashtray well (tray is out), though i dont like looking down for the tach. Still, its 100% reversible and cost me nothing.

Now, if i was going to actually build a 71 B-body again, i'd just mount an aftermarket tach in the rallye gauge hole for it and toss the original.

Quote:

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DEPENDS on where you want to mount-it

There are TWO GUYS on-here that probably have 300 lbs of gauges TOTAL ... on both of their cars.

I think they had to BEEF-UP the dash, steering column and even the rear cowl to support all that Xtra weight.

A special note ... the guy with the blue-car did a muchO BESTer job hiding them-there gauges ....

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HAY I resemble that remark