Let's face it, as much as we love our classic trucks, when it comes to the instruments, our factory gauges usually come up short. With a major portion of our budget usually going into the engine, it's extremely important to be able to monitor the vital signs to make certain everything's running properly.
While there have been numerous billet aluminum dashes available over the last few years, Covan's Classic Automotive Specialties decided to take a little more modern approach and has started manufacturing a custom dash for the '67-72 GM trucks that has a totally different look. The dash panels are available in four different finishes (carbon-fiber, brushed aluminum, burl wood, and black finish) and feature state-of-the-art electronic gauges from Auto Meter.
We recently had a chance to see one of the carbon-fiber pieces while we were at Early Classic Enterprises (who will be offering the panels) and followed along with them as they assembled it to go into a '72 Suburban. Take a look as we highlight the features and assembly of this new dash.
To begin the assembly process, the gauges need to be fitted into the dash bezel. For a seamless installation, the Auto Meter gauges are held in place by a mounting strap on the backside of the bezel. This allows for a cleaner look with no visible fasteners. | 
The location of the LED turn signals and high beam indicator are up to you. We chose to keep them closer together near the top of the dash bezel. Once the gauges had been mounted, we measured and marked the location for each LED light. | 
We then carefully drilled the holes for the LED turn signals and high beam indicator, and then snapped the LED indicator lights into place. |
The supplied wiring loom not only powers each gauge, but it also provides a bulb assembly to backlight the gauge face at night. After routing the harness and plugging everything in, the LED indicator wires are spliced in using the supplied butt connectors. | 
Now for the moment of truth: the factory underdash harness plugs into the original dash cluster to power the circuit board, but the wire plug used by GM was not designed to mate with a female plug. Therefore, the instrument plug on your original dash harness needs to be cut off in order to splice the old and new looms together. | 
The good news is that all of the necessary connectors and wiring schematics are included with the kit. |
The '67 and '68 GM trucks had both the wiper and headlight switches mounted on the left side of the instrument cluster, with a single right-side opening reserved for a choke cable. The '69-72 trucks have the wiper switch on the right side and the headlights on the left. The Covan dash has provisions for just the two upper mounting holes, so one dash can be utilized in any of the '67-72 trucks. The bezel shown here is a prototype '67-68 model, and is currently not in production. The current dash does not have the lower left-side indentation. | 
Our dash is going to be installed into a '72 truck, so only the top hole on the left side needed to be opened up, as well as the one on the right side. | 
The factory oil pressure gauge is a mechanical design that had a copper tube running through the firewall to the gauge. The oil pressure builds up in the engine and pushes oil through the tube--allowing the gauge to read the pressure. The Auto Meter gauge is an electronic piece that uses a sending unit which transmits a pressure signal to the gauge. The sending unit is supplied in the kit, and it threads into the back of the engine block near the distributor. |
The factory speedometer was mechanically operated via the speedo cable. The Auto Meter electronic model requires a vehicle speed sensor (available from Auto Meter) that replaces the speedo drive gear in the transmission tailshaft. The VSS generates a pulse as the output shaft spins, and it sends the
information to the electronic speedo. The added bonus of the electronic unit is that it can be calibrated by driving the vehicle a measured distance of exactly two miles and pressing the reset button on the gauge. This is a bonus for truck owners that have changed their tire sizes or gear ratios from stock. The VSS pictured here is a GM unit. | | |