Dash Instrument Conversion: BJ8 > BT7

[62BT7]

This will be a fairly obscure question but it never hurts to ask. My car is a mongrel, a '62 BT7 with a '66 BJ8 engine. It looks pretty good and runs well; my non-concours "restoration" is going slow but steady. One thing I'd like to do is make it externally close to accurate. Here's the issue: The current gauges are black-faced off a BJ8 fitted into a BT7 dash. They look good and function well. I'm restoring the dash to match the red interior (the dash currently is black) and have a set of BT7 gauges. Gold faces and, I now realize, significantly different wiring than the BJ8 gauges, at least for the tach. I've seen where BCS offers sets of gauge faces. Just eyeballing the two types of gauges I suspect I cannot use a set of older faces on my BJ8 gauges (e.g. the needles are sort of elevated on the older guages, the BJ8 gauges are pretty flat, etc.) Has anyone tried this? Can you swap older gauge faces onto newer gauges? Many thanks,
-Tom

 

[Keoke]

Well Tom, I ain't sure. However, go down on the Mini Forum or the user's list and find a fella named 'DKlawson'. Send your question to him on a PM. He plays around with these gauges a lot and may be able to tell you if you can pull that trick off or not.---Keoke- /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

 

[62BT7]

Thanks for the response, Keoke. I'd really like the interior to look close to concours, but swapping out wiring harnesses and/or, I now suspect, a different distributor (there's the connection between the tach and distributor, etc.) has cooled my close-to-concours jets. I guess black gauges on a red dash won't look too bad, right? Maybe it'll make my car all the more unique and desirable...ha! I will, however, follow up as you suggest and see if there's a solution.

Thanks again,
-Tom

 

[Keoke]

Tom!, Jest tell them nosey folks the PO ordered it that way.---Keoke-- /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif