73-80 dash in an 86

[sixshooter798]

Hey folks

Been working on my buddy's 86 Blazer, removing all the ugly tweed the PO wrapped the door panels and dash in.

The dash could not be salvaged, so at pick-n-pull today we grabbed a ridiculously nice dash pad from a 78 pickup. The dash mounted up just fine, but his gauge bezel didn't mount up very correctly.

Am I correct in assuming I will need a bezel from a 73-80 to make this swap work? Or is there something additional I will need to do?

[sixshooter798]

It would appear the 73-80 dash is not going to fit into the 86 Blazer.

Looks like 81+ have the wiper switch on the column, not in the bezel like a 73-80. The hole for the headlight pull switch is in different places on the bezels, so unless I can move the headlight switch, I'm screwed.

[motornut]

on the weekend i tried my 89 dash on the 78 jimmy seemed to fit ok ,and the bezel seemed to fit too.The pad is of course deeper but holding the bezel the headlight switch didn't seem off

[ECU PIRATE]

When I got my 82', it had a 77-80 dash pad and bezel in it. I am in the process of converting my whole interior to a 77-80 Cheyenne set up. Everything fits with no problems (wiper switch is on the dash). I think it actually looks better than than 81-87 set up

[sixshooter798]

OK cool guys thanks for reassuring me. Its trying to rain here so I may not mess with it today.

[sixshooter798]

This combination will not work without some tweaking. The 86 Blazer has the wiper switch on the column, not the dash. I can move the Blazer's headlight switch down to accommodate a 73-80 bezel, and fill the hole on the bezel where the wiper switch would be.

My trip to pic-n-pull did not yield a usable 73-80 cluster. I wish people wouldn't go to just break things!

So now I can either keep looking for a 73-80 bezel (i'm not buying one. $100 is TOO much) or drive about 60 miles to get a NOS dash pad for $150.

What do you guys think?