73-80 Pickup Dash into 86 Jimmy

[sixshooter798]

A friend of mine asked me to help him re-do his interior, so here's what we did.

First trip to pick-n-pull yielded a non-cracked dash from a 78 pickup. We cleaned it up and used black vinyl dye to make it look brand new. The wood grain trim on the dash was painted white to match the body of the Jimmy.

The problem: the original gauge bezel would not fit. A 73-80 bezel was needed, so I grabbed the one out of my 77 Cheyenne to make sure that was all that was needed. Nope.
The Jimmy has the windshield wiper switch on the column, not on the dash like most 73-80 pickups and blazers. The headlamp switch holes were in 2 different places.
The solution: got a 73-80 gauge bezel from the local junkyard for $5, and used more vinyl dye to snazz it up. Drilled a hole in the metal part of the das where we needed the headlamp switch to go.
Since the new bezel was going to have a hole where the wiper switch would be, I cut a piece off of the old bezel and super glued it to the back of the new bezel. Looks like a factory block-off plate now.

I'll get some pics up of the finished product if there is some interest in how it looks.

[motornut]

sure i'm goin the other way........wana put tilt and if possible the wipers off the dash in the 78 from the 88