Has anyone installed Dakota Digital gauges in '70-'72 A Body, sweep style dash?

[chevymike]

Hi all,

I am frustrated beyond belief. I bought a set of Dakota Digital VHX gauges for my '72 El Camino with the sweep style dash (Non SS). I have installed all the senders and run the wires into the cab. This should have been the hard part. Well it's not even close to the hard part. I pulled my dash apart, removed the factory cluster and went to install the new VHX setup. The aluminum bezel doesn't fit, it is too wide. I did a bunch of measurements, talked with DD tech support and based on their specs, it seemed my bezel was slightly oversized. They shipped me out a new bezel, which I got yesterday and it doesn't fit either and measures out the same exact size. Talked with DD today and they are saying they have sold hundreds of these and no problems. I have only been able to find one install of this style on the web (lots with the SS style dash). They want me to ship my whole dash back to them (the whole 4' long piece since it's all one part). I have attached pics to show how much off they are and the dash does not flex to attempt to even squeeze them in.

Has anyone installed this model and do you have any pics or did you have problems with the install?

124377124376124378

[chevymike]

So to update this, I got the new bezel which ended up being the same size as my original one. Talked with DD a bunch of times and they offered to custom build one to my measurements. Since I now had a spare bezel, I had a machinist buddy mill down .064" off the sides (total) and I was able to test fit last night. It is tight but it FITS!

Hopefully will get things wired up tomorrow and see it come to life. I have to say, Dakota Digital customer support has been top notch. They do not know why I ran into this problem but they were going to do whatever they could to make it right. They had 5 people working on this issue. Definitely a shout out to them. I'll post up pics once it's all done.

[gray86hach]

I have installed 3 and working on the 4th soon they have all been perfect.

Tim

[chevymike]

I have installed 3 and working on the 4th soon they have all been perfect.

Tim

Have these all be sweep style 70-72 El Camino's and Chevelle's or something else? DD has been baffled by it too.

[chevymike]

Guess I never got pics posted so here you go. Installed and working (but still had the protective plastic on).

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2016/03/IMAG0847-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2016/03/IMAG0848-1.jpg