Nice work!!

It amazes me how much tech is out there to make stuff like this possible. 10 years ago you would have to spend a lot of money just to do stuff like this.

Yes I agree. It is amazing what you can do now.

Odds and ends
 

Wow! Time flies I haven’t worked on the car much in several weeks. I have mostly been picking up a few things and waiting for the weather to cool down. I purchased all the Dakota Digital parts and my GM cooling fan.

https://i.imgur.com/wDM0fFpl.jpg

I have a radiator being designed by C&R to match the fan and my Vintage Air condenser. I really like this fan, 18 inches in diameter and 850 Watts. Looking forward to having this PWM controlled but I still have a long ways to get there.

https://i.imgur.com/GqZ7lPnl.jpg

The Dakota gauge set looks really clean. It is going to be nice to have an accurate, smooth digital setup.

https://i.imgur.com/irPIkUhl.jpg

I spent my time figuring where is the best place to mount all the electrical boxes. It was just sort of a lazy planning weekend. As much as I appreciate all the digital gauges, I am still going to miss the original gauges.

https://i.imgur.com/jLliIVol.jpg

The styling was so good and I can remember the night it rolled over 999999, that was 30years ago and I only put 7K miles on since then. I really need to get this thing running so I can drive the wheels off of it and start piling on the miles and enjoying it again!!

Mounting Dakota Boxes
 

I spent a few hours mounting the Dakota boxes for the gauges and the residual power box that slow dims the interior lights and turns on headlights at dusk. Small jobs but they take a while planning and making the small brackets. I had to pull everything else out to avoid spark damage from the welder.
I added a ground stud to both planning ahead for all the wiring.
Here is the residual power/headlight control box mounted behind the driver’s kick panel.

https://i.imgur.com/3KFhsTgl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/EZp0GDfl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RiRcWNdl.jpg

I just mounted the main box up under the cowl where it will be close to the cluster and all the other wires.

https://i.imgur.com/kmNzFV6l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vMDLOKUl.jpg

Great planning ahead and execution to boot!

I see you are using rivnuts or nutserts. Do you like them and have you had any failures? What brand nut and tool are you using?

Thanks!

I like them, especially for light jobs. I have had them spin in the past when the hole was drilled poorly. I think these are Rivnut brand from Hanson Rivet. I am using a fairly inexpensive squeeze plier tool. It comes with a bunch of different size tips.

https://i.imgur.com/Q2cd33fl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/J8xvg51l.jpg

I think for limited access and larger sizes this style would be easier to squeeze.

https://i.imgur.com/W33V90Nl.jpg

What's the make/model of the fan? Is it a GM fan from a Cadillac SRX?

Nice job mounting all the boxes. The ground studs are a great idea.

Those gauges look great!