Hello All, I have a 1966 Skylark, I want to replace the stock gauge panel with Autometer gauges. Does any one sells an aftermarket insert or a complete dash panel for the Skylark? All the ones I can find are for the Chevelles, will it work on the Skylark? Thanks.
No and no. The reason why this stuff is available for Chevelles, Camaros and Novas is because they are extremely are popular cars, so much so that there is a good market for these things. To me, the biggest plus of owning a `65 Buick Skylark is that very few people have one. I am the only one around here. But the biggest downside is that practically nothing is available aftermarket for them. Sorry, you'll have to make your own dash
I plan on doing the same thing I have a spare cluster I'm going to cut it up and make something out of it..
Search V-8 Buick for ideas (Re: Aftermarket gauges) Dear RicanSkylark and fans of mid-60s V-8 Buicks, A number of guys with Buicks of your vintage have come up with various schemes to go from the long slim speedometer display to something more "instrumented." However, the shape of the dash does make it a challenge. If you do some searches on V-8 Buick, you can see what other fellows have done. I'm going with the simpler compromise. I'm moving the transmission shift indicator to the steering column, putting an external tach in front of where the old shift display was in in the dash, and then going with the traditional aftermarket solution of a triplet of gauges under the dash. If you don't want the hassles of creating your own dashboard from scratch, that is always an alternative. Cheers, Edouard :beer
Re: Search V-8 Buick for ideas (Re: Aftermarket gauges) Thank you all for the replies, yup, those angles in the corners are going to be tricky part. Thanks
Get a `64 speedometer bezel to modify, they're flat already. Here's another option that I did with mine to get rid of the gauges hanging down under the dash. The pod is marketed by Autometer for a `68-`69 Camaro to replace the factory rectangle gauges with round units. I had to hack up the console and modify the pod a little but it fits pretty good.
Oops, that's a `66. Not sure why I was thinking it was a `65. My mistake. The `64 speedo I mentioned won't work for you. Not sure if you know but your console is from a `64-`66 Pontiac Lemans/GTO.
I am in the process of restoring my 1965 Skylark with pretty much everything on the interior and exterior remaining stock. However the one thing I am changing is the dash. I tried to use as much of the factory parts as posible but here is a progress photo which might give you some ideas even though yours is a 1966. These are Speedhut gauges except for the outside air temperature on the right which is Dakota Digital. Here is a picture. By the way I am upgrading the brakes to disc on all four corners and upgrading the suspension. Also the motor and transmission as it was a V6 car. PS: Still looking for a decent 65 Skylark dash pad. I hate having to pay Just Dash's $900 to redo mine.
