Nissan Repair: Reversed polarity: Accidental 1987 Nissan 300ZX 2+2 no turbo, nissan 300zx, reversed polarity

Question
I accidentally hooked up my battery cables (reversed) when I bought a new battery! I saw under the hood a few little puffs of smoke and noticed a few of the wires were spit from the coil of wires next to my battery. I reconnected the spit wires with electical tape and went to start my car. The car started but all electric dash, guages every thing gone. I took it for a test drive and after about 2-3 min not really sure, everything lit up on my electric dash!

When I did bring the car home and shut it off and restarted the dash lighting would not come back up. Only if I put the car in motion, the dash lights return but when it does all are back to their presets.
I know I have damaged something but I dont know what I've done or where to start.

PS. I bought the new battery cause it was really old and was always draining. I have realized it was my alternator and am going to replace it aswell; I read about this problem in the previous questions in the forum!              Thank-you for your time

Answer
the only problem with cars, they aren't forgiving for accidents.  it sounds to me like you have a ECU problem or possibly a wire harness problem.  i would try to grab one out of a junkyard or on ebay and see if this corrects the problem.  good thing you caught it when you did, you could have had much worse problems.  you may have also damaged a wire that controls your gauges to the dash too.  it could be anything with electrical.  i defiantly wish you good luck with this one.  i hope these suggestions help.  e-mail me to let me know what you find out.  xxp_sebby@yahoo.com