Analog gauges are great-when they're neatly packaged into individual housings. When you start dealing with circuit-board analogs, such as those found on '73-and-up Chevy/GMC pickups, things get a bit more complicated. In other words, dealing with one gauge is just like dealing with all of them, such as in order to access the instruments, you need to completely disassemble the entire cluster arrangement-basically, take apart the entire dash. It's not difficult work, just tedious and time-consuming to the point that you'd rather address all the gauges at once rather than one at a time.
On top of ensuring that all instrumentation is up to snuff mechanically, it's nice to have a cluster that looks, well, nice. Over time, the bright-orange pointers tend to dull from exposure to the sun. On top of that, screen-printed items often deteriorate, as well. Combine all of that with the dirt particles that like to accumulate behind the clear Plexi cover (which is another issue in itself), and you have a very unsightly situation. Fortunately (and you knew it was coming to this), there's hope for your seemingly hopeless analogs.
When the time came to address my instrument panel situation, I happened to be thumbing through LMC's '73-87 Chevy truck catalog (one of many the company has) looking for miscellaneous items, namely dash parts. As fate would have it, new gauges were listed right there, along with replacement circuit boards and everything else I needed to properly "restore" my truck's instrument cluster. Prior to making the necessary call, I took the time to double-check to see not only which gauges weren't operating correctly, but which ones weren't looking so great after serving over 30 years of duty-turned out I'd have to order pretty much everything LMC had to offer. Which brings up a good point: the majority of gauges are applicable to post-'76 models, so pay close attention to the item descriptions, as well as the physical traits of the gauges in your truck (I didn't, and ended up ordering a wrong gauge!).
As for the actual job itself, tedious as it may be, it's a cakewalk. You'll want to make sure and stock up on interior-type hardware (screws and whatnot), most of which can be ordered from LMC. If you're used to getting your hands dirty during most jobs, plan on keeping them real clean for this one!
