Dakota Digital VHX

[FJROSS]

Hello,
For those who installed the Dakota Digital VHX gauges, safe to assume all the glass for the speedo and lower cluster of gauges gets removed. It looks like the instructions say to leave the rubber that runs continuously around the bezel. I would like to powder coat the bezel, just not sure if the rubber will hold up to the 375 degree oven. Do you also remove the blue high-beam indicator light? If so, does this light need to be re-installed for the DD gauge cluster?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[fireflyr]

Directions are pretty crappy when it comes to the bezel. I didn’t know there was a rubber seal (mine was missing) and ended up painting the high beam glass because the DD display has a blue high beam indicator.

 

[FJROSS]

Directions are pretty crappy when it comes to the bezel. I didn’t know there was a rubber seal (mine was missing) and ended up painting the high beam glass because the DD display has a blue high beam indicator.

Directions are pretty crappy when it comes to the bezel. I didn’t know there was a rubber seal (mine was missing) and ended up painting the high beam glass because the DD display has a blue high beam indicator. View attachment 3760792

Thanks for the fast reply. Is that the white or blue back lighting you ordered? I was able to remove all the glass and high beam indicator and leave the factory rubber. It made it through the powder coating oven fine. Do you think it's a necessity to black out the factory hi-beam indicator? Will it look like it will be illuminated by the DD gauge cluster lighting if you don't?

 

[fireflyr]

I bought the white background and the separate dimmer for night operation. I hate bright displays at night and find it really distracting. As for the original high beam indicator you can see mine was pretty scratched up so I didn’t want to chance it lighting up. Dakota Digital has excellent instructions when it comes to wiring and I never felt at any point that I needed to call tech support but the bezel is a different matter. It all worked out though and I couldn’t be happier with the end result.

 

[Jdc1]

Overkill but I wired the VHX HB indicator to come on with the high beams.

 

[FJROSS]

Overkill but I wired the VHX HB indicator to come on with the high beams. View attachment 3760913

I am planning on doing that as well as seeing if I can get my parking brake signal ran back to the control box.

 

[Jdc1]

I am planning on doing that as well as seeing if I can get my parking brake signal ran back to the control box.

@UZJ40 has done some really cool things with the Dakota dash.

 

[jlizar]

I removed the rubber before powder-coating my bezel. I also eliminated the blue high beam indicator. Once everything was finished, I reattached the rubber.

 

[steffan]

I'm in the process of doing mine now - I ended up removing the rubber, seemed like it fit better than way

 

[steffan]

Got my gauges installed - went about it a little different than what I've seen. I put some self adhesive foam on the corner sections to cushion against the dash

 

[steffan]

I was never happy with the way the cover fit with the gauges - seemed there was always a noticeable gap either on the dash or against the gauge screen. I struggled with this but went ahead and trimmed the tabs off the cover, sanded smooth

 

[steffan]

finished product - fits nice and flush