New state , new truck , who dis

[05Single]

So for the cluster I’ve had this idea bouncing around my head ever since I owned the Tahoe. Reverse glow gauge face , but I don’t like white faces. So I improvised. Blue clear film over the white before install. Went with the darker of the blue films. Made the indigo color a deeper shade of blue

It does switch from indigo blue to to green. But I was going to only have the blue wired up

 

[Tonyrodz]

Older Kenwood with all the bells and whistles unlike my old pioneer in the Tahoe that didn’t even have Bluetooth ‍. Navigation, Bluetooth, dvd (obsolete but I use it on long trips to Mexico or Phoenix)

KW-NT500HDT

View attachment 375376

Says JVC lol.

 

[05Single]

Says JVC lol.

Lol give me a break I’m trying to go back a full year for you people

 

[05Single]

So I wanted just the gauges to be blue but the warning light area black so I added a medium tint to those two top areas.

After seeing a buddies cluster in person with the Escalade rings I knew I had to have them (Later I found out the Escalade trim piece can be found for about $140, builder upcharged me to $170). I also decided to go with white nnbs Escalade needles…. Only one problem , nobody had them in stock. I had an vision of blue and white only instead of red/white/blue like the Tahoe. The builder only had one set left that were red, after some thought I kinda feel like it would actually look pretty good with red needles….and man was I right once again. So since it was the last set available anywhere the builder upcharged me. Typical set of needles are around $150 and he charged me $180 (kind of a dik move but he’s allowed to charge whatever he wants, it’s my decision if I wanna pay for it). Ok that’s fine, whatever. Also the warning lights were super blotchy so I had had an idea to have him chop up a oem face and insert it over that area to make the icons crisp. He has piles of oem faces laying around so that wasn’t a problem.

In the end I got what I always want in a part , a one-off - not another one like it in the world custom cluster.

 

[05Single]

It was the first time this builder has ever messed with this kind of face and was a little bit of a learning curve but he was able to figure it out.

Only took about a week and I started having issues with the glow part of the gauge. It’s independently wired and had a capacitor type box connected to it. Well here in az everything was just getting too hot and it would overheat and turn off as I was driving. The needles stayed on because they were lit up independently off the cluster motherboard. Once the truck is turned off and cooled down for a few minutes then turned back on it would light back up. I was so excited for this build just o be let down. So I sent it off for a boring build.
Also painted the steering wheel bow tie same as I did in the Tahoe with a silver paint pen after a quick sand.

 

[05Single]

Decided on a black ss face. He charged me 160 for the face. I later checked and they were 120 on Amazon/eBay. I asked him why and he got all defensive about it. (He makes money off labor not parts, that’s his bread and butter, but apparently he did both with me). So I brushed it off and paid it. By now there were nnbs Escalade needles available and back in stock from the supplier. So I had him swap the needles from red to white and do all everything in white except blue film on the letters and icons of each gauge - mph, rpm, gas/oil/trans , etc. and now I can add a trans gauge which wasn’t available with the glow face.
So he charges me for another full cluster rebuild , he had to start over , it was a chance and a risk I took by wanting to try out the glow face.
So he’s had 2 rebuilds on the same cluster from me in less than 3 months.
I also sent him the hvac controls to change swap one bulb out, he took it upon himself to rebuild the whole unit and charge me $80. I asked him why and he got all defensive saying he doesn’t let any unit leave his hands unless he completely rebuilds it. At this point I’m already looking for other builders because I know I won’t be returning or referring anyone to his business.

I got the cluster back and I seen there was dust inside, like a lot. Sloppy and rushed. Fine I’ll pull it apart and clean it. One of the tabs were broken, again fine not a big deal , but I did pay for a brand new not broken one. So then I installed everything. As soon as I move the levers up and down on my ac one of them just falls off into my fingers. WTF?!!!
I send him these pics and he denies and damage and proceeds to blame either my install or the mail courier for any damage. Clearly he thinks I’m this ignorant and incompetent person that doesn’t understand the concept of how things go together. I know you have to pull those out in order to gain access to the board in order to replace the leds. At what point could that happen during shipment? What part of install calls for me to pull fooking the levers ?

 

[05Single]

He prides himself of lifetime warranty, so I sent them both back out. *I paid for the shipping to him*. Told him to clean out my cluster. I have a back up one anyways, one I was gonna have him rebuild also but it’s too late for that. He cleaned the cluster. Then I asked him to try and fix the hvac unit. At first he wanted to have me buy another unit for him to switch everything over to, try and charge me for that. I said no I do have a backup hvac but I wasn’t going to donate it. He says he can’t fix it and everything is boxed up and ready to ship and all he needs is for me to pay the $24 shipping fee….. I respectfully refused. It’s warranty, he pays for shipping. He got angry with me and said I had to pay for shipping cause he performed free work at no charge - cleaning out his dust and not even fixing the ac unit. I again refused, at this point I told him I’m ready for the next *legal step. He was acting like warranty wasn’t a thing and $24 was going to break his business in half. He said fine he’ll pay the return shipping and send me a spare board that he rebuilt but I have to put it in my spare ac unit and that he won’t be doing business with me anymore. (Already made up my mind on that one bud, but here on out I still have lifetime warranty. Better hope nothing goes wrong with his work.
It’s just crazy , he’s made almost $3k off me plus all the referrals and free advertising, I always tried to show it off on Fb groups tagging him. I’ve probably made him at least $10k in the past 2 years. I’ve had several friends and family members send their clusters in to him because they had to have what I had.

There’s just no more good customer service these days. It’s rare and it’s sad. People just don’t care.
So it was Zack Millonzi with gaugewerx, I do not recommend. I’ve been way more than patient with him. He has a good friend originalmiked on i.g. who also does clusters who was also talking trash to me because he thinks I’m some crappy customer, so also don’t recommend doing business with him just based off him being unprofessional.
I’ve heard a few other places that do good work , gm gauge guy or gm gauge specialists. I’m more motivated now to learn how to rebuild these myself. I’ll let you guys know if I do. It’s not rocket science.
Anyway…..
Here’s a final installed pics

 

[Fosscore]

Well that looks freaking amazing for a lot of bs hassle.

Nice desert sunrise. Looks like I-17…

 

[05Single]

Well that looks freaking amazing for a lot of bs hassle.

Nice desert sunrise. Looks like I-17…

I-19 . And everyone loves the cluster, they ask where I had it done I tell them it’s not a business I deal with anymore. I love the cluster but it still brings back ptsd memories lol. This was only the beginning of what else follows. Let’s just say 2022 has been a bad year so far.

 

[05Single]

So that headache was done and I was shopping around for shops to install a drop kit. I wanted a trustworthy shop that will do the job right , I’ll drive 2 hours from Tucson to Phoenix if I have to. Talked to Driven speed shop in Phoenix who does amazing work , top notch , sema kind of stuff. They said my 2/4 drop was too basic for them so they sent me to their sister shop - az pro performance. They were happy to get me hooked up. Go back to when I left this forum last year and that’s about the time I got a job back up in the oil fields in Alaska. So scheduling was kind of a long stretch. I contacted these guys a few weeks before sema and they were in the sema crunch so it would have to be after that. Well I planned to stay in Alaska for Christmas so I couldn’t schedule anything till end of Jan/Feb (3 months out) . But I sent him pics, showed him it’s a 4wd z71 so expect blocks. He said ok and wrote up an estimate of around $900 for a belltech drop kit. 2” Spindles and 2” shackles, and new U-bolts since the blocks need to be removed and reusing U-bolts is not recommended because over time they stretch and could cause issues. I said ok I’m coming from Tucson because I want a reputable shop to do the drop kit. I’ll make a trip out of it and get a hotel and stay a couple nights. He was happy to know I was going the extra mile for his shop.
Same time I added a basic flowmaster 44 muffler and keep the oem exhaust. Just a muffler swap so no custom bends or hangers or anything. Don’t remember how much he was gonna charge me but he said it can all be done in a full day*

About 3 months go by and I fly into Tucson on Friday morning. Drop kit is scheduled for Monday. One problem, I completely spaced out the wheels. The smoothies are still on and they are 16s. I need 17s or bigger for spindles. I’ve been looking for wheels but never pulled the trigger because the smoothies were growing on me and they still had 90% tres left on them.
So dead tired after flying since noon on Thursday I started a mission to find wheels. 17s-22s. Not hard to find a set when you have a tire shop on every corner in az lol. Went to about 12 different tire shops until I found the set I wanted, well settled for.
Can you guess which ones I picked?


I really wanted 22s but I was afraid of the rude quality on a light single cab pickup. And I really wanted ram wheels but couldn’t find a set I liked. 22s were still a comfy ride on the Tahoe. But these will do for now and I was ready for Mondays drop.