... minor setback on Sunday. The car's clean at least...
The exciter wire for the alternator wasn't hooked up at the cluster after the gauge panel swap. Needless to say my alternator stopped charging and the car died on me at 70mph on a freeway on a busy Sunday afternoon. Luckily I muscled the car onto the off ramp (no power steering or brakes ). Anyway, a 15 mile tow truck ride home later, I got the problem sorted out and the car is back in action. Better updates soon!