Mounting an A-pillar gauge pod

[raunch]

Recently the electric temp. gauge on my suburban went out, so now I am replacing it with a mechanical. I've got and A-pillar gauge pod left over from my FJ 60 days, and it fits quite nicely on my suburban's pillar. Before I go tearing into the dash and such to route the cable, I am wondering if anyone has a suggestion on what needs to be removed (dash pad, etc) and what can stay in place. Time is precious these days and I would like to get this project started on the right track.
Thanks.

[DmaxMaverick]

You shouldn't have to remove the dash, at all. Drill the pillar, then fish the harness(es) down and under the dash. Be sure to use a grommet where the wires pass through sheet metal, or use some nylon tubing to conduit the entire route through the pillar (my preference, and it makes fishing wires easy).

[raunch]

Thanks. I like the conduit idea.

[raunch]

My steel fish tape won't go through the A-pillar. At about the angle point of the pillar, as I am pushing down toward the dash, I can feel something like soft rubber or foam. From the outside where the pillar, fender, and hood meet, I can see through the body lines a foam rubber plug of sorts. Could this be the same foam that is in the pillar?

I stopped short of running a flexible drill bit down the pillar to ream a hole and chew up whatever is in there. Thought I'd better find out if I would be destroying anything important.

Hopefully I can make this work, it has potential to be a nice install.

Thanks.

[raunch]

Drilling through the obstruction in the pillar did not work. Don't know what it is-there were no pieces stuck to the drill bits. Had to pull the dash pad, which wasn't too bad.

[DmaxMaverick]

Not sure what you are running into there. If there is a foam dam (sound insulation), you should be able to push past it against the pillar metal. Have you tried from the bottom-up?

[raunch]

Tried from the bottom up too. Oh well, the under the dash pad route worked fine.