I order all new lenses for the dash from Ecklers.  Speedo/Tach, 5 gauge cluster, A/C, shift positioner....  1st step I pull the speedo/tach lense, new one doesnt fit.  NOW I disassemble the entire center dash and center console. NOTHING fits!  All day was wasted..  Any you guys have this happen before?  I ordered the repro stuff, I was assured it was direct fit.  Im going with GM stuff now..   

[QUOTE=KeBo]I order all new lenses for the dash from Ecklers.  Speedo/Tach, 5 gauge cluster, A/C, shift positioner....  1st step I pull the speedo/tach lense, new one doesnt fit.  NOW I disassemble the entire center dash and center console. NOTHING fits!  All day was wasted..  Any you guys have this happen before?  I ordered the repro stuff, I was assured it was direct fit.  Im going with GM stuff now..   [/QUOTE]

Not knocking Ecklers, but...I did all mine with parts from Corvette America and Zips and it fit perfect...

2 cruzn38799.3584606481

I ended up buying NOS stuff and it dropped in.  My install time was about 90 minutes..  Maybe the 81 is a little different?  The speedo/tach lens had a 1/2 gap at the top of the bezel, the guage cluster wasnt even close.  It would have had to have been hacked.. 

What may be at least part of the problem is that after so many years, your dash and bezels have warped out of shape. Depending on where a car has spent its life, it lives through alternating heat and cold temps and all that tends to cause shrinking and expanding. New parts, whether NOS or repros are designed to fit as new, with unaltered or unwarped parts.

I've used repro bezels with very little problem. Same thing...slight age warping of the dash. Once the repro bezels were screwed down they seem to fit ok. After two years they still look OK. I guess they eventually warped somewhat to fit after a period of time.