Fixed combination meter, made it worse?

So I just bought this car with a bad dash, replaced the caps and it worked for a week or so. Hopped in to go to work today and I'm at a bit of a loss. Had check engine light and door light, that's all that showed, like the dial was all the way down (check engin3 light is a permanent fixture now, bad cat and burning way too much oil to replace it).

Dial didn't do anything, ended up driving an hour with no heat because the blower is no longer working. Hazards work, blinkers do not. No reverse cam, but no problems shifting. This makes zero sense to me and was wondering if anybody had any ideas?

Before I fixed it it would do the thing where there's no door ajar light, flicking the headlights would fix it then that stopped working, until eventually I finally bit the bullet because I spent an hour plugging and unplugging the battery. This dash issue is different though, plus all the new issues.

 

Edit: found something, fuse 7 under my dash keeps popping. As soon as I insert it. Car not even on. Any ideas?

 

It's the one under the dash, I've torn everything down again and have narrowed it down to the cluster, it's shorted somewhere but I have no idea how or where

 

Did some digging around today, it's definitely the cluster, but I don't have any idea what could have failed. Gonna pull the caps and test again once I get home, but something on that board is definitely shorted. Didn't see any burn or anything. Would have to look to see which one specifically, but the connector that handles the airbag and security lights is fine, but as soon as I plug in the one responsible for the door light and speedo it blows