My car is a nearly stock '41 Ford Special Business Coupe that's in great shape. Several people have encouraged me to keep it original but after driving it a lot, giving it lots of thought and after being mostly ignored at car shows, I've decided to do some mostly period correct modifications that make it more fun to drive and more interesting to look at. You're probably unfamiliar with the Ford Special. It's the super stripped down version and looks VERY plain. Rather than dress it up, I'm going to run with the plain look and try to make it look interesting by making it look a little evil, like maybe a moonshine runner. I've started with two new Strombergs and an Edelbrock slingshot. Future intended mods include dropping the front end a couple of inches, probably by replacing the stock 16" wheels with some 15" wheels and smaller tires. Any way, I thought I had an overheating problem but, long story short, I have a temperature indicator problem. The stock temperature gauge now shows 3/4 hot immediately on a cold start. I'm sort of interested in being as stock as possible but fiddling around with 80 year old electrical technology and very questionable quality reproduction parts for a temperature indication isn't very appealing. In other hot rods I've had under dash analog temperature gauges with analog sending units. They tell me exactly what I want to know with real numbers. What would a 1940's hot rodder do for a reliable temperature reading? Were Stewart-Warner gauges around then? Might have used something military/aircraft surplus? Thoughts?
My suspicion is that one or both of the senders (at least in an 8BA motor) in the heads have failed. Since I am only 78 I don't know what they did in the 40's On the 8BA motor I ran the dash gauge off of one head and a SW gauge in a panel under the dash (49 Ford). Under dash gauges were popular in the 50's. I would not criticize you if you did that.
The standard small 2" Stewart Warner were common from the 40's into the 50's. The larger 2-5/8" smooth bezel with curved glass were available in the 40's for the bucks up rodder. The popular winged Stewart Warner was introduced in 1948, and produced til '54.
OK. Uncle. You're right, I shouldn't really care about what other people think, only what I think. What I really meant to say was that after looking at lots of cool cars at car shows I want mine to look cooler, just not like everyone else's.
Many of the old cars that I have built had stock Stewart Warner gauges originally installed. All of the 50’s Stude stuff was SW that I saw both in the car’s and in the trucks. I had a 1929 REO Speedwagon and a 1935 International pickup that ran Stewart Warner gauges I have always taken the approach to want to know what’s going on inside my running gear. There are a lot of manufacturers that produce under dash brackets (think Mooneyes, So Cal, Posies). I enjoy taking apart the original instruments and updating with new movements then re-silkscreening the faces. I’ve used various dyes and coloring approaches to weather the gauges so everything matches. I’ve cut up three hole gauge brackets that I found at swapmeets (back before china virus wiped that resource out) and turned them into 2 hole assembly’s then tucked them up under the dash so they were hiding in plain sight. I’d encourage you to think outside the box, buy some cheap gauges to practice on. You may find an untapped talent. As an aside, many of the guys (and gals) would walk on by my cars at shows because my tendency has been to take on the challenges of automotive orphans. Some people would stop and take the time to look and would find hidden wiring, hidden stereos, hidden toolboxs, little skulls tucked away, obnoxious power lurking in what appeared to be a stock looking car. Many times it would turn into treasure hunt to find what was hidden away… I think that we all desire some reaction and approval but ultimately at least for me I enjoy the challenges of creating stuff and bringing something back from the dead. In there somewhere it’s supposed to be for fun. I can’t tell you how many times that I had opinionated Chevy guys that trashed my car that had a Ford rear end, or a Corvette that had NAPA parts instead of chev parts, or nuts that weren’t manufactured by Studebaker, or Harley guys that trashed my R6 racebike and jap bike friends that trashed my Harley… what fucking ever… hater’s are always going to be out there
Just put a ‘32 Ford grill on it. Seriously, I would go check over your stock factory car before probably 90% of the 1-800 cars.
Personally I would send the gauge away to get professionally rebuilt unless you can do it yourself. It should come back working like new. But you can fit small aftermarket gauges discreetly under the dash. On my car I made a slider so they can slide back out of site for shows and I can pull them Forward to see them when I drive.
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