Great! Now I'm addicted to vintage gauges!

As if being addicted to early Hemis wasn't bad enough, today I discovered I'm addicted to vintage gauges. I always knew they were cool, but now that I'm actually in the market, I realized I may actually have an overwhelming "problem".

With that being said, I've been doing some reading on SW gauges and various others. Ran across several other brands of gauges I wasn't familiar with as well. Really been some cool stuff made over the years and I never realized how many different lines of gauges Stewart Warner actually had. Overwhelming, for sure! Lots to learn!

So, what is my point? I'm trying to weigh my optsion, basically. My interest falls in the the PRE-60's performance series gauges that would have been found in race cars or sports car. American or European. Either one. What were people using? Obviously Stewart Warner was a huge player then and were probably seen more than any others in the US, but when I was poking around various sites I found a plethera of other gauges. Smiths (seen on lots of Britsh stuff) seems to be another popular one.

The other thing is, I noticed that the majority of these gauges were ALL mechanical gauges. Electronics didn't come out until much later, obviously. One big issue I have with running early gauges is that my drive train does not support mechanical gauges. Let's not get into a debate about what's traditional here. I know mechanical is the uber traditional way to go, but in my case I have to cut that corner a bit. My distributor sends out an electrical signal for the tach and my transmission is a more modern transmission. So I guess the question would be, has anyone ever had their early speedometer and tachometer converted to electric? Is that even possible?

I sent a few of the restoration and repair places emails regarding such a conversion. Classic Instruments just got back to me while I was typing this and said it would cost me $1000 to $1800 to do such a conversion to a speedometer or a tachometer. That's completely rediculous. Could that be RIGHT??

So fill me in experts! What else is out there? What should I look for to have the correct "all business" or vintage "race inspired" look that I need. Were the Smiths popular in the US, at all? Options? Input?

 

VDO was big back then, I'm not sure when they started. I think they're German? Correct me if I'm wrong............

Sun used to make some nice ones. Mine worked well.

The Smith gauges are cool, especially the dual needle ones. 2 gauges in one housing.

 

I always forget about VDO. They made a ton too! Have they pretty much gone in the toilet with their new stuff?

Sun! Were those US made, or something else. I know nothing about Sun instrumentation.

Yeah, the dual needle Smiths are really cool! The ones that read counter clock-wise are neat to look at as well, but would confuse the hell out of me, I think. HA! I would have to move my steering wheel to the other side of the car!

 

I consciously avoid looking at vintage guages... its bad enough I'm addicted to clocks out of cars. . . I don;t need to turn that into a full on gauge addiction.

as far as converting from mechanical to electric. . . i would just buy a gauge with about the same sweep and rpm/mph on at a swap meet and transfer the guts over, swap the face, etc. It'll take some work and forethought, but can be done. I did an oil pressure gauge for a customer that way a few years back.

 

one of the gauge manufacturers make a conversion to run mechanical speedos dont know about tachs though

 

I don't even look at them either. I literally avert my eyes. Once I do I'll be done I know it!

 

WOW! That's beautiful!

I know Classic Instruments does exceptional work, but bottom line, they're way out of my price range as well. HAMB discount or otherwise. I think that is a lot of money!

Regarding speedometer drives, I have no objection to actually running a cable drive speedometer, except for the fact that I have a quick change rear end and would like to be able to calibrate it to whatever gear set I'm running. Or maybe I make a mental note as to what equals what, when I change gears. Hmmm... maybe that is the answer.

 

As if being addicted to early Hemis wasn't bad enough, today I discovered I'm addicted to vintage gauges. I always knew they were cool, but now that I'm actually in the market, I realized I may actually have an overwhelming "problem".

AHH-HA !!!

A while back there was some discussion in a thread about repairing a dash,
There was a link to a shop identified as an alliance vender. Very cool site he had. He could do anything with guages and dashes. but I cant find it.

 

Sun and SW were both full line suppliers, and supplied electric gauges way back too.
For some reason, I remember the hot setup always being SW gauges and Sun tach...
These names were pricier than other stuff, and the most common supplemental guges were available in all sorts of places like Western Auto for much less money than SW. Commonly they were supplied in black face that looked like the most used SW lines.
Any sort of car supplier at all had oil, temp, and amp gauges meant for cars with idiot lights OEM. Other gauges required a higher level of supplier. AC, NAPA, etc. had their own lines, oft in more than one quality level.
If you are poor (if not, you soon will be with an interest in old gauges!), crawl the fringe areas of the junkyard looking for elderly trucks, buses, compressors, etc. Many used SW gauges, and I've seen junked air compressors and such with curved glass SW. Some old fire engines have practically Auburn levels of instrumentation.

 

Yep! That's what happened to me! The minute I started looking to see what was out there, it was allllll over! I now suddenly have visions of gauges lined up on my shelves.

Can someone recommend a therapist for future referance? My support group for my Hemi addiction, won't support me on gauges as well.

 

I concur with this statement... Hemis made me broke and gauges will put me into debt... or should I say broke-ER. D'OH!

I've also noticed the wide range of used for SW gauges. I see them all over and I think so far the curved glass ones are my favorite. I would love to have something with curved glass. They are super neat-o!

 

I'm addicted too... and there is no cure to it...

 

Scooter, we use united speedometer for all our customer work. Give them a shout. I'm almost positive they can do it.

 

This is a horribly contagious disease...once you've seen an Auburn dash or a row of old aftermarket SW's, the virus eats into your eyeballs and everything else looks like absolute crap. Might as well just have a red lightbulb labeled "check engine" as anything else...
I just got a 1940 SW catalog that is practically gauge porn...that and my early fifties speed catalogs showing completely furnished SW panel sets...
As Bluto just pointed out, this is one of the worst eyesore areas on otherwise nice rods...especially those nasty rimmed things used on 99% of streetrods.
If you go with basic black face/simple rim/white needle gauges, you can have a reasonably decent looking dash with mixed cheap fleamarket stuff, used stuff from a few decades back, not new crap, then replace the gauges one by one as you encounter money or bargains later on. The only part that usually has to be expensive is old mechanical water temps, which are either $$$$ or in need of $$$ repairs.

 

The curved glass gauges aren't going to help you get out of debt, that's for sure!

 

I really dig the 60s Radatron gauges... tach's, speedo's, and 3in1 gauges.

 

YEP! Too late! Thank goodness I haven't actually started purchasing anything yet. I can see what lies inthe near future though...

Terrible!

I used to work on a military contract a few years ago and they had an area where they were stripping down a bunch of military vehicles of their interenals to be auctioned off at a later date. Neat this area there was a WHOOOLE DUMSTER of vintage military gauges!!! Good thing I'm an honest employee! It was gut wrenching to see those just sitting there ready to be packaged in a crate and sent off to wherever something like that goes...

 

That's a new name to me... Do I dare ask you to post a picture??

 

Shoosh! I'm trying to be optimistic about my new disease...

 

Eelco made some good looking gauges too.

 

In my coupe I'm not going to run any Aftermarket gauges but I am running what I think is one of the coolest gauge panels ever.

The 1939 Cadillac cluster is really cool because the it's Sweep style was way ahead of it's time. The Typeface on the cluster is really what sets the panel apart and hones in on the era that it was ran. I love them, and even though it's going against the European race car feel that I intended it to look like. I think that it will be a beautiful addition to the cockpit. They are simple and tasteful and that's why I am using them. Scooter, if youget a chance take a look at them. I should get a pic of my set and post it.

 

Eelco. Yeah. How come everything involving old Fords and everything that looks nice on old Fords is rare and is being pursued by 10,000 other deranged culties, all of whom have more money than me?? Is that a law of physics or something?? Why can't they all go away and look for '65 Chevelle parts or Beany Babies?? WHY??
Sun, SW, Auburn, Eelco, whatever...mention any of those words and you start hearing sounds like the locust swarm arriving at your farm...
I guess this is the genesis of streetrodding; those guys know exactly where all their needs are going to come from and what they cost, and work never stops for a 10 year search for the perfect 1940 vintage widget...it is such an advantage to be able to build old cars without actually needing anything old!

 

Here you go big dad... they don't come up very often on ebay but sometimes. I really dig them. I've only seen this one single gauge, all the others were 2in1 or 3in1 cups kinda like a tach mount.

 

Culties? Yeah, I guess I'm a gauge cultie too.

If you want racy, yet semi-reasonably priced old gauges, look for some 2-5/8" Stewart-Warners from the 60's. You can usually find them at swap meets of all automotive forms, cause everybody from circle track to drag to dune buggies used them. They have the same size buckets as the large curved glass SW, but the 60's era have the small block logo and stepped bezels. A classic look, without being "ancient classic", and I'd bet you could furnish your car for under $200.

Then, when the car is done and the bank account is up an extra 4 or 5 grand, you can switch them out with 40's-50's curved glass SW's.


Edit: And let me tell you, that every other brand, except maybe Eelco and Sun, were wannabees in the real hot rod market. Anything sold through J.C. Whitney was not what the real racers used.

 

You are evil Chad!

Very cool!

 

I was looking through this website and found some neat gauges I had never seen before...

http://www.gaugeguys.com/

I think these are sort of the flavor I am after. They seem to have that 50's vintage look to them that might have been seen in a racer of the that era:

Smiths



Simple, black faced, gauges. Obviously SW had a hundred examples of this very style as well. I really dig all the other gauges that SW has put out like the green line, blue line, etc., but a simple black face gauge seems to capture the "all business" appearance, in my mind.

 

Well, that will get you halfway to cool. My opinion.

 

Tell me about it...I have been diagnosed terminal. Like its been said, getting them is only half the battle. Took me a while to collect all these and the ones that need restored are going to have to wait till I can afford it....

 

Big fan of this style SW as well...

 

I love old gauges as well--always have 40 clusters and clocks restored and fitted for modern electrics--look dead stock and work well-have used in 4 40's--must be obsessed--have 3 deluxe and 1 std cluster redone as well as 4 clocks for 40's--need to find some more cars to put them in I guess (have two deluxe dashes done as well--orig. colors with guages--look great on the wall