Folks Of Interest Early Stewart Warner gauge thread

Let's see some pictures of early Stewart Warner gauges (((( pre 1950s)))) please! And any other make of early gauge is welcome as well.

Here's a few examples.


Auburn style mount gas


Smooth bezel


Late 40s





Late 40 I think king seeley



1932 Auburn Stewart Warner speedo

 

I picked a set up at an Estate sale for $20.00.
A friend saw them and offered me substantially more. He was building a period correct rod and needed them.
Dinner and a 24 pack, they were his. Sorry, no pics.
Estate sales, they live there and the kids who don't care about Dad's old car crap, are in charge.

 

Here's some winged in a gauge panel I made:


And here some 40's Standard series and a 1939 Police Speedo in my tudor:




.

 

Nice looking,Alchemy.

 

Don't know how old these are, but they are the ones in my '32

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/stewart-warner-pictorial-timeline.668982/

There's some info I started to create a few years back, of course most of the good pics are gone.

I'm putting together a hollywood gauge panel with the 2-5/8" smooth bezel gauges and an early tach. As seen on my instagram #slickwillycustoms

 

Better pic of the tachometer

 

Nice there Willy! Finally something to look foward to about your roadster build.. Lol.

 

Im pretty sure they would be late 50s - 70s?

 

Looks great!!

 

Here's the auburn dash I have for the Don Raible roadster. Still missing smooth bezel amp and rear mount gas or fuel.

 

here's one I got from an old trucking company that had been in business since 1954. the 80 year old guy said it was on a big rig. he told me what it ran off of but I forgot... said that was why it ran backwards... maybe it ran off the generator.

 

Thanks Alchemy for posting some cool shots of your vintage gauges. I am looking for a gas gauge like the one in this pic....
working or not. Mainly need the font face and glass/bezel.

 

These gauge threads are great for the knowledge base & for inspiration on using old gauges to match the flavor of our builds. Good move Pat. Here are some from my collection that you'll like.

The first is off-the-charts cool & rare. A S/W 150 mph speedometer from a 1937 Supercharged Cord. How many of these are floating around that aren't in cars? Also, the water temp gauge reflects similar styling, but is actually off of an old White truck. Note the three "bull's eye" rings on the temp gauge, compared to the one on the speedo.


Here's a 1947 S/W "All-In-One" gauge, made for the YALE company (obviously). S/W made the same gauge for various industries. There's one for sale here that it for some heavy equipment company...I forget which one. This particular gauge is n.o.s. I was born a couple of months before it was made & I wish I was in the same shape.



Here's a slew of rear mount jobs in an old S/W panel. The tach is very odd.

Although these "tulip pointer" gauges & the S/W "Bos'n" panel are technically early '50's, the tach is way older.

 

The big dial gauges are from 1932,

And a set of N.O.S. industrial gauges ww2 era. Fuel gauge is 24v and from a Sherman tank, others could be, but not sure.

 

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Scott from Haneline just did a new insert for my Hollywood panel.

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'56-'58 big blocks on the shelf above and two more underneath...


I have a set for my '39, but this thread is pre-1950, so i wont post 'em

 

Here's the pair of 5" Stewarts going in my Phaeton:


The speedo is NOS (1939 if I recall correctly), and the Tach/Vac (1948) is used however I have another that is NOS (1947) but without the colored vacuum face.

And here's a couple of my collection of smooth bezel Stewarts...

 

I've been collecting early SW gauges for awhile now. I have been lucky to have had a couple local experts, Terry seaholm(RIP) and Pat Swanson educate me on the subject.

I've had a few sets of early gauges go through my hands and kept a handful for my projects and some oddballs that just simply interest me.

The longer I chase gauges the more I'm intrigued with non-SW gauges. These are gauges like Motormeter (later Autometer), North East, Marsh and even AC. They take a lot of their styling cues from Stewart Warner which I guess shouldn't be a surprise being they were the industry leader. You can open any rodders journal and see the full spread of curved glass SW'ers we've come to love and almost expect. The knockoffs, for lack of a better term, are what keeps me refreshing the classified and eBay pages looking for the gauge that I never knew I always needed. Fair warning, this is gonna get a little nerdy but I figured it'd be a good post to get into some lesser known gauges.

I'll start with the SW gauges

Auburn speedo sized dual gauge, not sure of exact application could even be airplane?


These can be found in early Willys. Same size as an Auburn but slightly different graphics.


I've always like the front mount tulip needle 2" smooth bezel gauges. They've got alotta style seen in their bigger brother 2 5/8" gauges. There's an early version of the oil pressure gauge that's got a strange look to it. I even found it in some early sales literature.




This is a lesser known rear mount 2" variation.


This might be one of the bigger mysteries in my collection. It shares the same can and bezel as Essex/Terraplane speedos but that's where the similarities end.


Ok, now onto the non-SW gauges.

One of my favorite gauges because it's the "period correct" alternative to that classic crescent needle 2 5/8" 10lb fuel pressure gauge.
What's always bothered me about the 2 5/8" SW fuel pressure gauge is it has the later block logo that was introduced in 1957. Considering the rear mount SW gauges started appearing in 1948 the fuel pressure gauge almost seems like an afterthought.
Someone had posted an early gauge catalog marketed towards hot rodders. All the usual suspects were present EXCEPT the fuel pressure gauge. There it was, a Marsh fuel pressure gauge in the large 2 5/8" size. I believe this was what hot rodders actually used in the early days of the hobby.




Here are both the SW and the Marsh



This had to have been an early aftermarket accessory gauge and I've even seen them in a clip on panel to hang below the dash. This Motormeter gauge has the same demure teardrop needle as the auburn amperes gauges.


Another very Stewart Warner-ish gauge that I assumed had once lived on the dash of a big truck. Curved glass, large auburn speedo size and kinda neat it turns opposite direction as a speedo.


Another design that seems close to the style of SW. Now this makes more sense because it's from a '32 Packard which auxiliary gauges were SW. Flat glass but is the larger auburn speedo size.

 

Here's a panel with SW curved lense Wings Gauges and SW Ensign panel. It was my neighbors, but I helped my buddy buy it and it now is in Vegas.



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@Floorboardinit that was me who posted the Speedo-Tach service catalog.

I can't remember what thread I posted it on but was a gauge thread.

 

Cool!

 

Anyone know what this is from? Curved glass.

 

Pierce arrow circa '36

 

Trying to get my collection going. Wish I could afford Auburn SW gauges.



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