Guage choices? the good and the bad??

I am going to keep the stock speedo and fuel guage in my 50 Sedan. I will be putting a oil pressure, water temp and volt guage in. Something simple mounted under the dash. Who makes the good ones and who makes ****? I saw Mooneyes has a complete set of all 3 for $70.00 but I don't know the quality. Any help? thanks, Todd

 

Can anyone give me some guidence?

 

Stay away from the new(Made in Mehico) Stewart Warner's/ They are ****....

Shane T.

 

I'll second the bad Stewart Warner stuff

 

Regarding the Mooneyes gauges, there have been both good and bad reviews here. Personally, I think the 3 gauge set looks pretty nice for the money and they do appear to be mechanical rather than electric gauges. For $70, I would try them. I have several Moon gauges that work fine but I do know that they have had autometer, cl***ic industries and china all involved in the manufacture on different units. For $70, I am betting the 3 gauge set is of the latter quality, but don't know for sure...

 

I'm looking at the same quandry on my boy's 54 Chevy pick up truck. I need the cluster in a 5" and a electric speedo. I'm thinking hard on the Autometer set because it looks good and I trust the name. I can spend half the money and get the Dolphin gauges but I hear they are Taiwan junk but I have no first hand knowledge. Heck, I don't even have second hand info, no one I know has any! I'm not talking $70 here, though. I'm talking over $400 so it is a big step.

Not to ***** on Tug's post, but I could use similar guidance.

 

It is perfectly fine to "*****" someones post. We all get info that way. I did look at guages from Hanline. The make a complete replacement insert for 40-50 Chevy cars. $500 bucks is a lotot of pesos for my budget.
Todd

 

For what it's worth the Autometer guages aren't a direct drop in for the chevy trucks, you still have to use adapters to make them fit.
Shane T

 

the cheapie moon ones are either made in china or taiwan...

 

Elaborate more on Dolphin GAUGES (note spelling). My neighbor wants to swap me a set of five blue faced ones (large speedo w/four smaller (fuel, volt, oil, temp) for the price of a set Chrysler rallys I told him he could buy for a project he's working on. I think they need the sending units.

 

I got the Moon gauges for my 65' Biscayne and mounted them into the dash. Only problem I had was when a wire that was rubbing in the braided oil pressure gauge, shorted then burned through the braided line. Oil everywhere. Switched to an electric after that.

The electric actually worked better than the manual gauge.

 

I have the Moon triple gauge set. Decent quality. The temp gauge ****ed out, but they (Richard's Stuff) sent me a replacement in two days before I even sent the bad one back. They are made in Taiwan. From what Richard told me, he's sold tons of these and only had three warranty returns, including mine. Not a bad track record for import stuff. I think they look pretty cool, too, especially compared to what else is available for that price.

If you get them, immediately replace the plastic oil pressure line with a copper one. I grabbed an Autometer copper line at O'reilly for less than $10. I would NEVER trust the thin clear plastic tube!

The oil and water temp gauges are mechanical and very easy to install.

 

can you pull those out of that 3 port panel? i like to put them ina dash diffrently

 

I've used VDO guages over the years without a hitch. In my experience, autometer ones have been nothing but trouble: poorly made and inaccurate. I saw in Hot Rod a few issues back some gauges that were a take off of WWII aircraft gauges but I can't remember what brand they were.

edit: Shane T: that's them! thanks for that.

 

Cl***ic Instruments designed by SAR if I remember correctly.

 

I've had Dolphin guages for over 5 yrs on my car i don't know where you got the impression that they are junk(?) I had a so called problem with the oilgauge wrote to them and they sent me a new gauge and sending unit turned out I had a bad oil pump The only critisizm is the speedo, numbers ****, they are sequenced at 20 MPH incerments,so you see 20mph then 40mph its hard to tell where 35mph is, and the cops strictly enforce a 35 mph speed in this town....

 

Good:
Stewart-Warner
VDO
Autometer


Bad:
All the others.

 

Stewart Warner ****S! read here.....
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=79278

 

Yes, the Moons can come out of the panel. They mount with a metal bracket and two studs/nuts. Not as simple as the screw-in gauges like Autometer, but they would still work fine in a dash panel.

 

I'm glad this came up because I'm having a real hard time making up my mind on gauges for my 50 Ford too. Kinda leaning toward Auto-meters, but I've put those in tons of customers vehicles and want something a little more 'unique', but accurate. So, carry on. I'll check this out later.

 

Well, I have always been the stupid guy to buy the cheapie SUntune 3 gauge set for my "hot rods" and never had a bad experience. With that being said, when I bought my first real hotrod(63 1/2 Flacon) I took the plunge and bought a set of Autometer. I will never go back to the cheap stuff. I have a couple of sets of Autometers now and I am still impressed.

 

Thanks for all the replys. I was worried when no one replied at first. Also should I go with mechanical or electric?? I know if I go Mech. to replace all the plastic capilary hose with br***.
Todd

 

Why are you going new? Is there a car made that DOESN'T look better with a set of Sun's?

 

Anyone familiar with Faria gauges?

 

I have had no issues with the dophn guages in my 48 coupe

 

I ordered my Auto Meter Gauges today. Any guidance on what adaption needs to be made to put them in an AD truck would be appreciated.

 

I have used Dolphin gauges and have had no issues.VDO 's are nice also.
Mike

 

I just bought a Stewart Warner 3 gauge panel for my '38 with oil pressure, fuel, & amp gauges. They came from Speedway. All were made in Mexico. I hope they work for me. They sure look good.

My '32 will be getting a Cl***ic Instruments "All American Nickel" two gauge set. They are HAMB Alliance dealers. The gauges don't really have a "traditional hot rod" look but I think they are gorgeous.

JH

 

Stewart Warners are junk with little to no real tech support. Cl***ic Instruments are a bit pricey but fine gauges, super tech support and a good warrantee. Worth the money.

 

The Dolphins are cheap, I've installed plenty of requested sets for others.
VDO are nice, but the finish rubs off the gold ones easy.
Cl***ic Instruments are nice. *** Danimal*** I think they'll fit the '54 without an adapter.

For me, I use good used SW gauges in my stuff.