 davidchristopher
"4th Year" Gold Supporting Member
Posts: 1660
Age: 42
Loc: Saint George, Ontario, Ca...
Reg: 08-02-09
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06-02-12 03:08 PM - Post#2232634
Part One
So- I've been looking around for gauges. Damn, they're expensive. Some of them are really nice, but they don't quite fit the dashes of our ('51 / '52) cars, do they? And.. what? How much? No way am I spending hundreds of dollars on crappy instruments, and upwards of a thousand on good ones. That's too much money.
A couple of years ago, while surfing around I came across a posting - I think it was by our resident guru DZAUTO - where he had a second speedo recalibrated and connected it to a tachdrive distributor.
Shortly after, thinking I would just use the 'factory gauges'- I picked up a second speedometer which was used along with the speedometer I had to make one good one. Now, I have a working speedometer, and the hulked remains of a dead speedometer.
I could do the same and restore the 4-in-one that would normally sit right next to it, but...
I want a tachometer there instead.
Starting with a very cheap and simple Princess Auto Tachometer
and the remains of the speedometer I parted out...
I set out to combine the two for a 'vintage' looking electronic tach.
Started out by pulling the tachometer apart...
It's really only held in the case by 2 screws - it's a pretty cheap unit...
There are 2 tiny screws holding the faceplate onto the tachometer unit. Again, it's pretty cheap.
and then the whole thing just sort of 'falls' out of the cheap plastic housing.
Sure looks like It's thin enough to fit into the speedo housing from the '51 without binding on anything... so let's place it and be sure.
Now, let's get the centre part of the gauge from the 4-in-one... the one for the speedo has been punched out for the odometer, and it won't do. The centre piece from the 4/1 doesn't have this punch out and fits / looks beautiful.
Next, we'll take the original gauge face and punch a couple of holes through it using the chrome centre piece above as a template. We need something to attach the tach to... like so:
You can see above the holes I punched into the original tach face are 90* from the original holes. This is for clearance of the mounting bolts.
Now we can attach the tach, including it's original faceplate, to the '51's speedometer face.
And here's the final mockup:
I need now to make a pair of matching needles and repaint the gauge faces... more on that soon...
1951 Chevrolet Styleline Special. (350 4 Muncie '55 Driveshaft CE crossmember Heidts Mustang II front suspension, 3:10 Posi)
The '51 Chevy Blog
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