The pics were Jeff's. His pics of the guts of his speedometer looked like the the guts in my '54. You will be able to spot minor differences such as the face. NOTE: I did not rebuild my speedo. I only cleaned, lubed, and refaced the dial. I didn't have the nerve to disassemble or reface the odometer.
Be very careful removing the needle, especially if there is rust in the speedo. The pivot shaft is very brittle and easily broken. If you break it, you're up the creek. Soak it with penetrating oil if the needle does not come off easily. I had a scrap speedo to practice on. I broke the shaft on it using almost no pressure. Luckily, the needle on my "real" speedo came off the shaft easily.
The rubber grommets around the mounting bolts are easy to find locally. The metal tubular inserts are not.
If you reface the speedo, then reface all of the gauges so that they will match, even if you have added a new gauge or two to your instrument cluster. Scuff up the face, then spray a light coat of paint on them before applying the face decal. Choose a paint approx the same color as the face.
The inside of the bezels and housings for the speedo and gauge cluster on my '54 were painted aqua with some darker green stripes. Easy to duplicate. Your '53 may be different.
> Speedo housing> Gauge cluster housing> Speedo inner bezel> Gauge cluster inner bezel> Backs of two speedo dials> Photobucket albumMight as well clean and paint the outside of the housings, too. I did mine with light mist/spatter coats of aluminum, stainless steel, galvanized, etc rattle cans until I got the look that I wanted. 'Course I will be the only person to ever see them, but ...
> Outside of speedo housing
