The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Keeping Time in 1954

Had my '54 3600 for a dozen or so years and made some clock housing resin castings
way back when I brought her but.....could never find a clock to go into the housing.
At least not one that was priced to fit my fixed income.
But, I've have been looking on the net every so often all these years and the other day,
I ran across three on ebay that fit my price range. Got two in the mail and waiting for
the third then I'll be clearing off the radio bench to turn it into my watch makers table
in the near future.
Was wondering if any of ya'll have had any experience with the New Haven Clock Co. or
Lux Clock Mfg. Co. clocks that supplied GM with their 52-55 1st. car/truck clocks????
Denny G
Sandwich, IL

I do not have any experience but would love to see pictures of both the housing you made and the clocks you picked up.

Don't think I can post pictures to the forum Dave. Think what I've done in years past is simply link to
my private photo album (no ads) when showing a photo. So here are a bunch of pics of the '54-'55 1st.
clock housing project I started about a decade back.
Had a lot of help from Tim Lederman on this back in the day, as he was gracious enough and trusting
to let me borrow an original die-cast housing which I made the mold from. As I've said, finding the clocks
was what put a stop to the project.
dg
https://pbase.com/dennygraham/dash_clock&page=all

Nice work, as usual, Denny

I have a box of clocks (somewhere) for 1954/55 Chevrolet trucks (that I think also fit cars around those years?).

I bought these when I had $$ from consulting.

They all fit the truck housing.
But, there are several different face styles.
I think these have all been professionally cleaned/set.

Text/call/PM me if you want to discuss this. ([email protected]. - 518-253-0914 )

Best Regards,
Tim

[ added later : Here is an old thread about Chevrolet car/truck manual/electric clocks. ]

Nice work. You think like me. If you are going to make one, might as well make 20. I am not sure what you used to cast them but I was looking at a post on another site earlier this week and they mentioned places like Hobby Lobby had kits for casting you own plastic molds/parts. In that conversation they were talking about replacing the damages plastic portion of a hood ornament. Translucent red.

Nice work Denny.
Sounds like something I'd try to do. You've got a bunch of saleable ones to recoup some of your expense if needed. I'm sure you could find a market for them.

Been a long time Tim. How's it going over there on the coast??? Are ye weathering the storms OK?? I got side tracked a few years back besides the fact that I haven't worked for nearly 20 years and the markets have not been all that good to us. The Cyclekarts that I've been playing with take a LOT less out of the monthly allowance.

Dave, I get my casting supplies from Reynolds Advanced Materials in Chicago. Yep, cast a batch of
parking light lenses up some time back for early GMC trucks. These were clear but I have dies where
I could have made them translucent yellow or red. https://pbase.com/dennygraham/gmc_parking_light_lens_project

Don't know about that Kevin....if they're not 'exactly' like the original part then there are always those that would complain that they didn't fit right out of the box. And how do you price something like that? Never have been a very good business man or trader as far as that goes. Just made a bunch trying to perfect them for my own satisfaction.

Did the same thing for the '54-'55 1st. radio. Made a bunch of reproduction front grills and mounting brackets as they're dang near impossible to find. https://pbase.com/dennygraham/image/133951162

dg

I have experience with them, but it has been long ago. The last one I repaired was for a 1957 Chevy and I think it ran for a year or two. If you know even the fundamentals of watchmaking, you know why these worked only temporarily. As for New Haven, Lux, Ingersoll and all the other "dollar watch" making factories, well...they did a good job with the challenges (unsealed movements, ceaseless shock/vibration, humidity/condensation, wide temperature swings, cheap parts that freely rusted or oxidized). All the things that keep a well made watch running for very long periods of time...are absent. Now I will say Pontiac and Datsun used some impressively nice jeweled movements which were both long-running and accurate. I had one in a Datsun that was still running fine when I sold the car (10 years after I bought it).

Sounds about right Jon. Back then the life of a vehicle wasn't meant to be ten years after you bought it.
Especially if you lived in the snow belt where they were rusted out three or four years after you drove it
off the show room floor. And I'm sure none of the accessories were made to be used for decades.
I mean, how rare is it to find any die-castings that haven't pitted thru their chrome plating. The rust
free Stovebolts are still out there but pretty hard to find any more.
dg

Denny, the photo posting process has drastically changed while you were away. Look in the left margin for the new improved process.

Hey thanks Martin, I see it now and downloaded the sheet.

Yeah, I just stop by the Spoon once in a while for a cup O' Joe and to make sure I'm not the only one that's left standing. So.....I miss out on a lot of what's going on with the new crowd around here. I seem to recall at one time there wasn't enough band width or somethin like that, to host
photos. That's when I subscribed to the pbase photo album that Woody used and posted my
pictures to share over there.

The Cyclekart club forum that I've been active on for the last six or seven years is super easy to post to and find your way around. A lot of the guys are heading over to Face Book now a days, which I find a 'cluster #$%@' to say the least, I hate that format.

Thanks again for the tip.

Denny G
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

Glad to see you are still around. Have enjoyed seeing you in some of the KC Reunion stories I've been working on. Hope you get a chance to reply in them, as we struggle to remember stuff!

Bandwidth was a problem for a long time. Not just for us but for others who wanted to view pages. We moved from having many images (say in a Gallery page, Tech Tip, or Feature) to moving to Photobucket for some of them, and encouraging folks to get some kind of photo hosting site. Was easy to do links to images from there. Even in the said pages, we started doing smaller images (little larger than thumbnail) with the ability to <<click on image to view larger images>> ... that helped with some of those that needed details.

Bandwidth is still a concern but the internet has changed so much that the *worst* is now *manageable* in most cases. And having some images in low rez for websites (as compared to print), helps with that.


This thread on the clock is interesting. Hope you get some of those images posted!!

Thanks Peg. Missed you for a while there. Hope all is better now.

Yeah, I had to face up to the fact that what was coming in was less than what was going out with the trucks. So even though I've kept Old Blue and the '54 (New Blue) I had to shuffle my priorities around.

The Cyclekarts looked like an interesting hobby and one that was more in line with my financial status. Only problem with it, is I've been into them for seven years and have only found one...that's 1....event that was even close to me, and that was in Salt Lake, UT....1600 miles away. Looks like a hobby that just tain't gonna get off the ground. I do check in a few times a month just to stay connected.

I'm thinkin' about sweeping away the moth balls and tackling a few small projects on the Stovebolts.

Ya'll take care now.
Denny G
Sandwich, IL

Mr. Graham, your input has been greatly missed for some time. I looked forward to reading your posts for many years while struggling to rebuild my 1954 truck. You were a source of accurate information and inspiration. I bookmarked your photo site and still revisit regularly your clear explanations and excellent pictures. Thank you!
I have visited this site most days since discovering it in early 2008. I eagerly “tuned in” to hear wisdom from Denny Graham, Tim Lederman, Woody VonDracek (Czechman), Brad Allen, DADS50, Cletis, Achipmunk, Carbking Crenwelge, Woogeroo, WrenchbenderRet and Pre 68 Dave to name a few. The site even directed me to follow Larry Kephart in BillyBob’s Garage as he worked through many of the same problems I was experiencing. Over the years Stovebolt has solved problems for me I did not know I had! It continues to inform and entertain. Welcome back.

Well thanks but I certainly don't belong in that group, some of who are no longer with us,
but most of whom have stayed faithful to the hobby all these years.
I'm just one of those that reached a point where I couldn't afford it anymore I had to drop out
and look elsewhere for something to occupy my time till I take my last ride. I've never been able
to let go of things that I've worked hard to acquire so some think of me as a hoarder, Sweetie face
for one....that's my Big Old Wife. So both my 'Bolts are still housed here at Shangri La. Oh....did I
mention that at 72 I decided to UpScale and moved from our home of 27 years at the Sandwich, Airport
out to a place in the country??? That had a bit to do with thinning out the mattress so I had to make some
crucial decisions as to how I spent the allowance Sweetie face gives me.
You mentioned Woody (Czechman) who I gave credit to for turning me on to the pbase photo album. I really
hated to see him sell that 'Bolt of his after all the work that he put into that project. That was WAY more
effort than I'd ever invest in a restoration.
Well....here we are, in the home stretch and what started out as a hobby way back in the 1950's and was revived
at the turn of this new century only to trail away.....is once again, stoking the fire inside of me. So who knows,
maybe I'll be able to finish restoring (I'm 95% a purist remember) those two old Stovebolt's in my care before
the sand runs out of my hour glass.
I'd like also to say thanks... thanks to all here on the 'Bolt, who over the years have made me always feel
welcome and part of the family.
Denny G
Sandwich, IL

Back to the Clocks.........I'm gonna post over to the paint forum, a question about the interior paint for
the '54-55 1st. trucks. I saw a thread the other days about the early AD paint where Behr Burnished Amber
was a very close match. Over the years I've invested many hundreds of dollars in spray cans and custom mixed
paints at the auto body paint stores trying to come up with just the right color. So this new one i.e. Behr looks
real promising and although I bombed out yesterday in my search, I'm gonna give it another try today.
So if anyone has any suggestions on the interior paint used on the last of the AD's... sure would appreciate
your input. dg

Edited by PM ... Just wanted to include Denny's post he made in Paint & Body Shop that he was talking about so you all can jump over there.

--------

Don't want to hijack this thread but wanted to add the Czechman's Door Art link. Very fun to look thru all the images he collected.

Not a problem here Peg. I had almost forgot about Woody's Door Art album. I'm surprised it's still there.
Must mean the ole dude is still keeping up his photo album. I had those downloaded to my confuser at
one time but had a couple of crashes and I'm bad or rather dumb when it comes to back up. dg

DG,

It was hard to tell if it's been kept up. A number of folks who show up have interesting door art and I kept wondering where that was being stored. If you know that he's still doing it and accept images, I can add that to my do list somewhere.

Oh yeah, you are the "confuser" guy. I forgot that. That's very funny.

Denny, those castings are beautiful. Good luck with finding the right clock.

If you have an extra housing to part with, please PM me.

I have been wanting to find/fabricate a similar housing, but for a tach. Driving my 5sp 55.1 235 leaves me wanting more information. Maybe because my other cars are sports cars. 😄

I saw one offered a while back and thought of putting a tach in one.