The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk speedometer repair or replace query

My 53 speedometer can be rebuilt for $145-$185. Or I can buy a reproduction for $125, what would you do .... pro's,con's? Has anybody had any experience with the reproduction's?
Chris

Personally I would rebuild the original since you asked. I prefer restoration to original when possible, some don't. I don't have experience with repop speedos but many other repop parts are of suspect quality and seem to be getting worse.

53panel: Welcome to the bolt. Hope you enjoy your stay here and decide to be a regular vistor and contribute when you can.

I just went through the guage thing and have my own "opinions". #1)I had already put my reface kit on my speedometer #2)the mileage figures would roll. #3)I had a new speedo needle with it when I took it to the restoration shop. #4) I had also bead blasted the housing and and painted accordingly. Picked it up at the restoration shop and the bill was $140.
Now,be absolutely sure you check ALL the vendors before ordering. I could have bought a rebuilt one from one place for $195 plus a good "core". Another place wanted $95 for a new assembly and you put it in your housing. I wish I had went for the new assemble plus $11 Shipping.

As an example: I recently purchased a set or motor mounts from a place for $85 which was normally $95. After getting them I found that the one I bought them from was purchasing them from another vendor and marking them up $10. So with the discount they were still only the same price I could have bought them from the original vendor....am I making sense here?
BE INFORMED!! Now, as Tiny said, if its originality you want get the original redone.
(can you stand one more example?)
Recently bought a NEW after market Tiawan temp guage for the 52 for $45 plus $11 for shipping. That sure beat the next best price of $74 and exchange. There is not much to some of these guages tiawan or chinese or whatever....however the needle mounted a little different but you cannot tell it once you put the face on.....AND you know what a restoration guy wants to fix a temp guage with the copper tube/ether. $185, so you can see why I spent total of $56.
Check around and decide what YOU want and what you can afford. I don't have deeeep pockets.

Any recommendations on speedo rebuild shops???

I would strongly recommend checking the yellow pages and/or area car clubs for a rebuilder in your area. I used one half way across the country that advertises in Hemmings Motor News and haven't been happy. He had it three times before it was "usable" and still isn't right. Each time it involved sending it several states away and was gone for two or more weeks each time. I since found out about a rebuilder in Wichita, 50 miles away, and will take it there if the need arises again.

Tiny, Mike with D&M Restorations in Greenville,S.C. was who gave me the quote and is who I might send the speedo to....hope this is not who you are unhappy with.
Chris

53panel, I have been in his shop and dealt with Mike and Diane (D&M Restorations) also his nephew Matt, and found them to be nice. Mike redid my 37 guages back in 99 and they still work fine except for a small problem with the speedo cable and he took care of that. Speedo was not the problem. Recently worked on some 57 car guages form. They can even do the screen printing on stuff if you need it. Personally I think they are a little pricey but all the stuff he has done for me over the years, and my friends, has come out really really nice......now that is not to say he never has any returns(?) but just a testimonial to his good work.

I've done some business with Micro-Tech automotive in Louisville, KY. They used to be called Ohio Valley Speedometer Supply, and they've been in business for over 50 years.

http://www.micro-tech-auto.com/

I believe they've still got a rebuilding/restoration shop for speedos and other gauges, as well as their current specialty, rebuilding automotive computers.
Jerry

My experience was with Scott Speedometer. In fairness he never said he wouldn't "make it right", I just got tired of the hassle of getting my well fed self under the dash to pull the speedo & send it off for two weeks at a time when each time it came back there was a different issue, which of course I discovered after I'd gotten my well fed self back under the dash to re-install it, which resulted in...... oh, you see the pattern. When it got to the point where I could live with it, even though it isn't "right", I decided to just leave it alone.

check out the website bowtiebits.com for your gauge and speedo rebuilds. The guy there is very easy to talk with and quite knowledgeable. I am thinking of having my 64' cluster rebuilt and he quoted me a price of under $400, and that included him adding the factory tach gauge which I don't have in the cluster now.
DJ Durant

Thank you guys for the replies...will let ya know what I end up doing.
Chris

My speedometer shaft broke right as it goes into the back of the speedometer. I'm not sure yet how to fix it.

Here are two shops I use

http://www.ddspeedometer.com/ out of the twin cities.

http://www.speedometersolutions.com/ out of milwaukee.

D&D speedometer and D&D instruments are a full blown gauge shop for new and used. Buy a lot of stuff for work from them. Speedometer Service of Milwaukee has a calibrated dyno used to calibrate speedometers in cars. They do all the squad cars in Wisconsin. They will speed dyno your car as well. Used to be $20.

Hope this helps.

Scott

Have any of you guys taken apart any of these old gauges yourselves to try to clean them up or repair them or do you always take them to a shop?

The "new" old '37 dash I got a couple weeks ago came with the original gauges still in it and they clearly need to be cleaned at the very least... I haven't tested them yet so who knows they MAY need repair too... I wouldn't really expect them to still be working, although I also bought a second set of original gauges off ebay recently as well that also need to be cleaned up but are "supposed to be" in good working condition...

I see 'decal kits' available that will give the gauges a new appearance so that's not the hard part... I would think it would be just opening 'em up and making them look (and work) good again that would be the challenge...

So.... has anyone done this themselves and if so what's the best approach?

Thanks in advance for your help...

~Trev

The only thing I've opened up was the fuel sending unit. It just needed cleaned & reassembled. I think I'd test them before opening them up. If they're dirty inside & there's an opening in the case you might try blowing them out with one of those clean/dry air cans you get for blowing out your computer. On my 38 the gauges are all open anyway. I can clean the glass without messing with the gauges.

I'm still waiting on the second set of gauges I bought off ebay to arrive, but as soon as they do I think I'll lay them all out and try to take 'em apart as you did Tiny...

I'll start with the worst one and if I make any mistakes and screw one up learning how to do it right at least it won't bug me too much!

~Trev

I'm Gonna be doing the same thing Trev....
I have a complete spare guage set and decals on order....

You should come on over then Dave... we can dissect 'em together and hopefully find a way to make 'em work!

~Trev

Don't get a new one--have yours rebuilt. You know all the parts fit together, and nothing fits like The General's original stuff.

I sent mine to AutoInstruments. 276-634-0110. I'm VERY happy with them.
-Brad

I tried to clean the odometer from my 69 Chevelle and a thin plastic retainer broke on me. The odometer will not work now, however it was my spare one so it's put away. Next time I send it out for cleaning.

i rebuilt my guages in my 62 chevy p-10 ice cream truck and chevy put 54 guages in it, i was able to get all the items needed for the guages on the web, even the reface kit, some green paint, and new bezels i was on the right track, i have a bag of guage parts that i did not use including two glass faces in good condition, if you would like to try it on your own! i could let go of these parts, i think there may be another speedo needle in there to.

jeff