F-6Garagerat posted a question about gauge alternatives in a 36 dash that didnt involve spending a lot of money or cutting up the dash. I responded and he asked if I had pictures of how I did mine. As it turns out I did. When I did this modification a couple years ago I had plan in the back of my mind to post a how to but never got around to it I didnt think my pictures were self explanatory enough and lacked the necessary detail to show the process. Thats a nice way of saying I screwed up I shouldve taken more pictures of the stock gauges as they came apart which, I think, wouldve made the first picture of the parts laid out on my bench less confusing Anyway, I said id try to dig up the information and photos and post something so .here it is. I hope its helpful I love the look of the stock, original gauges in mid 30s fords but getting them to work right can be a challenge. If you have a lot of money that challenge can be minimized by just plopping down some green or plastic as the case may be and installing a very nice replacement gauge set from one of several instrument manufacturers. That dont happen in my cheapskate world, though. I like to scrounge around under the bench and on the shelves looking for alternative ways to resolve problems. In this case, I had a box of Stewart Warner gauges stashed away so the only issue was how to get them into the dash without ruining the woodgrain finish by filling in the stock holes and cutting news openings.. This is what I finally came up. First, I disassembled the '36 gauges by carefully peeling back the crimped bezel. The small gauges are only crimped at the corners so theyre pretty easy to take apart. The speedo is a little harder as its crimped all the way around. Just go slow and take small bites and the bezel should pop off after about 30-40% of the crimp is worked back. Here are all the various pieces and the pattern for a new base to take up the difference between old and new gauges. The 36 curved glass is on the right leaning against the original gauge bezel. The brass colored piece next to it is sandwiched between the stock gauge, the curved glass, and the gauge bezel. New piece cut out and ready for the sleeve that will hold the S/W in place. My new base plate replaces the brass piece on the right in the picture as well as the original '36 gauge. The sleeve that holds the S/W gauge in place is silver soldered to the base.... Gauge is held to the base by the sleeve which rides up against the bezel.... The whole thing is held together by re-crimping the '36 bezel onto the new base. The S/W clamps in the picture are redundant... the gauge is a fairly tight fit in the sleeve and fits up snugly against the gasket/glass. the entire S/W gauge sits behind the '36 curved glass that has a gasket between it and the S/W gauge bezel. The oil pressure gauge is just the same. Speedo was a little different as the diameter of the S/W is about 5/8ths less than the '36. I used the original speedo back cover/base by cutting a hole in it the right size to fit the sleeve then made a face ring that takes up the difference between the two diameters....The ring is cosmetic and has no structural purpose so it can be made of anything that's convenient. I made this one from hard poster/matt board. Pretty hard to beat gauges that actually work...and I don't have to repaint the dash... Before I decided to put all this together I had gauges mounted all over the place, including above the windshield in the header which is where the water temp and fuel gauge are still mounted. Now, everything is hard mounted and looks like it "belongs" rather than just stuck on wherever they might fit...easy to see and read at a glance
The Jalopy Journal
