Actually its my second attempt. First attempt wasn't centered. I put a 1946 Mercury dash in my 1935 Ford 5W . I wanted a tach but there's very little space so I converted the clock to a tach using a cheapo AutoGage tach. I needed at tach with a removable needle so I could use the long hand from the clock. This matched the speedo . The numbers are all I could find. Seems gothic number decals this small are uncommon. My plan was always to send the glass out to get numbered as factory for that 3D look. Anyone know of a HAMB'R that does such ? I found a guy on Ebay but like to support the HAMB when possible.
Looks real good! And honestly, the numbers aren't that dis-similar to the factory clock numbers, I would run those without issue. I might ditch the big RPM lettering on the face though. How did you get rid of the little slot in the clock face?
Just a warning, but any changes to the needle will throw the accuracy off, maybe by a lot. I did something similar (a semi-copy of the Comet Cyclone tach) and using the same model tach too, although this was an older model. I bought two tachs (just in case...) and checked them against each other before any mods. They were pretty close (>200 rpm). I didn't even change the needle, I just lightly painted the last 1/2" of it. This caused it to read way low, I screwed with the calibration adjustment and got it closer but it still wasn't the same as the unmolested one... There was very real loss of accuracy depending on RPM.
DZAUTO, over on ChevyTalk.Org (see the 49-54 forum), (and I believe he's a member here, just not on the site too often) converted his 51 Chevrolet dash cluster into a tach also; kept the stock speedometer, and used another to build his own tach; he already had accessory gauges. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
I had two clocks and used the best of both. The other clock didn't have a slot. I agree with you on the RPM. IMO its a little big. On the new glass it will be smaller as will the numbers.
It wouldn't surprise me if the accuracy is off. I dont consider this a quality instrument. I chose it for the removable needle and the price. Figured if I messed up I was only out $60 not $200. My car is a cruiser . I did this to distract me from my struggle with the roof filler panel. I really dig the look and wanted something different. Close is good enough for me right now .
I did a similar thing with my 55 Chevy pickup but I abandoned the original clock entirely and ordered the tach from Speedhut. It took me a month to get this thing as I customized it on their site as to background, text type, needle style and a few other parameters so, it spent two weeks in the art department and two weeks in production. I needed a trim ring to cover the interface between tach and clock housing and I found it in Hardin Marine Gauge Bezels at CPPerformance.com.
It may not be that close… By just painting the needle, mine went from within less than 200 RPM to matching the second one I bought to being off by more than 1000 RPM low @ 'true' 6K. Minuscule changes in needle mass had rather drastic affects on meter accuracy. I was able to 'adjust' the worst of it out by messing with the needle spring calibration but it took a fair amount of trial and error. And what was really funny, I had a 'collector' offer me $400 and another new tach for my 'rare factory' tach... LOLOL...
My wife has this little CAD knife for making stickers and such https://www.silhouetteamerica.com/ I was able to cut new numbers for the shift indicator. In just about any font. It didn't cut really thin sections well, so I used a bold font Full Kustom drunk mobile posting
Good point about being inaccurate, but that is only because clock hands have no need to be balanced. You might be able to mount that pointer on a needle (fed through through a small hole) and do a static balance with a blob of solder and some glue. when the glue has set, very carefully file away any extra weight. I really like this project, its original, very clever, and looks fantastic !!
Thanks Thats a great idea to balance the pointer. I can compare it to the original. I'll be thrilled to get the new glass so the tach and speedo match.