@Neb Hillbilly Kind of, Stewart Warner had manuals dating back to the 1930's for sure. I have these two; Hitting On All 6 and The Book Of Profits from 1950. These catalogs have the SW gauge product line. Since SW was known for their high quality gauges from the 1930's through the 1960's, each line they released became instant top sellers. Not only that many manufactures used SW gauges. But yeah, these books are a great guide.
I just have the regular made in the USA Stewart Warner black face and the older Tulip (I'm going to try to clean up the hazy temp): And odd looking Rochesters: And just got these 2:
I have an almost complete set of EELCO silver faced, red and blue trim gauges for my roadster. I am only missing the water temperature gauge. Does any one have one available ? I will take one with the capillary tube cut off, or with a damaged bezel. Any help out there ? I heard that there was a silver faced tachometer, and speedometer for sale at the LARS a few years ago. I would have traded my left nut for those.Thanks, nick.
Since all you gauge junkies are here in one thread, how the hell does this volt meter work with the tachometer ???
I was thinking about putting together a matched set of the USA-made SW small logo gauges. Do y'all actually wire up the ammeter like it was designed or leave it not hooked up? I guess I'm just worried about getting heavy enough wire and making sure I don't burn down this car that I've been working on for years.
Use wire designed for it and hook it up. Make your wiring job neat and all connections tight. You've gotta know what's going on in the system. Or, find a small logo Volt gauge. They are out there.
I bought a few different oyster shucking knives off of Amazon. They are usually stainless steel and the blades are thin and blunt as opposed to being sharp. They don’t bend. I found a number of H.A.M.B. threads that covered disassembly. I lightly restored a brass SW fuel pressure gauge recently to go in an engine turned panel with a pressure pump. Good results, no damage, and looks nice with slightly yellowed lettering.
View attachment 4642743 I was amazed at the number of oyster shuckers for sale on Amazon. Until I read the tip for the gauge disassembly I had never even heard of such a tool. To be honest though I had made the choice to never let an oyster cross my lips while watching my Dad eat some when I was a little kid.Dad also liked liver and onions...which also didn't pass my test.
Great post and thanks for saving the old gauges as I love them and @Speed-on thanks for the kind words. I got my tips and help from @fleetside66 and thank you. I have had good results with my technique and using some tools I had in the shop. I first start with Kroil and those who haven’t used this stuff its crazy good. I soak the rim and tap in used razor blades 4 one on each side. I let it sit for a hour to let the kroil do its stuff. I then start moving the blades around till they all slide in easy or with little effort,. I then move to a paint scrapper and with some more kroil and I have a few thickness and work my way around also working them till I have little effort to put them in. I then move to a old plane blade that I modified to fit with out distorting the rim. My last step is using a starrett hold down and slide it around and it also has a taper. So my progression on thickness is .024 razor blade, paint scrapper .035 then .050 then the plane blade.070 and then to my hold downs at .070 taper to .125 . This will loosen it to a point to use the hold down to work the rim off. If this seems to much to do to get the rim off just turn one up on the lathe as I did . I made this one out of aluminum but have ordered some stainless to machine some.
Or if you screw up the original bezel you could order up a new repro (very nice looking, much better than some others I've seen on some high-dollar west coast cars) rim from Pat Pryor: https://www.instagram.com/muroc_mfg_co/
Thank you for the info @alchemy and would be a lot easier them machining them. There is a lot going on in the rim and lots of time goes into making those and look awesome..
Pat is currently out of the bezels and is working on new tooling for them, hopefully they will be available again soon .
Pat also had the proper gaskets & the correct curvature glass for these gauges, which was high quality & very reasonable.
I always liked this old panel with it's single light but all my old gauges just look old, maybe I'll try this dissection bit
I recently removed this abused SW wings oil pressure gauge from my Truck. It doesnt read, the ‘mechanics’ seem to be a little loose in the body, the mounting studs have been hacked off, and it’s full of crud. Could it be rescued?
Yes I would swap the inside for a good working unit and just use the face plate (winged sw) rim-and curved glass.
I have a 37 Plymouth gage cluster that's going in my 36 dodge, when I make a new dash for it. When I bought it, it was in great shape, except for the convex glass being cracked. I found Norkro Clock Co. online. They have convex glass in 48 different sizes, from 2 1/8" dia. for $4 to 8" dia. for 13.95. Mine is 7 1/8, and is $12. It looks great, and fits just right. Their website is norkro.com. I am not associated with them, just a satisfied customer.
Well I’ve had a go, it’s in bits! Bit of a pita to get the bezel off, not sure how it will go getting it back on.. The needle appeared to be on the wrong side of the 0 stop, popped it over, and gently moving the mechanism, it seems to work and return fine. Wondering how to clean all the oil and engine mess out of it, paint degreaser? I don’t want to damage the face, obviously. Is there a way I can check it’s working? Also need to replace the mounting studs on the back.
I'd clean it out with some wd40 and a small brush. To test it tee it in with a gage you trust and put some air pressure to them gradually. Phil
I sent my dual gauges stateside for an overhaul cameback with plated bodies and new faces rebuilt internals .I stripped out the speedo cleaned the case and painted it cleaned the glass and stuck a new face on.needle was reluctant to come off to get the face on sprayed it liberally with WD40 ,left to soak, it popped off.i had good glass,cleaned it up.bezel was good also.however I was missing the rubber gasket(rotted out) flat gasket,not o ring was unsure of the thickness went to my local gasket co KEMTRON very obliging old skool guys had 2 different thickness that might do ,I had 2 of each cut.didnt want to put too much pressure on the glass when assembling it with the bezel.my speedo had been apart 2 times during the years with dates noted inside.when I sprayed the speedo case I masked them off to preserve them.my speedo is cosmetic only.but the dual gauges have new internals and are working.put new bulbs in 12v and rewired.amp meter not connected due to up-rated alternator .dates 1-14-48,2-11-56 2015 and 2018 dates added by me
Hello Guys, As you will recall my oil pressure gauge would only return to 4 psi (not all the way back to 0). Some of you asked how I was able to resolve this. This is a little "photo heavy" but I hope this post helps illustrate what I did. Here is my "Before" I had a sneaking suspicion that it just needed to be "worked" a little. I grabbed a brass adapter for the oil line, a 10cc bulb syringe, and about 9cc of oil. The end of the bulb syringe fit nice and tight inside the brass adapter as shown here.... I simply pushed on the plunger (creating pressure) obviously moving the needle which gave an oil pressure reading of 25psi. Then I pulled back on the syringe plunger creating vacuum (suction) which brought the needle back down to 4 psi. I kept doing this for about 4 minutes. After "working" the internals of the gauge for 4 minutes, the needle went to 0 PSI. This gauge has sat for quite some time without being used. It just needed some oil and some use. If I sat still for 15 years, I'm sure I'd be a little stiff too. Here is the "After" @NAES @vtx1800 @fleetside66 I hope this helps. Maybe I just got lucky...not sure, but in this instance this method worked for me. Both my little kiddos have seasonal allergies for which they are prescribed a liquid allergy medication. Because of this we have a ton of these 10cc syringes. You can get them at Walgreens. If you have any questions, please ask!! Speed~On
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