Technical opinions on NEW stewart warner gauges

Has anyone used the Bosch retro line gauges?
https://www.boschperformance.com/products/retro-line-3-38-tachometer-fst-8050

I like the look...but haven't heard much about them.

 

Bosch bought the Sun Pro line out a few years ago.
No personal experience, but not the best reviews either!
KK

 

Yes it could. I have a flathead in my SW equipped 40 ford and just choose to keep the RPM well below 6000 for longevities sake. I have SBC in my street rod that is capable of 6 grand but doesn't seem to need go to 6000 to attain any legal (or safe) speed in short order.

I installed mine for nostalgia reasons. I wanted a vintage look and I had run SW gauges in a 40 coupe I owned back in the seventies. They were high quality equipment back then. I even mounted the four gauges below the dash just because that's the way many used to do it back then. Is it practical? Not really but it is kind of old school.

 

Boy, you guys aren't making me feel real warm inside with all this talk about S/W gauges.
I (think) these were bought in the very late 90's, the newest date on the literature is 6/97.
Can't say "yay or nay" as these have only seen dash mockup time in my stalled roadster project. As you can see on the box; it clearly says "hecho in Mexico".

Notice the tachometer cup, I don't know what is available now but back when I got the gauges from my local hot rod parts guy S/W offered no cup for free stand mounting.
Apparently the S/W tach. requires a deeper cup than others, he found this cup, but I don't recall who made it. ? VDO?

 

So many S/W fuel, oil pres., and temp gauges have gone 'sour' in my roadster, both '36 Coupes, my '46 Coupe, and three '54 Ford coupes!
First I thought it was the Coupes...but then my '55 F100 has 'eaten' 5 since '72.
Wife Joey saw the classic black face 270* sweep Auto Meters, and bought me a set.
F100 is getting disassembled for engine mount and frame repair, she wants to rewire and replace all electrics same time.
The Auto Meters have etched arrow pointers, just beautiful! ...and they match my 4 spoke Bell!

 

Jeeze, I bought a set a year or so ago for my coupe. Haven't even drilled the holes in the dash for them yet. What to do, what to do.

 

That new mexican shit is junk. Heres my collection of early stewart warners for my roadster

 

This kind of stuff makes me sick.........My first job after graduating High School back in 65 was working in the Gauge Inspection Lab at S-W in Chicago..........My God.....They were fanatical about every detail and method of assy back then......Close went in the garbage and only "Perfect" product was shipped.....Everything was mechanical back then as the Electronic era was just kicking in.........So Sad to see another Quality Corporation go down the drain......

 

fifty years...times change.

The AutoMeter Cobra gauges look ok, maybe give them a try? but they look kind of generic, older style.

The SW gauges have that look to them.

 

Just design your gauge at Speedhut, best gauges hands down... the only ones we recommend and sell at our Hot Rod Shop.

https://www.speedhut.com/

 

will they make a close copy of the old SW gauges?

 

What squirrel said.

 

I'm not keen on 4 mph increments what happened to 5 mph?

 

Wow! I just ordered mechanical water temperature , mechanical oil pressure, and a voltmeter from China Bill this morning.

 

Tengo el nuevo S.W. calibradores hencho en Mexico y todos funcionan perfecto.
Tengo mucha suerte, supongo.

Hasta pronto,
Bandido Guillermo

 

Installed a few of em in my Dads Elco, they work fine so far.

Sent from my SM-A205U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

BTW, I love the black and white dash. I have been thinking about something singular in my truck build. Is that Wimbledon white?

 

Yes Bandit Billy its Wimbledon white. I just spent a wonderful few hours today driving the 40 and looking over that dash. Made my day!

 

para ti es fácil decirlo

 

Just a thought but you can buy nice original SW gauges for short money if you’re not looking for the ultra rare stuff. Much better quality and has the correct look.

 

Mark, about that chrome S/W tach on the top shelf.......
In the 70's I bought one of them used, never could get it to work so threw it in a drawer.
A couple times a year I would dig through that drawer and pull that tach out and just marvel at it, it was about the most beautiful thing I had ever seen (auto part that is).
Held onto it for twenty years, finally pitched it in the trash can, man that was hard to do.
What is wrong with us?

 

More on SW gauges. I recently installed a World Class 5 S10 5 speed in my 40 coupe. I had been using a GPS sender for MPH with decent success. It was mounted on my rear bumper. It worked 95% of the time. It was sensitive to the start sequence of the car and satellite reception. One of the reasons I chose the WC over the Non WC is that the WC was equipped with a speed sensor that I could hook my SW speedo to. Well after several attempts to calibrate the the speedo I called the SW tech guys. The eventually forwarded my call to a guy that knew what he was doing.


After trying a wiring change he asked how I felt about using a GPS sender. I informed him that I had been using one on the bumper and was trying to get that non traditional looking gizmo off my bumper. After stating my concerns about mounting the GPS under the dash he said that he had one that is supposed to work under a dash. When he offered to send me one for free I decided to give it a try.

It came in looking just like the one I had bought from Speedway and mounted on my bumper brace years ago. Any way, once mounted it works pretty good. It is sometimes slow to pick up satellites though. sometimes it can take2 to 5 minutes to start sending. It calibrated quickly but I could only get it to within 2 mph accuracy compared to my Garmin and the mile post checker.

One final note: I also do not understand the 4mph increments on the gauge. Why not 5?

 

I have Bosch gauges in the avatar been thru 3 volt gauges in 1 year last one lasted about a month,all the other gauges no problem just voltage gauge. I put my old sw back in

 

Update on my gauge set, mech. water temp. needle sticks half the time, then jumps up and works normal. pia

 

My SW speedo went out years ago so I use my tach for a speedo. I set the red line @ 45 mph and go from there to estimate other speeds. When the gas gauge went out I made a rod to measure the gas with. All the other SW gauges work so far. They were installed back in the early 80's...……...

 

The speedo is an original’32 and I had SW Wings oil pressure and volt meter gauges as they were a pretty good match to the speedo. Pointless to have an oil pressure gauge on a banger! No Wings vacuum gauges, so I installed the standard SW volt meter and vacuum gauges even though I dislike the look. Tach is a custom Classic Instrument 4000 RPM model. No issues with either the Wings or standard SW gauges.

 

SW Wings....Never had any issues....