Folks Of Interest Early Stewart Warner gauge thread

Keep it old skool!!

 

New here. I am building repro electric tachs using vintage analog and semi computerized (Non Stewart Warner) mechanisms. So far I only have a 12 Volt 8,000 RPM big logo model. I can build 6 Volt for positive or negative earth for a bit extra skrilla. A repro 8,000 RPM Wings tach is in the works.
Edit: No sending unit required for these. And here's a video of this tach being tested on my special tach testing bench

 

I scored this nice SW gauge panel recently. The seller told me it was used in a boat so now I just have to buy a new boat....

 

That is not a Stewart Warner panel, and it's not from a boat. If you'd like me to get rid of it for you just let me know.

 

Seeing what it sold for on ebay, I'm sure he knows exactly what he bought.

 

Here are a few N.O.S. Stewart Warner 2 5/8" oil pressure gauges I recently sold to some fellow hot rodders. Both these gauges were date coded 1959. I placed them in a chrome cup....just something different.

This one is off to California








And this one is going to Texas....




I should have kept one for myself But Im pretty sure I have more stashed in my display case....I have a gauge problem

 

Well, apparently you guys like these as I was asked if I could put another one together. This one is off to Georgia.

 

This one is a restored original, not a reproduction, but using a fully transistorized electric mechanism. See my classifieds if you're interested. Sorry about the rotated video. The tach was upright when I tested it

 

Vacuum and Oil gauges recently restored by Bruce Chaytor in New Zealand who has also done some amazing restoration and repair work on my temp, gas and ammeter gauges as well, great old school craftsman... A big thanks to fleetside66 and Speed On for their knowledge, communication and diagrams ,help on the internal workings on the vacuum gauge. Finally a well deserved shout out for Pat Pryor at Muroc Manufacturing for making the bezels and convex lens with awesome packaging and taking time to get them down to me...Cheers guys

 

@kadillackid your gauges look outstanding and all the hard work & research you've invested shows. It can be a long expensive road searching, acquiring and restoring these beauties; but the end result makes it all worth it. They really separate your build from others. Solid work. Time to enjoy em'.

 

That dash turned out nice, Mike! I often wonder about what the early designers of these gauges would think about all of this time & effort & money spent on these meticulous restorations, so many years later. Stewart-Warner sure didn't make it easy on us, that's for sure. For starters, maybe they could have made the bezel walls hair thinner, so that we wouldn't need to go through all of the pain & suffering in the removal. Nice work & even better dedication. The devil sure is in the details.

 

Thank you for the great review! I'm happy they worked out well for you! They look great!

 

A little shot Jeffery James did for me after he made the labels.

 

Also would you believe these are brand new gauges we converted?

 

Amazing work! They look nice.

 

Can anyone confirm/deny this is a '56 Studebaker Hawk/SW speedo?
Printed on the back is 565DWZ1.
Thanks!

 

Here ya are



Sent from my iPhone
www.speedoservice.com
Should I rush your rush job or the rush job I was rushing when you rushed in?

Elwood: There's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark out, and we're wearing sunglasses.
Joliet Jake: Hit it!

 

Pat, I'm sure I'm not the only one blown away by your conversions, as well as your replacement bezels, glass & gaskets. This could be a game changer for guys that are lusting after these gauges, but can't afford them, even if they do come up for sale. I'd love to know more about it all. Your work is spot on, down to the original style long tail needles. Some of the stuff you did is obvious, but I'd be curious, for example, to know how you transplanted the tulip needle in the fuel gauge, for starters. For that fact, where did you get the donor needles? If you are reproducing the needles, I'm sure they'd be a big hit with us gauge nerds.

 

During my tour of duty with the 1 st. Air Cav. in AN-KHE Vietnam (1966-67), found several cartons of S.W. gages in a steel overseas shipping container, these had the military o.d. trim rings, had to fight the urge to take ownership.........as it were, fast forward several decades & bought a box of mixed new/used o.d. gages at a garage sale near the Offuttt Air Force base for $3.00 & again at the Springfield Mo. swap meet a similar priced small carton of gages from a Peculiar Mo .Pete/Jakes rod shop employee I had met the day prior.

 

That was quick. Thanks, @e1956v

 

I am trying to get a dash ready, too many choices

 

Wow

Thats impressive

 

Thank you, the conversions are going to be sold as kits to convert the new SW gauges into old gauges, they will be quite a bit cheeper to convert the new then to find old originals and have them restored. As we know the old style gauges are the icing on the cake on a finished build, but are usually very difficult to find now and nearly unaffordable. The plan is to make these conversions affordable and easy enough for a skilled set of hands to convert. If someone is questioning their skill set I will be selling converted gauges as well, also I will have a list of participating gauges restorers who will do conversions. As for the pointers there is some trickery there, they require some press fit tolerances and a bit of swaging. I’m am still prototyping hubs, and the quality of the pointers have greatly improved from the pictures. Also on the subject of quality, the faces are currently screen printed (terrible quality for fine images) to test the locations of the designs. I am building a printing machine that I designed to print the faces in high quality which should produce as good or better then original print. Thank you for the interest.

Pat.

 

I have a website I’m working on, also I will advise here, and other places.

 

Great job, Pat!

 

Well today was a GREAT mail day! I was able to find an early Stewart Warner 2 5/8" GAS gauge. It is in great condition and it works. The glass and bezel are very nice and the case is also in great condition. I am thrilled that it still has all the stamps from the S.W. factory.








Now my other GAS gauge won't be so lonely

 

Its 12 volt even! That's a nice one.

I've got one gas and one fuel. I think they are both 6 volt. They both need work.

 

Thank you @alchemy I was not expecting this gauge to be this nice. The photos I had to go from were not good and the guy didn't know much about it, he said he found it in a box at an estate sale. I figured I'd take a chance and I bought it. When it arrived I removed it from the shipping box and wiped off the dust and fingerprints. WOW! It quickly became apparent this gauge was super nice, then I saw the 12V stamp and I about fell over!!! What a score!!