Just curious if any of the 53-54 210 guys have come across an all in one gauge cluster replacment, or are you guys just pieceing together your own gauges and customizing your bezel? Jaison
Also, do a search for Rod Tech (California, I think)- makes a cool, but pricey, gauge set up so that you have a speedo and 4 gauges (oil, water, gas, volt). Uses VDO gauges. But, even if you do not buy it may give you an idea how to fab up your own.
Here is the one I made in my old 54, its really easy, just a flat piece of metal with some holes in it, painted to match. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=249623&d=1165082443
I used all the original gauges..had to get creative with the Temp and oil but they work ok..and they look original. and also notice the car is running the temperature has not come up yet in the engine but the fuel gauge is working the oil pressure is working (maybe not 100% accurate)..the only time i would worry is if the oil needle didnt move at all and the temp went off the scale..than i know ive got issues. and yes it was 7:00 am when this picture was taken
OK, VRF, when you say 'original gauges' do you mean the stock ones? Other than the obvious oil pressure being significantly higher, what is wrong with the temp gauge? For those that don't know, he's running a Corvette 327 or 350/TH350 in his 53.
ok I did use the original 53 chevy gauges.. the oil pressure gauge was tweeked internally a little so that when the 327 was pushing about say 50 lbs of OP it reads like it is in the picture..so its not accurate, but the only time you have to really worry is when the engine is running and the needle is still laying on 0..also when the oil gets hot and the engine is at idle..it reads about 10 or 12 psi. the Temp gauge is another animal..Danimal I still have to work on the boron tube to get it to read correctly, but i will get there. and again its a calibration issue..if you know that when you tested the gauge in boiling water and your dash temp says something other than the temp of boiling water, you extrapolate the difference and run with it as it is, knowing where you would be at on the gauge face when trouble is starting..does this make sense?
Perfect sense on the tube. I think Chuckspeed might be able to help on that one. I haven't talked to him in a while, he's been pretty busy at work I hear. He had gauges for his ride made up in the Detroit area. I'm sure you can get the pressure gauge revamped as well. By the way VRF, I'm heading for T town tonight. Motor mounts are in the truck. I'll try to swing by.
great!..thanks dan Im probably just going to live with where its at..I know what to look for when trouble starts..the temp gauge will eventually get changed to read more accurate..in due time. Not to mention I will re-route the boron tube to be reading out of a better place on the engine.. who knows the 327 vette engine will be much better suited to living in the 28 tudor.. I am working on a 350 for the 53..more torque..
But..there are places out there that will take your original cluster and totally revamp it to work on todays engines..electric gauges or mechanical gauges..dam i wish i could find that website. i would post it..im sure some one on here has used them before..if my memory serves me correct it was like some where between 300 to 500 bucks to get it done. 300 for the gauges and the extra for the speedo i believe.
I made my own by cutting out the middle web and muggy welding it back together then had it rechromed. Then I made a 1:1 scale drawing and took it to a local metal fabricator who entered into a CAD and then laser cut my gauge panel out of stainless. I engine turned it in my workshop using a cratex rubberized abrasive rod (3/8" circles). Future plans call for more radical mods. I bought a spare dash and three dash bezels. I plan to piece together a 10 hole panel adding a 3 3/8" tach and four more 2 1/8" gauges making the bezel about 27 - 28 inches wide and eliminating the speaker grill.
Moonglow2- Dash Looks good, sounds like current set up was quite the project-sounds like the next will be wild.
I found a guy on e-bay making billet ones years ago. I bought it and painted the inside black and the outside will be white. Fit my SW guages perfectly and looks decent. I'll try and find a pic.
Jeez, I used a free piece of aluminum, a hack saw, a whole saw, and a piece of scotchbrite hot-glued to the head of a bolt chucked into a $69 drill press to make mine.
is that a post in the windshield? aint that a 53? must be somethin else in the garage im seeing. sucks to get old and lose your eyesight
I just had my stock gauges rebuilt with modern internals, even changed the clock to quartz so I dont have to wind it. I think it looks better that way. I just made a better looking plate for the cluster that goes in the middle. I don't have any pics of it right now.
Thanks! I didn't take any photos, though. Seriously, though, the scotchbrite pad glued to the head of a bolt gave a really nice machine-turned look. They didn't even have to be perfectly round. I think I used the medium, but it might have been the course. The fact that the pad had a little give to it made it so I didn't even have to worry about making he pressure the same - just push down until it squished a little, then move on to the next one. I kept the whole plate hosed down with WD-40 the whole time, but I don't know if that helped or not.
Hah! It's not your eyes going bad, it's the windshield! What you're seeing is black duct tape. I cracked the windshield right in two when I was putting it into the car. (I have replaced is since the photo was taken, but I drove it that way for a year or two and most people didn't notice because it was almost dead center. I joked that I had a very rare '53 with a 2-piece windshield.)
I want to use the original guages on my 54 also, but have a newer temp gauge that will go where the clock used to be. When I got the car the gas gauge wasn't connected. I was on national chev assoc. and found a "gas gauge voltage reducer" for 12v conversions ($9 heat shrinked component w/ wires) - anyone running these with the stock gauge? How about the voltage gauge - anything special for 12v here also? This also wasn't connected. I have a 350, altenator setup.
Just as background on the Rod Tech gauge panel when Pat Ganahl brought back Rod & Custom in the late 80s he did a four year series how-to on reworking his cousin's 53 Chevy two door sedan. In one of those articles Pat reworked his bezel by cutting out the web and using body filler to smooth it out and he painted it charcoal grey to match the dash. He went to Rod Tech who made the prototype like the one you see above. In my case I just took Pat's example a couple of steps further by chroming the bezel and switching to stainless. I chose stainless over aluminum because from the moment fresh aluminum is exposed to air it begins to oxidize unless it is anodized, chromed or otherwise sealed.
Old thread but what the hell... I wanted to share the cluster we put together with you. Looks a lot like the billet piece that sells over on ebay. The wife has good taste and said "NO" to the billet. This was cut out of a piece of brushed stainless with a laser. I bought a piece of engine turned decal that's used to restore the dashes and consoles of the early Impalas to cover it. Gauges are 2 1/16" , If they had been any bigger they wouldn't have worked.
Hello Cretin, do you have the details of the Santa Clarita shop that did your instrument/gauge panel? They look awesome! Thanks.
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