Anyone ever use Boat Gauges in their build???

I found a really classy cool set of boat gauges. I think they fit an early cris craft. Anyone ever use anything like this in thier build?? PICS???? Not sure how the speedo would be converted over. Thoughts???

 

The speedo works on water pressure, like an oil gauge. Only way to "convert it" is to use the face, but with another speedo needle and internals. There are a few posts on hamb on how to do it. Past that, yea, I live on the river and use boat gauges often.

 

Old Boats are a great place to look for gauges. Alot of the classic Stewart Warner gauge panels were used in boats. I happened upon a boat in the back of a junkyard, looked inside and it had a full set of stewart Warner gauges (date coded 1969) got them for $10. It also had some really cool dash pull switches and a push button starter button.

 

I have a complete set of SW gauges in a great engine turned dash plate that came out of a late 50's Lyman boat. Would look perfect in a traditional hot rod. Now all I have to do is find the car....

 

Like prewar said, the speedo will be usless unless modified and the tach will probably only go to 5,000 or so because boats top out at about 4500 rpms generally. The rest of the gauges are useful sometimes, depending on the voltage and if senders are available.

I use marine gauges in a lot of my builds, but I buy new ones, usually made by Teleflex. They are pretty rugged and water resistant, so they work great in an open car.

Don

 

Good info!!!! These are really retro looking probably from the early 60's. I could definatley not find a speedo to match. But taking the face off and putting it on a different one sounds pretty straight forward.

 

boat cluster

 

i have the name of the segments if interested

 

damn!!!!:d

 

In the late 80's, I rebuilt a 36' Cigarette, 2 454's I put all new guages in it, but I kept all of the old. I have used some of them in my Avatar. (Not The speedo)

 

Lookin nice Ron!!!

 

Yep! Had a tach from the marine world. A Faria. Never have seen this brand in anything but a boat.

 

I sell every vintage gauge panel I find in old boats. The Stewart Warner panels bring fantastic money.... Most of the speedos seem to be cable drive that I sell.

 

I have some for garage art and some for fun in the mock up of my car.
Bearcat tach and full power trim gauge. Ray

 

Faria actively marketed to hot rodders through most of the sixties.

 

Bought this beat up panel with some wings gauges at a vintage boat show for $30.

 

Not boat, but I once had some gauges from a semi truck. They were nice looking black and white SW gauges, including one for air pressure. I hooked up a line to it and aired it up to 30 psi. I told people it was the tires. It was fun watching them think about that.

.bjb

 

Knew a couple of guys when I was growing up.One was retired Navy the other was retired Air Force.Both started their service in 1940.They both retired in 1965.They both had AC and marine gauges literally by the 100`s.They would recondition them on order for auto,AC and marine use.Made a hell of a good living at it.There were a LOT of car guys that had the in their cars and trucks.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.

 

Here's a set that maybe coming out of a boat and into a Roadster...........................

 

I bought this for the O.P. & water temp gauges & three other HAMBers now own the rest of it. It came from a boat. The water temp line is 30' long!

 

A speedo and tach we used.

 

I'd snag that steering wheels while I was at it...

 

I had an S-W catalog for years. They made a ton of different gauge panels for marine use. I used a couple in different early cars. You could order them at one time, with or without the gauges. The way-cool panels are the ones for twin-screw boats - lots of holes and gauges and switches, and stuff.

 

Prewar SW panel and gauges. No speedo, but once you're in high gear it's just as good once you remember the conversion.

 

That looks great! Is the gauge panel Marine also??

 

Yes. Came in 30s-40s Chriscrafts.

 

Very nice......I love it!!!

 

man, thats swanky...

 

thanks! The panel would have looked good turned upside down with the curvatures being a better fit with the edge of the steel dash, but it would have required moving some more of the locating studs of the individual gauges on the back of the panel.
The panel is very think gauge stamped brass over a steel plate and the brass is starting to crack in some places. I soldered it up as good as I could and used a little Caswell chrome plating kit with the wand to touch up where I had to sand off the plating for soldering. The solder joints are still visible, but I wanted to retain the engine turned finish on the face rather than just strip and rechrome the whole panel.

 

Hoping to resurrect this thread...looking for a sixties vintage speedo for a boat. Would prefer a S-W unit, but any white numeral on black 80-90 mph unit from a vintage speedboat would be usable. This Faria unit is about 20 years too new for being period correct.