mj40's great job got any ideas for deluxe gauges? that keeps the orginal plastic face. thanks again for the inlightning ideas....
[Quote mj40's] I took my time and traced each connection to determine witch was the sender side and the power side and then marked them for later referance.
I did the same thing. I found that most of the gauges had the same common connections but checked them all to make sure. The power side was the easiest to trace because they came from the voltage regulater.
I did something similiar but used aftermarket mechanical 2-1/8" gauges for the oil pressure and temp. Had to find ones with the correct sweep and made new faces the size of the 40's from aluminum sheet, had to cut down the thickness of the housing. The aftermarket gauges had screw on faces so just screwed on the aluminum sheet. Bought a set of decals from a guy off of evil bay and put on the aluminum then mounted the gauges in the 40 cluster. Look completely stock although the oil pressure reads twice as high (20 on the gauge is actually 40 psi). Used the original speedo with a new decal and original gas gauge with a voltage drop.
I think this answers my question of how you traced them. How did you know which leads came from the voltage regulator. Do you mean the regulator that drops the voltage to 5.1 ?
Yes the volt drop regulator. As you can see from the photo there will four leads into the regulator. The side with three leads will be feeding 5.1 volts to the oil, water temp and fuel gauges. The side with a single lead will be 12v coming in to powering the cluster.
The cluster taken out of my black 40 pickup was done the same way. The problem was the builder set two of them back in the cluster to make room for the other two. I had to duck down to look straight into them to see those gauges. I was not comfortable with that. I could have taken the innards out of the gauges and done the same but did not have good faces to replace the aftermarket ones to make them all match.
I have sold a couple to HAMB friends. The hard part is finding the donor 40 clusters to build. In particular the chrome outer trim ring. They either are beat up from someone trying to remove them or 70+ years of age. They are being reproduced but expensive. Most pickup clusters have painted rings and I had one power coated in extream chrome and it wasn't bad but not chrome. The ones I did for others, the clusters were supplied and I used their rings.
Deluxe gauges are a challange, due to the small window that the faces have to be viewed thru. I have not tackled one of those yet. I have been a 40 guy for 45 years and still think the standard clusters look better. Deluxe and plastic don't seem to go together with me.
The LED strip looks ideal to provide even lighting in the cluster; but I must be looking in the wrong places for it. What stores, etc sell it? Thanks.
I got mine off of Ebay. I think it was like 20" or so long but can be cut to length. Something like this- http://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-WHITE-2...Parts_Accessories&hash=item519e3b4321&vxp=mtr
Thanks everyone. I didn't make the top 11 but I had fun doing it and only hope it will help someone out. The talent here is outrageous and over the top.
Excellent work! The ONLY little nit to pick is that I would have painted over the modern symbols for the fuel, oil pressure and such. But that's me! Very cool tech!
I haven't tried it yet but definitely will. I move kind of slow but am looking for the gauges as I have time. This was a very good write up. Thanks for all the good information. There is no way I would ever be able to afford (or could justify) sending my cluster off to be rebuilt. It is just too much money. When I do put mine together I will post the pics. Thanks again!
I'm actually in the process of building this panel as you descibe right now. I've got 2 gauges in (I'm using some cheap aftermarket gauges I had lying around) and I found the speedo at a swapmeet for $5. Just need to mount the other 2 gauges and set the signal and highbeam lights but I'm not sure what I'll do with the highbeam one as of right now .... My only question is mounting the speedo - one pic has it mounted using the original metal housing, the other using black plastic. Any problems with using the metal housing? Do you have any pics of how you attached the plastic mount to the speedo? For the gauge mountings, I'm removing them from their original housings and using the actual back plate of the 40 gauges as I have a few non-op original gauges around, insulating them from the housing as you have done ... I'll get some pics out as soon as I can .... it's definitely a fun project.