Hot Rods What would you do with this set of Stewart Warner gauges?

Picked up this old set of Stewart Warner gauge a couple weeks ago. Now I am not sure what to do with them. It is a panel from an old American LaFrance fire truck that was scrapped out. Regrettably the truck was an open cab and it saw alot of weather. The gauges all work except the water temp that was cut. They are kinda crusty and faded. Well, really crusty.

So what would you do with them?

Use them as they are?
Restore them? Very costly

Looking for ideas here

The speedo is 4-1/2 inch diameter120mph with functioning tripometer.
The tach is 3-1/4 mechanical 3500rpm
The dual amp and fuel is 3-1/4.
The outers are oil and water 2-1/2 each.

They all have the crescent needles with convex lenses and SW marking on back.

 

They are super cool....use them as is in a roadster.

 

If I were you, I would donate them to ME.

 

I would sell them for large amounts of cash.

 

First thing you need to do...right away... Is send them to me

I'd restore them. Most of the work can be done by you....rust removal, disassembly, cleaning, etc.

Depending on the condition of the metal bezels after rust removal I might leave them alone rather than trying to have them re chromed...

Neat find regardless of what you end up doing with them.

 

I'd hang it up in the shop. That's art!

 

Build a car around them!

 

Still don't understand why they felt the need to put a 120MPH speedometer in a big ass firetruck.

Anybody know why they would have done that?

 

Awesome. I'd give quite a bit to have a set like that for my roadster

 

Yes, because they werent made specifically for a "big ass firetruck". They were made for a universal fitment and just ended up in a "big ass firetruck".

 

...haven't had your coffee yet, have you?

 

I would hand them on the shop wall.

 

As much as I like them, they are pretty well gone. They could probably be restored, but probably at a very high cost. I guess it comes down to how much you love them & do you have a solid use for them (such as a vehicle that you won't get more than 3,550 rpm's out of). Rich Wright seems to think that the resto can be pulled off by John Doe, but I sure don't think I could do it. Did you ever try to remove the bezel from a garden variety S/W gauge & then replace that same bezel? Besides the fact that those are toast, they don't appear to be sizes that you could get new bezels off the shelf (as replacement). Believe me, I don't want to piss on your parade, but I'm not sure how realistic turning them around would be. That being said, I'd have grabbed them too.

 

Huh? I meant nothing negative with what I said Just answering his question of why they were used.

I'm a grumpy old man in general, but wasnt being one here.

Unless you are just checking on my morning. If thats the case, yes, and breakfast

 

Where does it show that they are S&W gauges?

 

a guy I know got some sort of ruined 32 ford frame that was some sort of wrecked racecar. as a joke he left the bruised and battered remains of the SW gauges it came with on my doorstep, this was when I was big into selling on ebay. these gauges were toast. nowhere near as "nice" as the ones in the pictures. rusted rotten junk. but they were vintage with SW script on the cases, with at least one useable crescent moon pointer. I got like $50.00 for them. I wish I had a picture, they looked like they were submerged in a bucket of salt water for 30 years.

 

I was gonna say givem to me...been said. Was gonna say, restore em...been said. Was gonna say, run em as is...been said. So, hell, with nothing left to say, guess I'm outta here.

 

There is SW on the back of every gauge

 

Th panel also has an old head light switch.



It is currently frozen up, I have been spraying it in hopes that it frees up.

 

I think I would leave them just the way the are and use them as art work to hang somewhere in your shop.

If you found right collector they would fetch a hefty amount of money for you.

Best of luck whatever you do with them. Jimbo

 

Great. I was looking at the face and wondering if it was on the back

 

Right now I'd do as Jimbo17 said and hang them in a place of honor on the shop or garage wall. That is until I could figure out exactly what to do with them. I'd think one of the gauge restoration outfits could make them new again and the tach could probably be redone to be a higher rating tach. I never said that would be inexpensive though as it would most likely put a pretty big dent in a car budget to do it.

 

See the way the even numbers on the speedo are big, and odd numbers are small? That is just like the 120 MPH trip speedo on the early 30s V16 Cad. The Cad used faces marked AC, I think.

But these gauges probably were a stock item for a big high power, high speed early 1930s classic car, when American Lafrance sourced some gauges from a supplier. I'd look at gauge ID websites for big expensive cars, to try to get a match.

 

Way cool.....I'd use 'em !!

4TTRUK

 

I was thinking about who's V12 that American Lafrance used? Was it a Lycoming?, and if so, I think early 30's Aurburn V12 was also Lycoming. So, I would look for Auburn pics.

 

OT a little but still related. Can someone explain how the break switch works? Not able to put my simple mind around how you can adjust the brakes w/the switch.

 

If it were me I would mount that dash in my hot rod "as is". Hook the gauges up and see if they all work. If not, pull the dash out and send it all to a gauge repair shop and have the internals repaired. Then mount it back in the hot rod as is with that sweet warn out/patina/old skool look.
That's what I am doing with the 1935 speedometer in my car.
That's what I would do.

 

I'd check and see if these could be used on the Jesse Lopez Coupe Clone project. He was looking for a set of SW gauges... I don't know enough to say if these would help or not. Here's the thread:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=726708&page=10

 

Excellent opportunity to practice rebuilding/refinishing gauges.
Everyone is saying it's too expensive to have them rebuilt.
Spend a few bucks and try it yourself.

 

This fire truck was equipped with air brakes, I am assuming the switch was to control the braking bias for braking while loaded and unloaded.