Classic Gauge Restoration in Berowra Heights | Automotive, aircraft & boat

Classic Gauge Restoration

Locality: Berowra Heights

Phone: +61 412 963 758

Address: PO BOX 18 2082 Berowra Heights, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.classicgaugerestoration.com.au

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• Automotive, aircraft & boat
• Vehicle parts store

25.01.2022 There is never a dull moment around here, 7 days a week and some long hours as well. Graeme sent me the gauges out of his HQ GTS, they were a bit tired and well nothing really worked anymore. I stripped them down and took stock, one of the twin gauge housings needed repair, the tacho was missing all 3 mounts, the speedo had an old KM conversion sticker on it and was so full of grease it was amazing- I have seen freshly packed wheel bearing's with less grease, also I could se...Continue reading

24.01.2022 Aldo contacted me to see what I could do with a VL cluster, his customer has put an injected LS engine and transmission out of a VY so needed an electronic speedo. I said no worries as I have done a few of these now. so I ordered a set of new custom dials made to my specs and then ordered a new Autometer speedo, when they arrived I stripped the dash down and washed out the front and rear housings plus the PCB, I then got the dremel and cut the old speedo mount out and plast...ic welded some new plastic in place, after a few more mods like relocating the microswitch off the speedo circuit board that operated the tripmeter reset and onto a new remote board that lines up with the original hole in the dial and more importantly through the original hole in the lens. The speedo looked and fit like it was meant to be. I cleaned and resoldered all the connections on the original VL rear Circuit board and removed the old cruise control wiring and added some new wiring to give the speedo its power and earths. Next I replaced the original circuit board on the tacho and fitted one suited to run with the ECU and calibrated it to suit, Since I was replacing all the dials I overhauled the oil and volts gauges and checked the calibration of the fuel and temp, I then reassembled everything into the case, polished up the front lens, fitted some LEDS to help brighten things up, these LED's are dimmable by using the Autometer LED Dimmer, dead cheap and dead easy to install., I hope Aldo sends me a couple photo's of the car with the dash installed. See more

23.01.2022 Tim dropped in the gauges out of his rare 1954 Vauxhall Velox Ute. Another company had them for 6 months and hadn't touched them, I can understand this as parts are getting really hard to find, but I told him I would give them a crack but it would be a minimum of 6-8 weeks. I stripped them apart and took the cases and lots of small bits and sand blasted them and took them for zinc plating. I then added the bezels to a pile of bits and sent them off for chrome plating. After... this I stripped the speedo and found the odometer wheels were badly discoloured and peeling apart. Stripping the speedo further the gears were also chewed out as one was seizing in the frame. SO I started hunting through my spares , after multiple days of digging I started to hunt the internet and eventually found a similar movement that had the bits I needed. While I was waiting for everything to show up I tried unsuccessfully to heat up and remove the old broken capillary, so I had to drill it out, and finally luck was on my side as I managed to hit it dead center and drilled through the solder that was holding it in place and sealing it and out fell the end of the capillary !! I then made up a new 6ft capillary and using an original style nut from Tim's spare gauge (the original was so rusted solid and chewed apart it was unusable ) that was back from the zinc plate plater's I filled it with ether can calibrated it, once done I sealed the end of the new bulb and fitted it back into the newly returned rear case. The fuel was working fine so it just got cleaned out and reassembled into the case as well. The fuel sender was a different story, It was rusted and seized then I got it so I sand blasted it and filed down the rivets that were holding it together and then cleaned it out. I was lucky as the resistance card was in one piece but the center of the contact pad was completely worn off leaving it to look like a donut, SO I made up a new piece and soldered it in place, reassembled it and its working fine. The donor speedo showed up so I was able to strip it and make one good speedo out of both, I then painted all 3 pointers . The lenses on these are held in place by the biggest rubber retaining ring I have ever seen, I wasn't able to find new repop ones so had to very carefully clean these up and remove and replace one damaged lens. Eventually the chrome bezels showed up looking brand new, so I have fitted them and just over 4 months later they are ready for install. jobs like this are really satisfying but even more time consuming and have to be done in between others just to keep the price reasonable and the bills paid. See more

22.01.2022 Derrick, is giving his XY GT a facelift, the gauges were looking pretty sad and sorry and not working very well. He looked into the aftermarket chinese replicas but was steered away from them by other people who had fallen into that trap. So Derrick dropped off all the gauges to me for a full once over, I stripped them all down and took the speedo & tacho cases and screws etc and sand blasted them and then took then for Zinc plating. While I was waiting for them I striped th...e clock and found it to be extremely worn, I closed and reamed all the pivot holes and realigned them all, cleaned every tooth of every gear, re-riveted the low melt electrical connection, and after some serious tweaking got it to run, it ran for 6 weeks and kept good time. Next I stripped all the gauges and carefully removed the sickly orange that someone had painted the tacho pointer with and then masked up all the pointers and airbrushed them back to new and uniform. Once done I stripped and cleaned the speedo, reassembled it and calibrated it to factory specs. The tacho I cleaned out the movement and balanced it and calibrated it to suit the V8. Both the speedo and tacho have warning lights in the top of their dials and from factory had a flexible rubber light tube to guide the light from the back of the steel case to the dial, these get hard and perish, deform and crumble, so a couple of years ago I had some custom 3D printed out of a cool flexible material, I just cut them to size and in they go. The fuel gauge was burnt out and had started life as a temp gauge with the built in regulator, someone had removed this but shorted the winding out causing the gauge to let all its smoke out. I stripped the burnt windings and then rewound them, I also rebuilt the voltage regulator and calibrated them all back to factory specs. Now they are ready for another burst of life. See more

21.01.2022 Steven dropped in the tacho out of his early corvette- late '50's I think.. The car has been a race car nearly all ts life but Steven is rebuilding it and bringing it back to street trim, as the car is not running the old generator there was no way to drive the old school mechanical tacho. A few years ago Steven had sent all the gauges stateside to a corvette specialist and had them all overhauled, but as we all know plans change , now he needed the tacho to work off electro...nic ignition, he sourced a "direct conversion" kit from the USA but didn't want to go in and muck about himself. I stripped the old tacho apart and had to modify the dial mounts plus how it mounted into the case, I then had to modify the pointer as it wouldn't fit on the new movements, when I finally had it all mounted and at the correct height in the case, and located centrally I powered it up and the calibration was miles out, luckily the circuitry had plenty of adjustment and now she looks original and is accurate as a bonus, just to add some complexity to the equation, this model had an odometer in it, it actually is an "Hour meter" and lets you know how many hours the engine and generator have run, though it would be totally inaccurate as the higher the revs the quicker the numbers turn- these hour meters were designed for stationary engines with a consistent RPM. As the original odometer wheel assembly wouldn't fit I made up a steel plate and fitted a custom sticker onto it reading 000000 See more

21.01.2022 A while ago Mick contacted me about getting his Kombi speedo overhauled, years ago the odometer has stopped working and he stripped it down and found a cracked gear, so he smothered it in glue and put it back together, eventually it has failed and he sent it to me. As with everyone I talk to I tell them to wrap it really carefully and then box it up and send it registered post- it is better to pay double the freight and it arrive safely and with registered it is trackable...... When I got it it was wrapped in bubble wrap and then inside a plastic post bag... so when I unwrapped it I found the pointer was snapped clean in two. Lucky it was a clean break and I have super-glued it back together as I don't have any of them lying around. I stripped it apart and cleaned the bottom ens in the ultrasonic bath, and stripped and cleaned out the odometer and the super rare tripmeter assembly, I then reassembled it, replaced the worn out alloy drive wheel and then fitted a brand new O.E. drive gear to replace the old cracked glued up one, I then calibrated it and fitted it back into the steel backing plate. I have cut up some high density foam and had packed it into a solid cardboard box. hopefully it gets back in one piece. See more

20.01.2022 Frank dropped me in an easy one. His customer has a genuine Shelby Cobra, its had a long checkered past and its not all factory standard, during the last engine rebuild the ignition was upgraded to help cope with today's additive laden fuels, so now the engine runs great but the tacho didn't. When I got it I stripped it down and even though its a US buit Stewart Warner tacho it was fitted with an Australian made Flexdrive (Stewart Warners local branch) circuit board. I removed this and fitted a custom board that is designed to work with all ignitions and calibrated it to suit the V8, I have changed the rear connections, by earthing the circuit board internally and using the original insulated earth terminal as the +12V feed. Nice and easy and as a pleasant surprise it was more straight forward than I thought it would be......

19.01.2022 It might be close to Christmas but it's not slowing down any around here, I am trying to finish off 4 LC/LJ GTR dash's, each one has a different speedo in it, It must be a rare occurance as I have a dash dated 1969 , 1970, 1972 and 1973 ... and I am raiding parts off one dated 1971. That must be a complete set. Bruce sent me in one of his late model LJ clusters, it is a 1973 model. It was in pretty sad and sorry condition when I got it. Luckily he sent me a big bucket of spa...Continue reading

18.01.2022 Fred dropped me off the cluster for his 1960 Toyota FJ25 Land Cruiser, the old girl is getting a full ground up nut and bolt restoration, the dash was looking decidedly less than 2nd hand. I stripped it right down , including the steel assembly for the Oil and Batt Warning lights, over an hour a piece to carefully un-rivet and un-peen them into their individual components and tool all the nuts, screws, washers etc and sand blasted them and then took them to get zinc plated ...in their original gold colour. At the same time I had to clean the damaged odometer wheels as much as possible and then gave them to my overworked graphic artist who copied the font and spacing and then had a batch of them printed out on vinyl for me. I then overhauled the rest of the speedo, the odometer had been siezed for ages and it had chewed out the drive gears, so I had to source more of them, even the gears inside the odometers themselves were siezed, I actually had them all including the speedo frame in the ultrasonic bath with the heat turned right up for a few days to get them fully clean and unsieze them. Once it was all apart and clean it was more straightforward in reassembling and lubing and calibrating it. Both the fuel and temp gauges were reading miles out from the figures I have in my bible , infact I have 5 different era cruiser dash's and they all use the same sender units so their calibration figures should be the same, but every one reads different. Once the steel was all plated I masked up the case and rear plates and scuffed the insides, etch primed them and painted them gloss white - just like new. I then reassemble the gauges back into the cluster, of course that couldn't go smooth , the 50 year old bakerlite insulator for the warning light shattered as I was riveting it back onto the dash so I had to strip it right apart again and make a new fiberglass insulator up, reassemble the light assembly and fit it back onto the dash. I have also fitted some bayonet style LED's into the 3 x illumination points. Looks and works a bit better than when I got it. See more

17.01.2022 A quick one for a Monday morning. Matthew contacted me to see if I could sort his speedo out. His late model transmission has no cable output and didn't want to run the bulky and noisy cable to electronic converter (they have a variable speed motor, much like a loud cordless drill they quicker the car goes the more rpm the motor spins the cable) and as GPS is not legal as a primary speed source in Australia a custom electronic speedo conversion seemed the way to go. I have be...en doing these for 5 years now with no problems, the look factory due to the fact that I have had my own artwork that copies the original style and size of the font,I then made up a silk screen so the dial is printed in ink just like the original. I have had custom Alloy plates water jet cut to suit, it is the same shape as the original dial and had the original blinker hole, but it had the odometer and dial screw hole etc of the Autometer. And they mount perfectly as I use the original front housing, I even use the original pointer. Wiring is dead simple as I use the original Autometer housing with the wiring code and terminals on it.Even the blinker fits as per factory as I cut off the original blinker mount and plastic weld it in place. It took quite a few goes to make it this simple. American quality meets Aussie ingenuity. See more

16.01.2022 Heidi is restoring her dads LX Torana, it was the family car that all the kids learnt to drive in and she wants it in the family for generations to come. The car is a 4dr LX SL ,so the dash was pretty straight forward- or should have been if the people doing the body work hadn't stored it in a bucket... When I opened it up it had a high tide line of mud inside, the clock blank plate was rusty and the plastic fuel gauge dial was stained, one of the corner mounts was snapped o...ff and the wiring harness was badly corroded inside all the light terminals. I went to my spares shed and grabbed another bare case and wiring harness, I also found a mint condition clock delete plate and fuel gauge dial. I stripped everything and scrubbed it all clean, even the bits I wasn't using- there is no use keeping them dirty as they will continue to deteriorate. I then stripped the speedo and fuel gauge and masked up their pointers and airbrushed them. I then stripped the speedo and found the odometer was 100% rusted and siezed. I stripped it all down and had to ream the plastic odometer wheels, I then grabbed some new shafts from a box of spares that I filled as an apprentice (some bits you just never use!!) I then reassembled the odometer, I had put the bottom end in the ultrasonic bath and once clean and dry I re-lubed and reassembled it as well. I then hand cleaned the dial and calibrated the speedo and fitted it into the new case. I grabbed a replacement regulator as the original was rusted out, I overhauled it and fitted it into a freshly zinc plated housing, Once they were together I calibrated them and fitted them back into the case as well, Heidi had supplied some new lenses so I glued these in, while they were drying I fitted new globes in the warning lights and LED's into the illumination. Even a base model dash gets the full amount of TLC same as it's big brother SS / SLR dash. See more

16.01.2022 Tario sent me the dash out of his Cortina, no longer a 6 but a healthy V8, he has been trying to do it up in his spare time, but there never seems to be any spare.. I know that feeling. I stripped the dash down, and scrubbed the case out and set it aside, I then masked up all the pointers and airbrushed them. Next I overhauled the speedo, the reset assembly was all falling apart so I fitted one of my last new reset combs, repaired the teeth on the drive wheel and she now wo...rks like new. I then reassembled it and calibrated it to factory specs. I then unmasked the tacho movement and cleaned out the movement, next I balanced it and fitted it with a custom circuit board and calibrated it to suit the V8. The fuel,oil and temp gauges were in good shape. I overhauled the voltage regulator and calibrated them all, I then screwed them all back into the case, the lens was (as normal) turning milky so I grabbed a brand new lens and drilled the reset hole and fitted it- makes all the difference when you can see the gauges. Lastly I fitted new globes into the warning lights and LED's into the illumination. Now Tario has some bling to look at . See more

16.01.2022 Its been a while since I have done one of my custom Sports Torana dash's, so many original ones come in for restoration its hard to find the time to make these, but I have had a few customers ask for them and so I thought I better pull my finger out and get a couple done, as always each one is different, I am a one man show and I do all the work myself so customising them is easy enough, I just have to refer to each build sheet to make sure I am getting it right. Luke has b...een paying one off for a while so I thought I would slip his through with the others, I have finished him this version to see what he thinks. I start off with a base model housing, scrub it and the front plate and harness out, I then cut the entire fuel gauge back and internal structure out, Next I plastic weld in a new back, and relocate the wiring harness mounts. Using templates that I have made up I drill all the holes for the new quad gauges and tacho. I then get brand new Autometer tacho and Fuel,Oil,Water and Volt gauges, unpack them, strip them and modify and mount them, they are all wired up internally to keep the rear as uncluttered as possible, I then take the original Torana wiring harness and modify it , Plug and Play baby, change the oil and temp senders for the ones I supply and plug the tacho in and thats it, she is in and running. When it comes to the dials I have custom alloy plates water jetted , I then drill all the mount holes etc, and in this case I have fitted custom Barbados Green decals, some of the other original LX colour scheme I am Screen printing. Lukes car is Barbados Green and wanted the dash to stand out but also blend in and match. I have retained the basic original layout of the dash, just changing the configuration of the quad gauges plus for the sake of accuracy I have incorporated the readings onto the dials, now you know what the pointers are pointing to!! The tacho is as mentioned a brand new Autometer tacho, super accurate, super quick response, but with the custom dial looks the part. The speedo I have used an LH speedo with a custom dial, the LX speedo and hand brake / Alt warning lights just made everything TOO YELLOW, the white breaks it up a bit, I have used Autometer pointers all around and the speedo now sports the Torana/Lion symbol just because. See more

16.01.2022 Chris wanted a new cluster for his Torana but getting a genuine SLR dash is getting harder and more expensive, as the car is not an original he thought an aftermarket cluster would be sufficient, we discussed his options and he decided to go with factory LX colours , mechanical speedo and a 10,000 rpm shift light tacho, I have been mounting the shiftlight in the centre of my quad gauge assembly but Chris wanted it remote so he could mount it where ever he wants. The tacho is... custom built, I strip a brand new Autometer shiftlight monster tacho and replace the existing movement for one from a non shiftlight model and also incorporate the dial mounting system from the non shiftlight model, I then take the shiftlight controls off the circuit board and remote mount them in a box attached to the dash with a custom harness, once the shift point is set you can tuck the box out of sight up under the dash. The speedo is a factory LX that I strip down and overhaul and then fit the 200 kph dial and calibrate it to suit. Since Chris's car is a late model 77 I have fitted the hand brake light in the bottom of the speedo. The quad gauges are all brand new Autometer that I strip down and modify and mount into the modified s/sl dash housing. I have made up my own artwork that incorporates the Autometer dials and the Torana symbols, now you have the look of the originals but the pointers are actually pointing at something meaningful. I have also fitted the ALT and BRAKE lights in the original positions. Totally ADR compliant and 100% plug and play, just fit the new oil and temp senders and you are good to go. See more

15.01.2022 John sent me up a dash for his LX A9X Tribute , he described it as an " ugly dash" it had definitely been around the world a couple of times. Lets just say someone had been very inventive to make their own SL/R cluster. Someone had started off with the base model dash, and had cut out some of the warning light shields and then they had got a whole lot of sparkplug ends and screwed them 1/2 way onto the back of the quad gauge threads, they had then drilled holes in the back ...Continue reading

14.01.2022 Paul sent me in the tacho out of his customers HQ, definitely a country car!!, this thing was so full of dust it was amazing. I stripped it down and scrubbed out all the case components and the lens, and set them aside to dry. Though I had to go back and wash them a 2nd time to get rid of all of the red bulldust. Luckily I was able to clean off the dial without smudging the white writing, Next I hand painted the redlines and set it aside to dry. Next I cleaned out the movement and airbrushed the pointer. Once it was all dry I fitted a new circuit board to it and calibrated it to suit a V8 and reassembled it, where the old cylinder select switch was I have fitted a new spade terminal which is the 12 V supply for the new circuit board, last but not least I polished up the lens and she is good to go.

12.01.2022 Zoran has been restoring his XA GT for a while, it was massively slowed down by his panel beater, it has finally come back looking better than new and he is rushing to get it together so he can use it for his son's formal.. as he was sorting the parts out he decided the dash needed some love as well. He rang and we discussed details, he said he had a spare dash as he wanted to upgrade from the MPH speedo to the later KPH version, too many speed zones around and much easier to...Continue reading

12.01.2022 Ben sent me up the tacho out of his customers HQ, it was looking pretty sad and wasn't working anymore. I stripped it down and washed out the case and lens etc, the dials was really smeared so there was no saving it, I rubbed it back and painted it matt black and then screen printed the white back on. when it was dry I hand painted the red onto it. I then cleaned out the tacho movement and masked it up , I then airbrushed it and let it dry. Once dry I re-balanced the movement to compensate for the weight of the new paint I then fitted a new circuit board that will work with all modern electronic ignitions and calibrated it to suit V8. Once done I reassembled it into the case- I have added a 3rd terminal to the rear of the case to supply the new circuit board with +12v. I then polished up the front lens and she is good to go.

12.01.2022 Tario sent me up some gauges out of his customers HQ, its easy to see this car was seen some action- and by the look of it lots of country driving. The car is a survivor and apparently pretty factory stock. Upon initial inspection I could see the Temp/Bat was different to the Fuel/Oil, the Temp/Bat had an old repair sticker on it so I think it had been swapped out instead of being repaired as the Dial was different. I stripped all the gauges down expecting the white writing ...to smudge and smear like usual but with some care I managed to clean these original dials right up and they turned out really good, so I hunted through my spares and found a good Temp/Bat with the right font size to match the Fuel/Oil. I then took all the cases and scrubbed them out, some of them were extremely sun bleached and had grey/white marks on them, so I repainted them all a matt black. Next I removed all of the pointers, masked them up and air brushed them into life, I then took the clean dials and hand painted all the red back on them. I then stripped down the clock and it was gummed up and seized solid, when I got it all striped down I cleaned it right out and the years of grit had acted like grinding paste and had worn all the round holes into slots, I had to repair and resize all of these, but once I had each gear spinning true and free I reassembled the clock and she stated working, I polished up the brass terminals on the rear and reassembled it, the clock lens was polished up and refitted, its so rare to get a clock with all mounts intact and the lens still good. I then unmasked the tacho and balanced the movement , I then fitted a new circuit board and calibrated it to suit V8, the speedo was next I had stripped it and put the bottom end in the ultrasonic bath, the odometer I stripped and cleaned by hand and reassembled it to the original reading, I then assembled the speedo and calibrated it to factory specs. The temp and oil gauges I swapped out for new movements as they were very sticky and inaccurate, the fuel gauge is the later model version and worked perfectly, as the car is all original I left the ammeter alone and just cleaned it out. Once the gauges were reassembled they all got (except the clock) new lenses, now they are the same but cleaner and work. See more

10.01.2022 Sam has bought himself a new toy and wasn't happy with a few aspects so has torn it apart to rectify them before driving it and not being able to stop driving it.. One of the things he didn't like was the dash, it was too dim and today there are so many speed limits and revenue raising he thought a KPH speedo and a colour change and lighting upgrade were all on the card for his VG Valiant. Originally I was going to convert the speedo to electronic, but the position of the s...peedo and the shape of the circuit board versus the shape of the dial and the position of the odometer versus the position of the pointer and the shape of the dial, I ran out of time, I have the solution but I put it on the backburner as Sam needed the car for his daughters wedding, When I got the dash I stripped it down and took the case and sand blasted it and had it zinc plated, I then took all the dials and had my graphics expert digitize them and tweak them (for a few versions of the electronic speedo, plus a MPH version, plus this KPH version that is for the mechanical original speedo), plus we converted the ammeter to a Voltmeter. I then masked up the pointers and airbrushed them, next I resoldered and tightened the cases on the fuel and temp gauges, fitted their new dials and calibrated them , I then stripped a brand new VDO Voltmeter and fitted it into the case and wired it internally to the other gauges, I then overhauled the speedo and fitted its new dial and calibrated it to read in KM. Before the speedo went in I made up new blinker lenses as the originals were faded to nearly clear and all crazed and cracked. I also made new red lenses for the brake and oil warning lights. Once all the gauges and lights were screwed in place I found some suitable Wedge light holders and fitted new blue LED's (instead of the original bayonet style globes.) Before I screwed the front on I spent some time and cleaned all the contact glue off the front of the fascia and masked it up and repainted it black and the writing for the switches in silver. I then polished up the lenses and reassembled it. definitely looks different now See more

10.01.2022 Just to change it up a bit here is something not gauge related. I try to avoid doing "other" related restorations mainly due to not having spares and when you do something out of the ordinary it takes a whole lot longer than it should . But Chris does me lots of favours and he mentioned he was restoring his 1978 Kawasaki Z650 and couldn't buy aftermarket nor get anyone to restore the handlebar switch pods ...... I agreed to take a look for him, they were already stripped int...o pieces and all the wiring had been chopped off. Chris told me the writing should all be in Yellow and the indicator pointers on the 3 knobs should be red and then he gave them to me and ran away.. First thing I did was take some photos in their current condition so I could work out how they fitted together internally, I then took them and finished stripping them and then sand blasted them inside and out. Next I got online to TLE and ordered rolls of all the different coloured wires, of course the rolls were 50m . While I was waiting for them to show up I sprayed them with etch primer and then satin black, I let them bake in the sun for a couple of days, I then hand painted the yellow in the writing and the red slashes in the switch knobs and let them dry. I then pulled each switch apart and cleaned them out, polished up the contact faces and reassembled them, the spring in the start switch had lost its tension and was no longer a spring but a soft coil of wire, I hunted around and found a suitable spring and modified it to suit. The hazard switch was broken and there was nothing protruding from the hole in the control pod, so I made up a brass extension and soldered it onto the switch and put a couple layers of heatshrink to isolate it, it has a thread on the end so Chris can make up a knob . The rest of the switched just needed a good clean up. Next I cut some 1m lengths of all the required wires and soldered them one by one onto all of the switches. They are not perfect but they are a heck of a lot better than before and you can read the writing as well, and as a bonus they now all work. See more

09.01.2022 Michael dropped in the cluster out of his customers LH, it has a few problems, the tacho didn't work, and the quad gauges were all over the place and the speedo only went to 160. I stripped it down and found some marks on the tacho, these coincide to the 3 supports that hold the clock delete plate in place, from the factory there were 3 for the clock delete and at the other end another 3 for the quad gauge light shield. I figured someone har replaced the front plate and not ...snapped the clock delete plate mounts off. WRONG, VDO had forgotten to snap them off at the factory and this one still had all 6 in place.. too late for warranty ?? I snapped them off to stop further damage to the tacho dial and took the case, wiring harness and front plate and washed them out. I then went and found the appropriate era dual scale 200kph dial speedo and overhauled it and fitted it into the new clean case. The tacho I stripped and cleaned the movement out, checked it's balance and fitted a new circuit board designed to work with electronic ignitions, I then calibrated it to V8 and fitted it into the case. The quad gauges were a mess, the two halves were not a match as the Fuel/Oil were a later model to the Temp/Volt as seen by the length and thread type on the rear studs-( Pretty sure VDO didn't use nylocs) to make things worse the square pointer cover on the early version mounts with 4 pins- 2 in the Fuel/Oil and 2 in the Temp/Volt, now it only mounts on the Temp/Volt and the pointers were rubbing on the Fuel/Oil. The Oil and Temp gauges were completely burnt out and the fuel was pretty charred, someone had fitted a modern electronic adjustable voltage regulator and it didn't like the excessive current draw of the shorted out gauges and was putting out random voltage from 3 to battery voltage. I removed it and threw it in the bin. I then stripped and rewound the Fuel, Oil and Temp gauges and put them on the calibration bench and started getting them right. I then grabbed a factory Bi-metal regulator, they might be old fashioned but they have worked on millions of cars for up to 60 years now , generally they fail due to external reasons. in this case it turned out the car still had the warning light switches on the oil and water gauges- luckily Vince noticed this and grabbed the correct senders off me before install. Once the reg and gauges were all reading steady and accurate I made up an adapter for the square pointer cover and fitted them all back into the case. I replaced the warning lights with new globes and LED's into the illumination, the last thing was to glue on a set of new lenses and she is good to go. Another Torana back on the streets. See more

09.01.2022 Bruce sent me in some GTS gauges for his sons car, They are doing up a HX for him, unfortunately there was no speedo, so I hunted around for ages and finally was able to put one together for him, uduring that time they had a change of heart- or rather the car had a change of heart and is now being fitted with an LS and 6 speed. So I put the original Speedo to one side and have built them a custom electronic version, I have started off with the GTS case to retain the origina...l blinker light and cut it apart, I then stripped a brand new Autometer speedo and mounted it inside the customised case. I then made up my own dial and fitted it, Quick modification to the pointer and now it looks like the factory GTS speedo- except for the tripmeter reset knob and the digital odometer, now it will wire direct to the transmission and its a simple job to calibrate it. The tacho I stripped down and scrubbed out the case, I then cleaned out the tacho and balanced its movement, I then fitted a new custom circuit board and calibrated it to suit 4 cylinder as the LS1 is running the factory ECU. The new circuit board requires a +12v Feed that the original didn't so now there is a 3rd terminal on the rear of the tacho, to simplify installation I have also fitted a long red jumper wire from the Quad gauges to provide this. Last was the quad gauges, I stripped them down and also scrubbed out the case, I then rewound the voltage regulator and overhauled it and calibrated the gauges back to factory specs- EXCEPT the temp gauge, the LS runs hotter than the old 308 so I lower the mid range reading otherwise the temp gauge would be sitting higher than 3/4 at operating temp. Both the speedo and tacho I have fitted new front housings and lenses to, but before fitting them I have masked them up and painted the insides of the case white, otherwise the black plastic absolutely kills the illumination. See more

08.01.2022 Bob sent me the gauges out of his 1935 Ford , He has been restoring the car for a while and thought he would leave them till last... When I got them I stripped them down and took all the cases and sand blasted them and had them Zinc plated, I then stripped the speedo down and sent the reset knob and both front bezels off to get chrome plated, unfortunately my Chrome plater is extremely under the pump and Bob couldn't wait, so I had to get them returned to me and I posted the...Continue reading

08.01.2022 Lee sent me the dash out of his VB SL/E Commodore, you don't see many of these anymore and it was good to be transported back to my early apprentice days when I did these day in and day out. The first thing I did was to strip the dash down and scrub out the case and lens plate and the main circuit board, I then stripped all of the gauges , masked up the pointers and airbrushed them back to their original glory, I then stripped the clock down and cleaned it out and repaired i...t and reassembled it, once going I put it on the test bench. Next I rubbed the corrosion off the circuit board terminals and pads and resoldered all of the connections, once done I fitted it back into the case. The next step was to replace the dead 10V transistor voltage regulator with a new one. Once done I reassembled the fuel and temp and calibrated them. I then stripped the volt and oil gauges, and tightened the rivets on the case to improve the earth circuit and resoldered their connections, I then reassembled them and tested them for accuracy, once done I fitted them back into the case. Next I upgraded the old circuit board with a new one and calibrated it to suit Lee's V8. it to went back into the dash, Last was the speedo, as normal it had been repaired before as these speedo's were this era's weak link, I stripped it down and overhauled it and reassembled and calibrated it and fitted it into the case. I then spent hours polishing the front lens to remove as many scratches as possible. I wanted to fit LED's to the dash but the bean counters had changed the style of globe in this model and had gone from the older T10 (10mm diameter) globe to the smaller T6 wedge, I bought and tried a few different versions and they were all pretty weak, some were directional and didn't "radiate" or spread the light, others spread the light but were weak, others were good but failed within a couple days of useage, Finally I found one that ticked all of the box's and the dash now really lights up at night. The new LED's even fit into the Air con switch and the clock, Lee is lucky with the clock as I dug deep into my spares and found him a NOS clock reset knob, I found it in a pack of hens teeth...... See more

07.01.2022 It's that time of year again, I have a whole bunch of clusters here that are getting urgent as the cars are required for school formals.. Murray sent me the cluster out of his LX Torana, the dash was pretty complete but the WA sun had definitely taken its toll, this was so faded it was turning into an LH !! I striped the cluster down and took the case, front lens plate and wiring harness and scrubbed them out and set them aside to dry. I then stripped the gauges down ,mask...ed up the pointers and airbrushed them nice and bright again, Next I rubbed back the dials as there was no chance of reinvigorating the writing and fitted them with a custom set of my own decals and hand painted the redlines on the dials to give them the fluorescent pop of the originals. Now everything was looking pretty it was time to make it all work like new as well. The temp and fuel gauges were looking pretty charred so I rewound them and reassembled them plus the oil and Volts and calibrated them to factory specs, I then overhauled the factory regulator - it was still working perfectly after 43 years but it deserved a birthday as well. I then let them all sit working together on the calibration bench for a couple of hours while I finished everything else. I then stripped the bottom and of the speedo and put it in the ultrasonic bath and stripped and cleaned the odometer by hand.The high beam hole had been blocked from the rear by the foam packing that holds the blue lens in place, so I removed it and now Murray will know if the HB are on.. Once done I lubed it all and reassembled it and calibrated it back to factory specs and fitted it into the case. Next I unmasked the tacho movement, cleaned it out and balanced it, next I fitted it with a new circuit board that is designed to work with all modern electronic ignitions (and works just as well with points and ECU's ) and calibrated it to suit Murray's V8 it too was fitted back into the case, the quad gauges were behaving perfectly so I fitted them and the wiring harness as well, I fitted LED's into the illumination and new globes for the warning lights, The original lenses were near perfect so I polished them up, made a new top right front mount and screwed it onto the case, job done, now Murray has something to look at whilst waiting for the formal to finish... See more

07.01.2022 James has a 1942 Willy's Ex Army Jeep, the speedo decided it had seen enough action and went AWOL. The pointer went crazy and both the trip and odometers had been playing up for ages and James decided to sent it in to get an overhaul. When I was stripping it down the 20 or so layers of paint that have been applied over the past 78 years chipped and flaked off the front bezel, the case itself was rusted inside and out. I had to be careful not to snap or damage the reset assem...bly as it was all seized, eventually I had it all stripped down. I took the case and bezel and the reset shaft, screws and knob, plus the two mounting wing nuts and sand blasted them all and then took them to get zinc plated, I got the case & bezel and nuts done in Olive Drab and the reset shaft and knob in gold . The actual speedo mechanism I stripped apart and found the lower jewel in the mainshaft was just worn out, this allowed the speedo cu to flop around and hit the magnet causing the pointer to flick, jump and carry on, I drilled out the old one and custom made a new one on the lathe, I then fitted it and reamed it out to size, I then put the main frame and all the gearing in the ultrasonic bath and gave them an hour to get all the built up crud off. I then stripped the odometer and tripmeter down, this style of wheel is actually alloy and has two halves, inside are 3 leaf springs and one trip lever when they are all working correctly they add on mileage but like in Ferris Bueler the mileage doesn't come off (but doesn't add on either!) I had to strip each wheel and individually clean each tooth and reshape the springs, but once all back together they work like they are supposed to. The pointer had lost all of its white paint so I gave it a fresh coat, but the dial I left alone so it will match with all of the other gauges. I then assembled everything back into the case, but as I was polishing the paint off the lens I found it was covered in deep scratches, so I replaced it as well, Now it works like new and should last for a bit longer. See more

06.01.2022 Rodney is restoring his 1969 Chevy El Camino, he dropped in the dash to me for a full restoration so when he puts it back in he knows all will be working as it should. The first thing I did was to take lots of photos of the rear as each gauge has individual terminals on it, and each one is shaped different so that they can only plug into the correct plug on the wiring harness. I then stripped the dash down and took the rear plates and the nuts, washes, terminals etc and sand... blasted them all and then took them to be zinc plated. I then stripped the clock down and it had died due to a severe electrical melt down. I ordered a new quartz clock movement from the USA , when it got here I went to fit it but found the pointer bosses were all the wrong size, a few photos and a couple of emails later the company told me it must have been boxed incorrectly- apparantly I am lucky as it is a very common movement and they are sure I will be able to use it, so I had to buy another movement and as compensation they covered the freight!!eventually I got the movement ,fitted it all up put it on the test bench and it lost 5 minutes a day, I am still arguing with them over this. I have managed to find an original clock and have built one good one out of both, and it is now keeping better time than the new quartz one! When I got all the steelwork back from the platers I masked up the outsides and painted the insides white like original, the gauges themselves are all aircore meters and either work or they don't, these all work and are accurate, I am glad I took all the photos as it took a while to get the right terminals back in position on the right gauges. The tacho was working fine and was spot on accurate. The speedo I stripped down and put the bottom end in the ultrasonic bath, I then stripped and cleaned the odometer by hand, When all the bits came out of the bath I noticed some teeth were chewed which would explain why the odometer wasn't working, I replaced the gears, reassembled the speedo and calibrated it back to factory specs, I then screwed them all back into the front plastic housing and fitted the aftermarket lens on the front, I would have preferred to use the original as the new one looks like a curved mirror at Luna park, especially around the clock , but the original had some super deep scratches. But I can only do so much. I pointed it out to Rodney when I handed it back and the decision is now his. See more

04.01.2022 Just something quick and easy this morning, Tony gave me 2 Auxillary gauges of one of his customers BMW K100 Motorcycles. When they were new VDO had fitted the latest technology in laminated front lenses as an anti fog device, worked fine when they were new but 20 years down the track they are definitely looking sad. I stripped them down and cleaned them out, I resoldered the internal connections and tightened the case back up, I then checked calibration and reassembled them, I have used brand new VDO lenses and front bezels, they are still anti fog just of a different design .

04.01.2022 Nick sent me up the cluster out of his LX Torana, he has been following me for a while and thought it was his turn for a fully working dash. When I got it I could see it had been around the world a couple of times, the front top right mount was broken, and the speedo pointer had been snapped and glued, the wiring on the rear had been chopped about a bit, I could also hear bits rolling around inside. I stripped it all down and washed out the case,front plate and wiring harne...ss and set them aside. I then stripped the gauges down and put the speedo into the ultrasonic bath. I then carefully cleaned off all the dials to remove oil(someone had covered them in oil, (probably to cover all the fingerprints etc), fingerprints and superglue residue, I then hand painted all the redlines and set them aside. As the speedo pointer was not up to scratch I dug through my spares and found a good one, I then masked up all the pointers and airbrushed them, now they look new and uniform in colour. I then rewound the temp and oil gauges a they were pretty black, the regulator also got a rebuild and a flash shiny re-zinc'd housing, the biggest weakness of these regs is the earth for the internal wiring so having a clean rust free case is a must. I then calibrated all of the gauges. Next I unmasked the tacho movement and cleaned out the movement and balanced it, I then fitted a new circuit board and calibrated it to suit V8. Last was the speedo, when I had stripped and cleaned it I found the odometer drive gear was split and a couple of the small spider gears were damaged, possibly by a screwdriver when someone had reset the odometer (same time the pointer got broke??) Once I had all the spares I rebuilt the speedo and calibrated it to factory specs. I then reassembled all the gauges into the housing, fitted new globes in the warning lights and LED's into the illumination. last on the list was to fit a new set of lenses, she is now ready for another lifetime. See more

01.01.2022 Stuart is restoring his Torana and is keeping it original, some people call it the ugly duckling of the Torana's, but I have had a couple and actually think the dash is more comprehensive than it's older brothers and quite like them. Stuart sent me 2 dash's so I stripped the complete one down and checked it out, the speedo was jumpy, the quad gauges had some obvious issues and the clock was dead. The 2nd set had been repaired by lots of people over the years. But some of its... pointers were in better shape than the complete one, so I mix'n'matched them to get the brightest set for the good dash I stripped the tacho and clock assembly and found the clock movement to be full of foreign material, so I stripped it down and cleaned it out, I then replaced some faulty components and away she went, I took the opportunity to sit one of my own vinyl sticker sets to the dials as they were extremely faded and covered in marks. I reassembled the tacho and tested it for calibration, If I set the pointer on 5 (there is no 0) the tacho was 200 high everywhere so I moved the pointer and now it is spot on everywhere. I stripped the speedo and found the odometer gear to be cracked so I put the bottom end in the ultrasonic bath and when it came out I replaced the gear and reassembled it, I stripped and cleaned the odometer by hand, once done I reassembled it and found the calibration to be miles out, I stripped it back down, and remagnetised the magnet, a few tweaks later and the speedo was as accurate as the day it left the factory. The quad gauges I stripped and cleaned, and carefully removed the oil and volt dials, they are not screwed on but plastic welded in place, Once apart I tightened their cases and soldered their connections, I had to tighten their pointers as they were pretty loose. The fuel and temp were ok, but the original regulator had failed and someone had fitted a different transistor in its place but hadn't fitted the ballast resistor- too much current and it failed, I fitted a new variable reg in its place, set it to the correct voltage and now the gauges read accurately once again. The last thing I did was to hand paint the silver outline around the front fascia. See more