Project "49 No Buck$"

[kustombrad]

Now on to what I think is the cool stuff. Everyone knows I always try to do things cheap, or shall I say inexpensively. It doesn't always work out that way, but I try my best. After aquiring these gauges, I sat down and did a little thinking. How much do I feel like spending on gauges that are part of a low budget, do-it-yourself build? Very little! So here we go. First thing I did was take the gauges apart. Pretty simple, just take your time, take pictures and put EVERYTHING in ziplock bags! Took the face plates off and cleaned them up with some warm water and detergent. Other than some 70+ year old stains, they look like new! I looked into the 12 volt quartz clock adapters (starting at around $85 just for the clock) and decided I could do better. I went down to our local Michaels Art & Crafts store and bought a A battery quartz clock kit for $8 bucks! If those can keep time for a couple years on a little battery, then who am I to argue?! Took the factory clock back and marked where I'd have to cut it to fit the box. Here are the original needles on the left and new ones on the right So I cut the original ones to where they widen out and cut the new ones to about 1/2" from the base. I mixed up some 4 minute epoxy and glued the old on top of the new I then carefully ground down the backside of the machined top and glued the serrated nut to screw down the new/old clock hands Now I just need to clean up the glue, mix up some maroon/red and they'll look like new!

[kustombrad]

After blasting all the rust off both speedo and clock backing plates (and finishing up all the rough edges on my cuts) I sprayed them both in aluminum Rustoleum. I set the cardboard insert back in place and set it aside. I took the original clock took apart the guts and with my diegrinder, cut everything off flush. Now all that remained was the flat piece and the stands that the face screws onto. I drilled a bigger hole into the center of the plate and slid in on the clock, which was then tightened down. I screwed the faceplate onto the clock with the little factory screws put the clock arms on on set it back in the base! I already found and ordered 2 pieces of convex glass on Ebay for $20 for the pair. I need to go to Radio Shack and find an AA battery holder with some wires and solder those to the clock, to make it easier to change out. Need 2 5" square edge O-rings to put between the tapered piece on the glass that rests on the gauge face itself. When finished, I'll have about $25 and a few hours time for a perfectly running clock. I rebuilt the speedo guts myself and everything purrs smoothly and a total of about $15 into it. I'll put pics up shortly once they are back together completely.

[chevyrestoguy]

Looks Great!

You need to tell your "buddy" Alex to quit making comments like:
"That firewall would look nicer if you welded up all 75 holes, did the bodywork, sprayed it chassis black and pinstriped the heck out of it"

"I'd repaint the dash if it were me......."

"These gauges would look GREAT in your truck"

What kind of a friend is that? Sounds like he's costing you alot of money and time.

signed,
Alex

By the way, if you thought that those gauges were out of a '37 LaSalle, you're wrong. They are actually the gauges out of Howard Hughes's 1928 Duesenberg Boat-tail Speedster Convertible (the only one ever made). You could have gotten $25,000 for the pair. Now, the Pebble Beach Concours Society is coordinating with the U.S. Air Force to have the B-2 Bomber do a precision bomb drop on your house.

You know, if it was MY truck, I would paint the inner fenders and the underside of the hood and go nuts on the pinstriping...................buddy.

[bjcaldwe]

Very nice work as usual.

[OrrieG]

That is really nice. I use those same clock works on some of my wife's custom clocks but we only get a couple of months out of rechargeable batteries.

[kustombrad]

Use the bunny batteries, they work the best...

[solidaxel]

Did you ever finish your windshield wiper project??

[Daniel U]

Very cool stuff man!

[Tri5Nerd]

Man, you guys are amazing! I read and see all the stuff that you do to you truck and say to myself, if I could only do half the mods to my truck I would be happy.

Tri5

[Fat Mike]

Originally Posted by Tri5Nerd

Man, you guys are amazing! I read and see all the stuff that you do to you truck and say to myself, if I could only do half the mods to my truck I would be happy.

Tri5

Man you have alot of talent! Your build is just as good as everyone else and I am sure everyone always waits to see what next for you.

[nickp51chevy]

Beautiful work.

[54 jimmy]

yea what happened with the wipersdid you get that working. i will beready to do mine soon and would like to do it on the cheap.

[kustombrad]

Wiper deal is still going to happen, but I need to refigure the right side wiper rod. With the way the motor is mounted it causes flex on that side! Im almost there!

[solidaxel]

Originally Posted by kustombrad

Wiper deal is still going to happen, but I need to refigure the right side wiper rod. With the way the motor is mounted it causes flex on that side! Im almost there!

.............So the WW motor is in the final position?
The only thing you have left is to re do the wiper arm, why not use the stock one?

[kustombrad]

I had put a bend in the stock passenger side rod and now it flexes. I need to fix the prob and wrap that up before the gauges are installed. I finally got my heads back so I need to get the engine together and get this thing done!

[solidaxel]

Thanks for the update.
I am still trying to make a bracket and get the angle correct, your right that, must be complete before wiring and gauges go in. Thanks for your posts.

[solidaxel]

Per our conversation on hoses.

The check is in the mail, said to look for it around the 10th June

[kustombrad]

Needed to get the gauges mocked up into place before I put them together. Since the two gauges (factory and LaSalle) have differently clocked mounting brackets, I needed to figure this out. Instead of making some round steel brackets, I thought about what would be out there that I could already use. I ran over and saw my friend Larry at the local transmission shop and told him what I needed and he told me to look in the back room. I grabbed a couple of old, wore out steels that are part of the clutch from an automatic. Perfect! I then chopped them up with my angle grinder and and bolted them to the original location in the dash. I then set the new gauges up there, marked the holes and drilled them to line up with the old gauges Here they are ready to be finished and bolted in for good!

[Daniel U]

Very Cool!

[T Hilde]

Man you must be living right. Nicely done.

[nickp51chevy]

Looks great!

[kustombrad]

Worked on getting engine put together this weekend. I scored the old valve covers from my friend Bob and the air cleaner, I kinda stumbled onto. After painting the engine, I finished the detail painting in the fins of both. The old aluminum polished up rather nicely. Installed the harmonic damper and the water pump and buillt up a nice little hard line for the fuel system. The carb in the pic is for mockup, as I'm using a vacuum sec. 750 Holley. Hey, notice the cool wingnut!

[solidaxel]

Thar engine looks SWET.
I received my CARE package this aftermoon.WOW that is a stout bracket!!
I am working on the brakes, bleeding so I will get back on the WW later in the week.

THANKS for your help

[kustombrad]

Needed to finish putting the gauges together, so I could move on to the engine install. I took a little silicone and glued the new glass to the scrubbed clean bezels. After sanding all the old paint off the trim ring, I brushed some One-Shot Ivory (matched the factory color perfectly) I then put everything together and then set them in place to see how they looked. Wow!!! Now I'll take them back out and paint the whole back half of the bezel black, so it looks like the gauge is floating!

[britnjc]

Beautifull!