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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / Broken 1936 speedometer

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Broken 1936 speedometer -- page: 1 2 3     supereal 04-19-2011 @ 6:03 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 I sent the speedo to Bob's for evaluation.. I knew it was in very bad shape, and the cost to rebuild and reface it was quoted as five hundred dollars. I was also given the option to buy a NOS speedo for $940. That is a lot of money, but I needed it immediately. It is a beautiful instrument, well worth the cost which is a fraction of the total spent on the car, a '47 convertible, given that the speedo is the focus of the dash. It did make my clock look terrible, by comparison, and I later found a NOS clock. No one said that a thorough restoration would be cheap, and it wasn't. No one is sorry they bought the best of something, in my opinion. ford38v8 04-19-2011 @ 6:57 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 2736 Joined: Oct 2009 Grant, Yes, there is a difference between an open car and a closed car speedo, but not a difference in design, rather, a difference in color. A closed car will have had its dashboard in shade virtually all its life, while an open cars instruments will have faded dramatically in comparison. When shopping for a replacement gage, keep this in mind. Alan drkbp 04-20-2011 @ 10:21 AM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 180 Joined: Aug 2010 Grant, The color is determined by what you have for '35 and '36, Deluxe or standard. The open cars are all Deluxe and will have the "brown" shade speedometer. For instance, 710's and 760's have different dash but use the same "brown" speedometer as they are both deluxe. The '35 and '36 dash boards are the same for the respective body styles. If your car is a standard, I would use the "silver" tint instruments. That being said, I would look for the same color that is in the car you have. If you have browns for the gas/oil and temp/amp gages, I would look for a brown speedometer even if the car is a standard. Why start over unless you are going for show? If you have a radio, it is brown and you will be looking for browns. Others are correct however, fading is a problem but I see it mostly on the needle and numbers on the odometer and trip meter on the examples I have. The brown and silver seem to hold up good. Ken in Texas Grant 04-20-2011 @ 10:05 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 533 Joined: Oct 2009 More great input. Thank you. Supereal I totally agree with your decision to go with a correct NOS speedometer, and later on an NOS clock to match. The quality will always be there and likely you will never regret how nice that convertible's dashboard looks. Alan Excellent point. The possibility of fading had not occurred to me. Maybe a good-working but unrestored speedo, with a nice slightly faded appearance would be preferable to restored or NOS. Ken Dale's '36 is a roadster, so we are looking for "browns". This is definitely not a show car. Nonetheless it's proven itself to be a pretty reliable highway driver. Probably the '35-type speedometer would not be a good idea, because the trip odometer would have only three numerals instead of the '36 which, I think, has four (i.e. up to 999.9 rather than 99.9).........does anyone disagree with that ? Grant 04-20-2011 @ 10:30 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 533 Joined: Oct 2009 37RAGTOPMAN Whether the car gets a repaired, totally restored or NOS speedometer remains to be seen. We will proceed as per your advice with respect to lubrication. How we make out will be reported, but maybe not for a little while. It is going to take a bit of time before the vehicle is up and running this year. drkbp 04-21-2011 @ 6:35 AM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 180 Joined: Aug 2010 Grant, Good point. Mine has the 3 digit trip, 99.9 then it zeros. The '35 oil/gas has the hydrostatic gas gage so the only one that may be the same is the temp/amp gage. Does the '36 temp gage have any numbers on its face? Mine just has just the word "normal" between two marks, no numbers. It's a combo with the amp gage which has "30" on both sides of the center mark. Sounds like you know what you are looking for. Ken in Texas Kens 36 04-21-2011 @ 12:51 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 339 Joined: Oct 2009 Grant, I was hoping Don Rogers would chime in here because he would have definitive answers. If I read the Early Ford V-8 35-36 book correctly, the differences between speedometers have not exactly been correctly described in some of the posts above. According to the book, which anyone working on a 35 or 36 Ford should have, Standard cars had the three-digit odometer while Deluxe models had the four-digit. Also, if I understand the book correctly, early 36 speedometer dials were silver-faced while late models (after May 1936) were shades of brown. If you don't have the 35-36 book, I would strongly suggest you purchase one, available on this site. Ken drkbp 04-23-2011 @ 5:59 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 180 Joined: Aug 2010 Kens 36, You're probably correct. This has been an interesting thread. I guess I call my double gage for fuel "brown" because it seems brown to me but that could be silver to others. Matches my speedo and amp/temp gage. Gas has to be '35 because it's hydrostatic. I have another single hydrostatic gas gage and it is the same color what ever it is. It does seem to make sense that the deluxe trip would be 4-digit. I found I had a beautiful 4-digit trip speedometer hanging in the Ford shop. Cleaned it up, lubed it and put a new bulb on one side and hooked up to the dash switch. I should have put that speedo in back in the seventies! Drove it for about ten miles this afternoon and works like a champ. Didn't zero the miles so I started with 97519 on it. It will zero itself pretty soon. I saw in an old copy I have of "The V8 Affair" that they noted all '35s had silver instruments. Bruce McCalley worked with Ray Miller on that one. If Bruce says they are silver then that's what I have! <grin> While reading the "V8 Affair" they have a good plate on thermostats for the early years. Ray Miller says that Ford added the thermostats to the upper hoses in the 1933s and continued up to and in some '37s. I took quite a bit of heat on the "thermostats question" on an earlier thread. Seems like I find something when I am looking for something else. Part of the joy of getting old. If someone finds the real answer, be sure and post it or the source. I would like to know what is correct even if I don't change the set of instruments I have. It's part of what makes this fun. Ken in Texas with silvers, I guess Grant 04-24-2011 @ 12:23 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 533 Joined: Oct 2009 Ken in Texas: There is no radio. I spoke to Dale in Alberta yesterday (I'm in Ontario, about 100 miles east of Detroit). From your description and his, it sounds like the roadster's temperature and amp gauges are the same as in your car. Is yours a '35 ? What color is the background of your speedometer ? Is the tail and the pointer of your speedo needle red ? Are there small red rectangles around the outside edge to indicate each five miles per hour of speed ? (i.e. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and so on). Does your indicated speed end at 100 mph ? Kens 36 Since I don't own a '36 (....yet), I haven't purchased the club's '35/'36 book. Nonetheless that's probably an excellent idea. Your information about the changeover to brown 1936 speedometers is interesting. The November/December 1972 V8 Times contains a very detailed eleven-page article about '36 Ford accessories. On page 35 there is a photograph of Ford Control Replacement Kit Part No. 68-18820 which was "for sales through Service in May 1936 to update earlier style 1936 radio dial faces and control knobs to agree with the new interior finishes (brown)." drkbp 04-24-2011 @ 7:09 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 180 Joined: Aug 2010 Grant, I have a 1935 cabriolet. I cannot say for sure which speedometer was in the car when I got it. It was more than thirty-five years ago. It was always a complete car. I called Ford in about 1974 or so and he had the serial numbers. I gave him only the serial number and he told me what it was. Told me it was built with 17 other 760s and 18 roadsters in a group late in the model year. I don't know if they have someone doing that any more. Fellow asked me about the firewall supports because of an arguement in California. I learned how to tell late '35 open cars by looking under the hood. Now that I am looking at the speedos close, I have several styles. All go to 100 mph. Two have the "red" rectangles you talk about and two seem to be the same color as the numbers and other marks. All seem to be gray/silverish brown. The other gages are the same. One is a Waltrip, which is a reverse out of the screen just under the odometer on the face. It's rectangles seem to be the same color as the other marks. Four digit trip. Another that is unmarked on the face and it has the red rectangles with 4 digit trip. Two others with 3 digit trips. One has red rectangles. The needle on one is red but it has been painted by someone. Doesn't appear to be original unless it was red under it and they painted it again. One looks like it has a pointer that may have had a tint to the tip. I would look at the '36 gas gage. It would not be '35. Also, the marks on my other gages are red but the numbers are darker colors of the gage. Ken in Texas

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