Outwardly the Tachometer was the middle child, not so cosmetically usable as is as the tri-gauge and not so obviously water damaged as the Speedometer. Functionally it was not much better off than the Speedometer. This is how it went:<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n This took me about 2 hours. If all I was doing was polishing and dusting it would have been an hour tops. Anyone need some gauges cleaned? I’m on a roll!<\/p>\n![\"tach](\"http:\/\/giuliettas.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/06\/tach-front-before.jpg\" "\\"tach")
<\/a>I would probably have paid $40 for this on eBay and been disappointed when I received it if I didn’t know then what I know now. Needles are pointed where they belong but other than that it looks bad. At least the plastic insert is not yellowed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Obviously not stored ideally. This cleans up pretty good with light bead blasting.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Once the trim ring tabs were bent away a little leverage was required to separate this from the body. Note the glass, glass insert, trim ring and rubber are all fused together by rust.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Lots to do but it is apart now. That powdery white is probably mineral salt leached from something else it shared the box with when they got wet. I believe efflorescence is the term for this.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>The glass was rusted to this insert. I bead blasted it then painted it front and back with primer followed by flat black.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Looks like some water sat pooled in here for a while. Rust seen in the foreground is stuck to the rubber mounting buffer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>This all has to come apart. To remove the needle you hold the aluminum wheel the post attaches to and pull it off. Had I been thinking I would have marked the relationship of the aluminum wheel to the body with the needle on the post to make sure it went back together the same way. We’ll see how it goes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>This is the oil pressure part of the gauge before. The mechanism was clean and the needle returned as it should so I just cleaned the face.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Here’s the face after. I use 3M hand glaze on the spots, rub it gently then polish it down with one of those microfiber cloths then clean it with IPA on a lint free wipe. Last step is some high pressure air to blow any dust away.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Here’s the oil pressure mechanism. I didn’t take the time to figure out how it worked but I assume the oil pressure (engine oil is actually piped up to the back of the gauge) pushes on something that is resisted by a spring, the higher the pressure, the farther it pushes the needle against the spring indicating pressure via the needle on the plastic insert markings.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>I screwed this into place but later figured out the tach mechanism and oil pressure mechanism have to be loosely assembled together before being tightened down.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>While cleaning up the gauge face I had to decide what to do about this red-line mark. I left it alone. It’s close to 50 years old after all! Note the rubber and trim ring, they’ll get theirs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>The mechanism itself. Just some corrosion to brush away and points to lubricate. Note the concentration of efflorescence near the spring.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Drive is cleaned, lubricated and ready for reassembly. Note the similarity to the Speedometer drive. Most of these parts are the same between the two.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>I seem to have skipped photographing a few steps. Here I have the drive mechanism reassembled to the base, plastic and face that make up the gauge face. All this was cleaned the same way as the oil pressure gauge.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Here the newly assembled face and mechanism are in the bucket, the repainted glass support ring and polished glass await assembly. The glass required a lot of care with fine steel wool, a fresh razor blade, mothers mag polish and finally IPA. Came out very nice!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Here’s the back all back together. If I had a cad plating set-up I would be tempted to plate some of this.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>And here it is almost back together. I say almost because I had to adjust the needle so it stopped against the post. We’ll see what it takes to calibrate this later I suppose. As I said at the outset, this is mostly a cosmetic operation.<\/strong><\/p>\n