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RE: [oletrucks] '55-'59 GMC's guages

To: "'Don Kasbohm'" <milw8170@dmci.net>
Subject: RE: [oletrucks] '55-'59 GMC's guages
From: "Hanlon, Bill" <Bill.Hanlon@COMPAQ.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 16:14:57 -0500
Used your idea (except used a "Squirt" bottle, I don't 
like Mountain Dew) last night on my gauges and it 
really looks great.  Thanks for the tip.

I also installed a Sun Supertach II into the stock 
dash hole that was used for the original mechanical 
tach or clock.  After popping off the chrome plastic 
bezel on the face of the tach, I used a Dremmel tool 
to remove about 1/16" of the "bell" of the tach case 
to allow it to fit into the stock GMC dash bezel.  

The 8000 RPM maximum displayed on the Sun tach was 
wasted on my stock V8 (the Hydra-matic upshifts 
around 36-3700 RPM), so I switched the tach to 
4 cylinder mode which gives full scale deflection 
at on my V8 at 4000 RPM.  The math is:
4 cylinders X 8000 RPM =  Full scale @ 16000 sparks/second
8 cylinders X 4000 RPM =  Full scale @ 16000 sparks/second

Then I used a razor blade to cut individual numbers 
from a GMC instrument reface kit (got it from Heavy 
Chevy) and placed the 0 where the 0 was before, 1 
where 2000 was before, 2 where 4000 was, 3 where 
6000 was and 4 where 8000 was.  I cut blank black 
areas from the same reface kit to cover the 1000, 
3000, 5000 and 7000 indicators.  

      Before                  After

        4                       2
     3     5               
    2       6               1       3        
     1     7
      0   8                   0   4

I also used blank black material to cover up Sun's 
advertising on the face.  Then use a fine black felt 
tip pen to go around the outer edges of the newly 
stuck on areas of the tach face to cover the white 
edge that is just visible.  I slipped some more of 
the Sprite bottle in around the tach's light bulb, 
used a little clear RTV between the tach's glass lens 
and the body of the tach (the lens rattles if you 
don't) and reassembled the dash.  The results are 
a semi-original looking tach.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Kasbohm [mailto:milw8170@dmci.net]
Sent: Monday, July 05, 1999 7:51 PM
To: Pat Wilson '56GMC Napco
Cc: oletrucks@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [oletrucks] '55-'59 GMC's guages


At 10:56 AM 7/5/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Hello all my fellow GMC people!
>Just thouht I would pass on a tid bit of info. I had done to my guages
>if you can't find any NOS. guages. There is a green plastic stip inside the
guage which transfers the light from the light bulb though it on to the face
of the guage illuminating it in a green tint. What I had done is to
carefully take each guage and pry the outer tin ring lip out and remove it,
then the glass and I believe a gasket?, then you will find this green
plastic strip, you will or should notice that it is faded on half of the
strip, just flip it over, and now it should have the green side (not faded)
in line with the light bulb and now illuminate through this portion of
green. Just a tid bit.
>Pat 
>
This stuff was all brittle and fell apart when I rebuilt mine, So I came up
with this idea as a replacement.......Cut some new pieces from a plastic
Mountain Dew bottle. Worked for me!
Don Kasbohm
'59 GMC 100 V8

oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959

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