1972 Chevy 4wd Longhorn Project: Never Ending Changes

[Dieselwrencher]

No real great progress this week. I have been busy with the super cold weather, work, and I got a cold that has been slowing me down. But I did manage to go get some paint for my gauge cluster needles. I tore apart my cluster I got from Toomuchstuff. He included some nicer gauges than what some of the ones in the cluster were. I cleaned everything up, and man were the tins nasty due to a leaking oil pressure line. I had my wife paint the needles while I repaired my odometer. She even painted the red line areas because they were faded really bad. She did a great job! Then I polished the lens a little bit. I tried not to ruin the markings on it because I'm pretty sure no one has any of these in stock anywhere. It came out pretty good. i will install my new repop wood grain bezel when it gets here and then this cluster should be done until I get some LED bulbs for it.

Before


After

[jce4isu]

Looks great Ryan Im hoping to get something done this weekend now that it's going to be above 0 but I also have a bad cold and it's kicked my ass
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[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by jce4isu

Looks great Ryan Im hoping to get something done this weekend now that it's going to be above 0 but I also have a bad cold and it's kicked my ass
Posted via Mobile Device

I know the feeling. It sucks. I hope you get well soon Joe!

[onebadbowtie]

you can do my gauges next they look great!

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by onebadbowtie

you can do my gauges next they look great!

Send them up if you want. It will give my wife something to do. She's going to love that.

[onebadbowtie]

haha im sure she would really appreciate that. probably better worry about getting them to work before i worry how they look

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by onebadbowtie

haha im sure she would really appreciate that. probably better worry about getting them to work before i worry how they look

I hear that! I did make sure the tach and speedo worked, so I'm a 1/4 of the way there.

[jce4isu]

i will be doing this this weekend and had a few ??? for ya

what paint did u use and where did u get the paint

did u brush it on

thanks

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

No real great progress this week. I have been busy with the super cold weather, work, and I got a cold that has been slowing me down. But I did manage to go get some paint for my gauge cluster needles. I tore apart my cluster I got from Toomuchstuff. He included some nicer gauges than what some of the ones in the cluster were. I cleaned everything up, and man were the tins nasty due to a leaking oil pressure line. I had my wife paint the needles while I repaired my odometer. She even painted the red line areas because they were faded really bad. She did a great job! Then I polished the lens a little bit. I tried not to ruin the markings on it because I'm pretty sure no one has any of these in stock anywhere. It came out pretty good. i will install my new repop wood grain bezel when it gets here and then this cluster should be done until I get some LED bulbs for it.

Before


After

[woodwright]

Did I miss a post or thread where you talked about that tach? That's not a standard tach right? Does it run off a crank trigger, or the alternator signal? I'm putting a 6.5T in mine and am trying to figure out the tach situation. I don't want to scab some goofy looking bolt on tach in there. I like things to sort of look like they came that way
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[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by woodwright

Did I miss a post or thread where you talked about that tach? That's not a standard tach right? Does it run off a crank trigger, or the alternator signal? I'm putting a 6.5T in mine and am trying to figure out the tach situation. I don't want to scab some goofy looking bolt on tach in there. I like things to sort of look like they came that way
Posted via Mobile Device

No, it isn't a standard tach. It is a cable operated tach ran off usually the injection pump on the older diesel engines. I have a tach drive that goes on my front cover and drives the cable for this tach. These things are pretty rare and hard to find. There are 2 different red lines on them as well. I feel the same way you do. I didn't want to scab some auto meter tach in there at all. Especially when I fund out about these factory diesel tachs. Here are some better pics of the front of it. This one is a 3200 red line. I believe the other style is a 2700 or 2600.

[woodwright]

What is the cable drive unit like? Is it a cummins thing, or could I adapt it to my 6.5?
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[1985-GMC]

Man that's cool! I wish 73-87's had mech tacks, I've been trying to figure out how im going to hook a stock tach up to a cummins :\

[67chevy1series]

we need progress ryan!

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by jce4isu

i will be doing this this weekend and had a few ??? for ya

what paint did u use and where did u get the paint

did u brush it on

thanks

Joe, I got orange model paint, testors brand I believe from Hobby Lobby. Yes, my wife used a brush of hers and brushed it on. She is way better at painting small things than I, so I let her have at it.