Dave - Why wouldn't you cut the small hole first, thereby leaving the larger piece of material to hold? Then cut the OD of the piece while it is still clamped.

And, I would consider a 1/2" thick piece of material as you should be able to tweak the bend in the arm to make up for the height. That way you don't have to go with extremely short screws, just short ones.

 

I was thinking when you did the first large hole, you would still have the small pilot hole in the middle, and it would still be there to guide the smaller hole saw when you cut it. If you cut the middle out first, then there is nothing to hold the big hole saw centered in place. But if you did bolt it to a piece of plywood, and had the plywood clamped tight in a drill press, you may get by without having the pilot hole there.

1/2" would be a good idea also, easier to make your holes that you need. I was trying to think of something else it could be made out of. I don't know where he would get 1/2" thick aluminum, unless there was a local machine shop that would let him scrounge for a scrap piece in their recycle bin. I guess he could buy a small chunk of phenolic from Mcmaster carr maybe. I am thinking it would hold up to the fuel if you order the good stuff.

I had access for years to a mill and a lathe, and have lost that for about a year now that i have changed jobs. Boy, you can make anything if you have the tools to do it.

 

I forgot about the pilot hole - because I put my hole saws in the mill and don't need the pilot hole with it. You are right, with a lathe and a mill Bob's your uncle.

 

The last 3 posts on this page and the last post on the last page were not seen by myself until now.......I dont know why that is. I check into this particular bullnose forum regularly and if the topic is highlighted than I know I have some more responses.

That is evidently not always happening for me, some comp glitch I guess.

Anyway have not read them yet but thanks for the posts, ideas and experience!

 

Heck, I guess this is the thread I should continue with anyway, so here goes....

I was planning on documenting what I was doing to make my 80s gauges work with what little bit of bezel from the 52 I had........I thought it might help someone else that was in my shoes.....











But in the end this did not work out, I was not pleased with the difference in appearance with the speedometer gauge next to it nor the fact that I could not no matter what I would do get the gauges grouped close enough so that they would be easily read whilst sitting in the truck.

The only possibility or next move would have been to cut down the faceplate, plastic weld it back together and then finish but I decided that would be too much additional work and then I still might not be happy with it.

I decided instead to get an original gauge package and see bout converting over the 12 volt gauges to this.

This turned out to be a much less laborious job.

I have read that the gauges construction had not changed much in many years and that couldnt be closer to the truth.

Faceplates are easily interchanged between a 52 and any mid eighties gauge, The canisters are the identical size.

With the exception of having to drill some new holes for the needles to sit and then flip two of the bezels over....and then grind some edges, it was a piece of cake.

Anyway now I have some 12 volt gauges within my original 52 cluster and it didnt take more than 3-4 hours this A.M and I am sure now that I have done it once it is about an hours work.

The only one I did not mess with was the battery gauge. I have read a post here that stated........... The ammeter needs no conversion-you can use it as is. You just need to run the wire carrying the load through in the opposite direction...............Can someone verify for me what exactly it means or better yet why this would work, I am just not getting it I guess. Thanks again

 

Thanks again Dave, all of this is no problem for me, I have been considering it both ways and I will first mess around with the original 52 sending unit, getting that apart and going from there. I have decided there is no way I am taking that screw off the top of my new unit, I cant afford to mess that up at this point.

 

If I decide to go this route than the thicker the better, of course finding a scrap piece that thick may prove to be a challenge at this point since I am out of work.....seems to me a nice aluminum re-bar off the front of any on of these newer model cars would work nicely and of course I have tossed a thousand of them out, I may just visit one of the shops around here.

Anyway I say thicker is better because the sending unit goes just a tad too deep, must be a bit ( not much ) of a variance in the length of the sending unit float end over the original.

I am thinking 1/4 inch maybe.

 

I'm slightly confused as it doesn't look like the picture shows the new gauges in - right? That I'd like to see as well as what the back looks like.

As for the ammeter, there is a shunt resistor that MUST be used. (Did you understand that the shunt is absolutely required?) Otherwise you will destroy the ammeter as it only carries a very small fraction of the current.

 

Quote........ Boy, you can make anything if you have the tools to do it..........Thats for sure!

Aluminum automotive re-bars are about 1/8-3/16 thick, I may go that route or maybe I have some steel plate laying around.

 

Thanks for the compliment, the new gauges are in it, I will be right back with a picture of the backside

 

This first picture shows what I was talking about when I mentioned having to drill a new hole on one of the two gauges and the flipping the bezel because originally the fuel and the oil gauges read from the top.

Since originally they read from the top the words were not upside down.

I decided that I would rather leave the words fuel right side up and I didnt care if oil and Batt were upside down.

Hope that makes sense. Anyway I am also pointing here with my two fingers the bit of metal I had to shave off both gauges to make them fit in reverse within their original stay.

Here is the backside, no difference from original

 

That is cool! Great! And, it pretty well confirms what Bill's been saying about Ford having used the same gauges for years.

 

Quote.......As for the ammeter, there is a shunt resistor that MUST be used. (Did you understand that the shunt is absolutely required?.........I do now, that stinks.....The problem with the mid eighties gauge and the 52 gauge is that the later gauge is alot thicker....look at this first picture all the way furthest to the left, I lined the early and late gauge up so you guys could see why I wanted to not mess with the later gauge and hopefully use the original with no bubbles no troubles....

I have no idea what a shunt resistor is, when I first put the harness in my truck I had to use some little deal on the hotside of the incoming power that goes to my 6 volt ( still ) heater blower motor.

Gets hot as heck, let me get a picture for you guys.

 

Absolutely the same, hold one on top of another or set them side by side and you ( or I rather ) will see no difference. You might since you know more about what you are looking at internally.

I am glad I was able to give you something interesting to look at!

 

1951/52 trucks use the same speedo and gauges as P Series Parcel Delivery, Speedo, some of the gauges (I forget which ones) are the same thru 1977.

Looks like 30 Dodge bought the NOS gauges that 'guess who' located.