WTB 37 Dash plastics

[Steve Passmore]

Has anyone got any decent 37 or 38 dash gauge plastics please? The plastics in my car were melted from years in the California sun, I don't need any of the gauges, just the plastic fronts, particularly the Amp and the Oil pressure. Thanks Steve

[Otto Skorzeny]

Steve,

Do a search on this forum. I remember this topic coming up in the last year or so and some sources and/or solutions were given.

[Steve Passmore]

I just tried that Forrest and came up with zip, I put in "1937 Dash gauge plastic faces"  Any idea how the topic was worded? thanks anyway.

[Mark Lowery]

Has anyone got any decent 37 or 38 dash gauge plastics please? The plastics in my car were melted from years in the California sun, I don't need any of the gauges, just the plastic fronts, particularly the Amp and the Oil pressure. Thanks Steve

Steve,
I don't have any for sale, but if you get this down to finding someone who can reproduce them but simply needs a pattern, I'd be glad to photograph mine or send them to an outfit that can reproduce them.  Mine are likewise faded and time worn, but I believe intact enough to serve as creditable patterns.

It will be at least a week until I go up to the place where they are stored, but I can retrieve them at that time if that would be of any use to you.

Mark Lowery, CLC#25216

[Steve Passmore]

Thanks for that Mark, much appreciated, I would dearly love to find someone producing them, if only?

[Paul Tesone]

Steve - I just read your post about your 37 dash gauges. I hate to show my novice ignorance here , but I'm assuming when you talk about dash "plastics", you mean the lettered dial face - not the clear plastic/glass protecting the face. If that's so, I made a couple of telephone calls for you and found some possibilities when I googled auto dash gauge restoration. I know absolutely nothing about any of these businesses, nor am I advising you to use them. I just thought they might be a starting place for you. I did speak to Mr Young of the business listed below. He seemed rather knowlegable and informed me that his work has been on many Pebble Beach cars ( who knows for sure ). He did say that plastic pieces are much more difficult to restore or repro than metal, but he thought if he had a head on photo of the gauges , he might be able to help. I know you have another club member who has offered to do that for you, but if that doesn't work out, I'll be more than happy to do it. Here are the three names I found : APT Instruments - 877- 856-7103 (toll free) - gaugeguys@Qwestoffice.net .......Auto Instruments.com - 877-450-0110 (toll free) - autoinstruments.com ......Scott Young Auto Instrument Face Restoration - 415-472-5126 - scottyoung1001@sbcglobal.net. If photos of my 37  6049 series gauges will be of any help, let me know. Thanks again for your recent advice about my 37 vent window division bar. Paul Tesone -- CLC # 6876

[Steve Passmore]

Thanks Paul, First of all, your right, I am talking about the lettered plastic.  Sadly my Amp face is not much good even as pattern, Here is a picture of it. I guess I would have to find a half decent one first to send to any restorer.   I have noticed a wide variation in the colours of these plastic faces and I don't know if thats a year and model difference or just age, The same gauges are used on the 1936 range. I'm going to check out plastic sign and Graphic company's here and see what they can come up with.  Steve

[Steve Passmore]

Just an update here after my fruitless attempt to find replacement dash gauge plastics, I found a graphics company to reproduce them quite cheaply. I think they did a wonderfully job, even down to the tiny part numbers.  New ones are on the right of the picture.

[Otto Skorzeny]

New ones are on the left of the picture.

I think you mean your other left.

[Steve Passmore]

My mistake Forrest, A senior moment. now altered, What would we do without you? LOL

[Tod - NTCLC]

Wow - those came out great, and kudos to you for off the shelf thinking about the supplier.

Now, can you provide us some additional information - what kind of graphics company did you seek out, and what was the price range.  It would be great to know that we might have sign shops etc. locally that can do this kind of work at a reasonable price.

Thanks for sharing - again, I think those look fantastic

[Steve Passmore]

Hi Tod, Just your run of the mill sign shop. They all have the capabilities to do it but the first four I tried weren't interested.  The sum I paid for these four was to cover the computer art work, so subsequent plastics would be cheaper, The cost here may have no bearing to what it would cost in the US. I can get my supplier to print off another set for around $50 now he has everything set up on his CD

[Otto Skorzeny]

A friend of mine restored a rust bucket 54 Buick that started life painted blue.

The new color was red. The Dinoc dash had a pattern in blue that was unusable even if the car stayed blue.

He took the glove box door to a graphics company and they scanned the best portion of the pattern.

With that, they were able to create a pattern of infinite size in any color or shade of the spectrum.

They printed a red version on decal stock and he was able to apply it over the entire dash without distortion or anything. It looked like a factory job.

The whole thing cost less than $75.

[Paul Tesone]

Steve - You beat me to the punch ! I shouldn't be surprised . After our last communication,  I took photos of my plastics for you. But since I'm computer challanged, I didn't know how to forward them  to you. I was going to have my son help me this weekend , but you already have the new plastics. They look terrific. You mentioned your sign shop might be willing to make more now that he has the images in his computer database. If so , I'd like a set. I certainly don't want to inconvenience you - you have enough to do already . So if you can provide the sign company's contact info, I'll do the rest. By the way, I did get my hands on two vent window division bars from a 37 sedan to replace the ones my plater lost. They are pretty rusty , but perhaps they will work after some alteration as you suggested. Thanks again, Paul T. CLC #6876....tess352@yahoo.com

[Steve Passmore]

Paul, I can get these gauge faces for you if you really want them, I would guess its cheaper from here as Iv already had the artwork done but only you guys can tell me if thats true, Postage would be very little I should think. I had thought about getting them to make the speedo and the clock face too and see if there was a demand for the set, but there could be a problem with the speedo as the opening for the milometer and trip is chamfered in, that may cause trouble when sticking the plastic film down. Are your speedo and clock good Paul?

[Otto Skorzeny]

I'm not sure what the gauge looks like but to stick the decals on curved surfaces or whatever, my friend used a heat gun or hair dryer (judiciously) to get the sticker to conform without distortion to the curves of the dashboard.

Perhaps such a method could be tried in this case. The cost is probably minimal so you could experiment on similar curverd  / chamfered surfaces with a blank sticker.

[Steve Passmore]

Might work Forrest, worth further investigation.

[Paul Tesone]

Paul, I can get these gauge faces for you if you really want them, I would guess its cheaper from here as Iv already had the artwork done but only you guys can tell me if thats true, Postage would be very little I should think. I had thought about getting them to make the speedo and the clock face too and see if there was a demand for the set, but there could be a problem with the speedo as the opening for the milometer and trip is chamfered in, that may cause trouble when sticking the plastic film down. Are your speedo and clock good Paul?

Thanks Steve - but like I said, I don't want to add more to your "to do" list. However you want to manage thigs will be fine with me. I can pay you or the sign company directly - whatever works for you. I figure as long as I have the cluster out of the car, I might as well order a set of gauges. Mine are in pretty good shape - somewhat yellowed but not bad overall. New ones should look better. I haven't seen the clock or speedometer in a while, but as I recall there were no significant problems with them either. How they will look along side new repros is another story. I'm in no hurry as I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get the "olivewood burl" design on the dash that the authenticity manual calls for. There is a company called Hydro Dip which has a process by which they float the photographic image of the wood ( or anything else for that matter ) onto the metal dash. They don't however have an olivewood burl sample. So I just ordered a couple of wood veneer samples that they should be able to take a picture of and then use their process. This will all take some time, so I'm in no great hurry for the repro gauges. Thanks again for your kind offer. Paul T. CLC #6876