1963 Lark Tach? Questions...

[Bill Pressler]

That looks like the tach that was in my old '63 R1 Daytona. I don't remember the red trim, but I'll have to look at old pictures. I remember the black surround inside the lens of mine was deteriorating.

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

I found a series of photo of removing the bezel, cleaning the tach, and putting it back together.







I continue opening around the bezel leaving the last part untouched always checking if you can open it and snap it back together

Continued on next post.

Allen

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

Here's some more.





Bezels are media blasted and paint black. I did not take pictures of turning over the trim ring but I use a small roll pin punch with the tach placed on a towel or soft surface. When I painted the needle I used a peice of paper with a slit cut in it to slip over the entire face under the needle taping off the round aluminum pointer. Good luck with re-furbishing your tach.

Allen

[bezhawk]

You can roll the bezel back in place with a curved piece of steel. Banging on them with a punch is not too good for the internals!

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

You can roll the bezel back in place with a curved piece of steel.

Brad,

I have seen your gauge conversions and have wondered how you do roll back the bezel with a curved piece of steel? I hate to tap the bezel when i do this.

I have a few GT Hawk gauges that I want to clean up as well and would really like to see how you do this along with Tom's 1964 tach.

Can you teach us with a pictorial sequence?


Allen

[SN-60]

Brad,

I have seen your gauge conversions and have wondered how you do roll back the bezel with a curved piece of steel? I hate to tap the bezel when i do this.

I have a few GT Hawk gauges that I want to clean up as well and would really like to see how you do this along with Tom's 1964 tach.

Can you teach us with a pictorial sequence?


Allen

You should NEVER 'tap' on the bezel! Simply compressing it with a thin block of hard wood using steady hand pressure will do the trick!

[58PackardWagon]

Getting the rolled edge started for removal is a nightmare. Any tricks?

[SN-60]

Getting the rolled edge started for removal is a nightmare. Any tricks?

Have patience, and open it a little bit at a time working Your way around the circumference of the gauge. A quality cotter pin removal tool, such as My 'Snap-On' one, sometimes works well.

[58PackardWagon]

Got it. On e i got it started, it went well. Time wise i had two hours into the tach and two hours into thw 160 mph speedo. Tach numbers are a slightly brighter white than the speedo but both look close to new and are 50 times better than when i started. Red / orange paint was tough to match an nos cluster. I mixed 5 drops of red with 1 drop of yellow, mixed thin and it looks perfect. Thanks to all.

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

Got it. On e i got it started, it went well. Time wise i had two hours into the tach and two hours into thw 160 mph speedo. Tach numbers are a slightly brighter white than thespeedo but both look close to new and are 50you times better than when i started. Red / orange paint was tough to match an nos cluster. I mixed 5 drops of red with 1 drop of yellow, mixed thin and it looks perfect. Thanks to all.

How about a picture(s)?

Allen

[58PackardWagon]

Sorry, don't know how to post. Send me a pm with your email and i will send you the before and afters (4 pics) and you can post them if you like. Thanks

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

These are fantastic before and after pictures of 58PackardWagon 1963 speedo and tachometer. All I can say is job well done!







They look brand new for an afternoons work. Love that 160 speedo!

Allen

[mapman]

Does anyone know a good place to have an Avanti tach converted to modern internals so that you don't have to use the sending unit?

I converted an Avanti tach a couple years ago and did a write up on it with pictures. I can't find it now but it should be in here somewhere.
Rob

http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?67463-avanti-tach-renew&highlight=avanti+tach

[OldJoe]

Thanks to everyone for their help! Allen, you've basically written the book here on these tachometers. I appreciate your sharing. I will take the tach apart this coming weekend when I've got the time to be slow and careful. I'll report back with the results. Bob, I ordered a new bezel from SI last Friday.

[OldJoe]

I received the tach bezel yesterday from SI and it's nice. Appears to be NOS. It's raised the question in my mind about whether or not the Hawk mounting bracket will work on the Lark. Isn't the hole in the Lark dash bigger than the hole in the Hawk dash? If so, is the Lark bracket wide enough to span the bigger hole and make contract with the back of the dash in order to hold the tach and bezel in place? Maybe they're the same width, I don't know but they have different part numbers in the parts book. Thanks for any info on this!

Joe