| HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? |
| SERVICE |
PRICE |
| Small gauge recalibration |
$10 ea. |
| Rebuild and calibrate |
$85 |
| a dead gauge |
|
| Rebuild and calibrate a |
$195 |
| speedometer (with no broken parts) |
| TACHOMETERS |
| Recalibrate a working tach |
$75 |
| Install a new circuit board on |
$175 |
| a dead tach/calibrate |
|
| Tach conversion for modern |
$275 |
| ignition systems |
| Quartz Conversions for Clock |
| Borg brand clock |
$105 |
| Any other brand |
$145 |
| (The name is stamped into the back case of most clocks.) |
| Reface most gauges |
$275 Set |
| back to show quality |
| Lens polishing |
$40 Set |
| Reletter faded odometer wheel |
$40 |
| Prices are valid as of press time but are subject to change. |
Voltmeters, temp gauges, fuel...
Voltmeters, temp gauges, fuel gauges, and electric oil pressure gauges work on resistance with the sending unit. These gauges rarely go bad, so the company usually just recalibrates them and puts them back in the car.
Tachometers also have a hairspring...
Tachometers also have a hairspring in them, as well as a circuit board to read the incoming signal from the ignition system. Frequently the hairspring is broken and/or the problem is a bad circuit board, which Autoinstruments replaces with an updated modern one.
By the late '60s and into...
By the late '60s and into the '70s, instrument panels had a single plug in the harness that connected to a printed circuit, which routed the electricity to each gauge. Made of laminated plastic with thin, flat copper traces going to all the instruments, these printed circuits are often the worse for wear by now. Though these rarely go bad, they do delaminate, and the copper traces are frequently pulled out or broken, as on ours. AutoInstruments can fix or replace these as needed; reproductions are available.
Don't Try This At Home
Though many Pontiac hobbyists, us included, pride themselves on doing their own work whenever possible, there are some restoration and/or modifications that should be left to a professional. Complete gauge restoration is one of those. Here are just a few of the reasons:
• You can easily break the gauge shaft at the base of the pointer on any gauge, even if you are using the correct tool to remove the pointer.
• You may also pull the entire shaft out and ruin the gauge when attempting to remove the pointer.
• You can easily slip and scratch the face of the gauge when removing faceplate fasteners.
• If you don't have gauge calibration equipment, you don't have a reference point to reinstall the pointers on most gauges.
• Many who install white gauge face decals put the pointer back on without realizing the gauge needs to be recalibrated.
• The bronze bushing in the speedometer frame wears with age and needs to be replaced.
• In other instances when the factory grease dries up, the steel shaft of the speedometer drive wears out due to metal-to-metal contact with the bronze bushing (we know the bushing should wear first, but Gentry says it doesn't); clearance between them gets excessive. You can't simply lubricate the area. Other frame types may not have a replaceable bushing, so when the grease dries up, there is metal-to-metal contact and the frame itself wears, requiring replacement. They are not available new.
• Its drive magnet needs to be remagnetized in order to properly calibrate the speedometer.
• You can't recalibrate a tach without a machine. Autoinstruments had to build its own as a ready-made model is not available.
• According to Autoinstruments, most factory tachs are at least 500 rpm off and many are 1,000 rpm off as received.
The restored speedometer guts...
The restored speedometer guts look brand-new. They'll be reassembled with modern lubricants that are better today than those used when Pontiac's supplier built them. Once calibrated, they'll work like new.
Gauge faces come in two varieties,...
Gauge faces come in two varieties, steel or aluminum blanks. Steel blanks get the bead blaster, while aluminum faces are chemically stripped. The aluminum is fragile, but won't be pitted by rust. If the steel faces are pitted or dented like ours, the dents are worked out, and the pits are filled and sanded before the new face and numbers are applied. The process by which the faces are applied is proprietary, so we don't show it here.
Vintage dash clocks have a...
Vintage dash clocks have a points-type mechanism in them (left). Like ignition system points, they wear out, corrode, or fuse together. AutoInstruments upgrades clocks with quartz action (right) to eliminate the points. The company will rebuild your clock to stock but it will only last about a year. However, the quartz movement will last 10-15 years and keep perfect time.