I love my Heuers but I'm not drilling my dash (lots of pics)

[paulmose]

My first thread, here goes!

A child of the 60's, I love everything Heuer, blame my architect brother who came home in about 1965 in a Lotus Elite Climax with an original Monaco on his wrist (he still has it, that rat).

So I have wanted to have a couple of stopwatches on my dash for show and Porsche tradition-sake, but I am unwilling to make even the tiniest hole on a perfect dash. Inspired by an old 80's Vasek Polak Escort radar detector mount I have, and fascinated by the nut and bolt aisle at the hardware store, I decided to come up with a suction cup mount.

The photos explain most of it, the tricky part is all of the curves depending on where you want to mount it, so I made the windshield part pivot, plus adding washers on the pivot will adjust the horizontal tilt.

The key pieces are the rubber "well nuts" I found at the HW store. When threaded in tight they expand and really grip the watches tightly, no way are they coming out.

Not counting a Harbor Freight bender, I think I have five bucks in the aluminum, maybe five more in hardware, an eBay knockoff sticker, and you can find this model Heuer stopwatch for 50 to maybe 100 bucks on eBay if you search patiently. I am thinking about having the dials removed by a specialty vintage jeweler here and "flopped" to a black background with white numerals, possibly by North Hollywood Speedometer?

Will be making revisions here and there, am starting to enjoy this!

And I am thinking I won't keep them there to ofter while driving, although secure they are more than jagged, and could be dangerous if something bad were to happen. And of course, if you are rallying and using these for real, this might not be the best solution.

I'd love everyone's thoughts…...

My first foam core model:



Laid out before bending:







New version on the right with pivoting bracket:





The fuzzy side of hook and loop cushions dash top:

[James Brown]

classic, very nice

[GWP911T]

Very nice solution and design. You could even make the top into a mini clipboard and pencil holder to keep track of lap times.

[James Brown]

wonder if you could add these little grimes post lights in the mount for night rallys

[fasterlaster]

This is one of those things that is incredibly impractical and outdated......but yet so cool! Great idea, and well executed. BTW that adjustable triangle, and circle template bring back memories.

[paulmose]

Thanks all for your comments

fasterlaster, my dad was an architect, so I have all of his drafting stuff, like the stopwatches (and some old cars), totally outdated, totally easy and cool to grab and use.

James, lighting would be really easy, esp. since the lighter socket is right underneath

[TargaHenry]

That is really cool! As someone who appreciates classic and vintage timepieces, I really like the way those watches look in a classic and vintage Porsche.

[Howard M]

What prompted me to post here is, not only do I have a Monte Carlo mounted on the dash (glove compartment door), but I also own one of those old Vasek Polak Escort mounts: clear plastic with a "hot shoe" plug. Does anyone else have one of those antiques? Mine has been on a motorcycle since 1982.

[JQ911]

I did mine on the glovebox not drilled though just industrial velcro. Plasti-dipped mounting plate and glued rounded nuts on it.

[Miguel Antonett]

Clever...

[fasterlaster]

Originally Posted by JQ911

I did mine on the glovebox not drilled though just industrial velcro. Plasti-dipped mounting plate and glued rounded nuts on it.

The Car Cellular phone is a nice touch.

[Flojo]

really beatiful - I hope you have that patend pending.... or sell your design to Rebel Racing to fit their set of drilled RSR-floorpanels ;-)

one question though: when going over a bump, does it jump off?
is it fixed up front to the below somehow?

Originally Posted by paulmose

[TheSt|G]

Why do I love this sort of thing?

[Craig_D]

That's beautiful work! Well done sir!

[Dave Colangelo]

You sir are a scholar and a craftsmen.

Looks Great!

Regards
Dave

[redridge]

Im new to the stopwatches thing... can someone explain its purpose. Im assuming this is for the co-driver?... and what events are they used for and why 2 of them, how are they synced with each other?

Sorry for such a newbie question...

[Dave Colangelo]

Originally Posted by redridge

Im new to the stopwatches thing... can someone explain its purpose. Im assuming this is for the co-driver?... and what events are they used for and why 2 of them, how are they synced with each other?

Sorry for such a newbie question...

The stop watch (in this format) Is traditionally used for rally driving and yes for the co-driver. Unlike regular old racing, rally driving often does not always mean flat out speed. Although some rallies are measured on pure speed to complete a course other are done TSD style where a course must be completed in an allotted time. Thus the need to know your elapsed time is very important as you can lose points for not only going to slow but to fast as well. As for the reason for there being 2 watches I can think of a few. First off there are many brackets and setups that include anywhere from 1-4 slots for holding different things. The traditional setup seems to be a clock and a stopwatch. Often times the clock was also a chronograph to provide stopwatch functionality as well. The clock could be used to measure longer times, say the whole course while the stopwatch could be used to measure shorter intervals like time between turns or land marks or smaller break downs of the leg. Since it takes a second to reset a stopwatch often times two were used so that you could start one while stopping the other. And reset the stopped one while the running one clocked the time. Some times a tachymeter was also included somewhere to aid in speed and distance calculations. Look up pace notes or rally notes and you will gain more info on what the co driver does and how they do it. In short they are there to tell the driver how fast they can take a turn and to navigate the course for them. Please note this is based on some light research and inferring, I could very well be wrong about some of this.

Although rallying is not hugely popular (as other types of racing still are) many people add the stopwatches for the classic rally look (which I love). People often think they are for measuring track laps, I have never found this to be the case as its hard to start and stop them on a track while driving.

As for syncing them, unlike clocks stopwatches can not be "synced" as they are not continuously ticking. A system could be built in which the stopping of one start another but that is usually taken care of with through a double register stopwatch. They can be calibrated to guarantee accuracy within a certain range of lost seconds per interval. Most of these stopwatches (early Heuer) were in the 1/5 to 1/10 of a second accuracy depending on which model you had.

Hope this helps.


Regards
Dave

[Willy Leon]

I have a nice set of these but use them as a desk ornament. Any idea of value of these things?

[redridge]

thanks for the info Dave... very helpful.

[JonSnow83]

Would the watches fit on a radio delete face plate?