911 Gauge refurb question

[Lyndon302]

First
Are these 68 dials ??
They look flat and is it viable to pop the glass and clean them up ?? I'm not looking at dropping them at a gauge resto joint and spending a fortune.
Any tips or advice. ?????
Thanks Lyndon

[tdw28210]

Remove one or two and post close up pics of the front and back and the hive will chime in.

[Trackrash]

There will be, or was, a date stamped on the rear of each gauge.

I'm not sure when Porsche went to the silver bullet in the center, but I thought it was '69.

Up to '70 there are two mounting screws in the rear that hold the gauges in place. Starting in '70 that was eliminated and only the rubber ring around the gauge held them in place.

If you take some of your gauges out and show some high quality pictures of the rear, we should be able to tell what they are.

Or maybe you can see from the inside of the frunk.....

[hun911]

Yes, they are '68 gauges.

[Lyndon302]

I will get one out. Is something an amateur can do ??? Remove the glass or let sleeping dogs lie
Lyndon

[Uwon]

Not easy to open up without damage. Send them to Hartmut at Palo Alto and save yourself allot of grief and disappointment. Ask me how I know.
Johan

[porschetub]

Oh come its not that hard,if they work a cosmetic DIY is easy enough to if you take your time,the glass bezel takes work to get off but easy to clean up the glass,gauge face and recolour needles,its amazing how much dust and cr#p gets inside them.
Done around 5 of them now and they all cleaned up nicely,for an improvement in lighting I started with LED replacement lamps....good result but wanted more so when to LED strips are a great upgrade.
If you are DIY (again) you can test most functions of your gauges with out a running engine,let Google be your helper in this case.
If not a DIY guy send them out for repair as the set you have are rather valuable,good luck ,cheers

[Duc Hunter]

Just be wary, good friend tried to help me fix my speedo's odd gear (usually most of the dust in a speedo is the odd gear bits). He has done many of them without an issue, and the needles shaft broke on mine trying to get it off. He had a needle puller too. Thats a $400 bill to get fixed.

Been talking to a few speedo shops about re doing an entire set for me. Stock refurb seems to be $1,200-$1,500 and if you want a color change (say green lettering instead of white) that adds about $700 to the job. That said they come back factory fresh.

[Lyndon302]

Looks like November 67

[tdw28210]

Originally Posted by Lyndon302

Looks like November 67

Yep, right there in the lower corner. Seems about right for an early production date '68.

If you just want a refurb and not heavy customization you can try Nichols Speedometer in Greensboro, NC - a longtime VDO shop. This place, along with Hartmut at N. Hollywood Speedo were apparently the only official VDO repair places back in the day. Charlie Nichols has been there since the 70's. He told me a story about how he went into the old VDO factory in Winchester, VA and picked up boxes and boxes of parts when they were closing it down. My repair and resto with them was pretty quick and reasonably priced. Good luck.

Nichols Speedometer & Instruments - Speedometers, Tachographs, Service and Repair North Carolina

[gamin]

+1 for Nichols Speedo. They did all the instruments from my 70 after a fire. Did a great job and
it didn't take a lot of time. Don't have to send them to Cali and wait for months.

[Lyndon302]

I'm in Australia. I have removed them and just given them a good clean. The next owner can a full resto if they wish. I may remove the glass at a later stage and clean.
Lyndon