racing and safety AlpinA Gr.2 - Instrument Restoration

[markmac]

After a couple of months, finally have all the parts and pieces back from various vendors - Palo Alto Speedometer completely restored (both cosmetically and mechanical) all of the instruments including the Smiths 10k chronometric tacho, I bead blasted the sheet metal surround/housing and re-coated with wrinkle black (as it was before) and then had other bits re-plated.  AlpinA put quite a bit of work into the housing - quite a bit more to it than sheet metal slapped together - no surprise really.  Three thumbs up for Hartmut at Palo Alto Speedo, again so lucky to have a high quality vendor like this within 20 minutes of my house.  All of these gauges are ultra rare and unobtainable now.  The chronometric tacho is essentially like a watch with gears and what not inside and the movement of the tacho is like that of a watch moving in precise increments and has a "tell tale" needle that follows it up.  I took 20 or pics of the wiring dis-assembly - thank god I did - no doubt it would have gone back together wrong.

 

Linkt to Chronometric Tacho YouTube

 

 

Edited May 22, 2016 by markmac

[JsnPpp]

Gorgeous!

 

Are the green dials purposefully the same color - to be able to find specifically at quick glance during a race?

 

Cheers,

 

Jason

[markmac]

Jason, the green (chartreuse) are from left to right - coolant temp, oil temp, oil pressure - the most important instruments in a race car.  Because of the rear mounted radiator early on, this car had constant problems with overheating / coolant temp.  Makes it real easy for the driver to "see" or pay attention to those instruments.  The other gauges (black bezels) are for fuel pressure and differential oil temp. At one point their was an Ammeter in there but at some point that one was lost - now there is a blank off plate with BmW Roundel.  One thing that I learned during re-assembly, lots of really (really) small screws and washers and nuts - drop one and its a goner.  I put everything back together at a desk inside (my house) working over some bubble wrap (with the small bubbles).  The twenty or so times I dropped a washer or screw and had to shake it out of the back - the bubble wrap catches the item and doesn't let it roll-off (into the nowhere land of the garage floor, wood floor, carpet etc.,).  Glad to be done with this sub-project.

 

http://www.alpinabmw2002.com

 

 

[Mike Self]

Why doncha replace that missing ammeter with a voltmeter?  Find an old Rabbit GTI or Sirocco; they have the same gauges that are shown in your pictures so will match nicely...

 

mike

[markmac]

Mike, GREAT call as usual.  I had to check out the net, there are a couple on Ebay.  Close, not exactly the same but the body/guts are all there.  Get rid of the little oil can on the face and the red line in front of the 150 mark and they look identical.  I have a friend restoring a CSL for Monterey this summer and has been dying to find any of these.  This could help solve a couple of problems with the gauges he is looking for.  Great call.  Palo Alto Speedo can re-finish the faces to whatever

 

http://www.alpinabmw2002.com