Alpina gauge question

[RichenFamous]

Good day folks,

Does anyone know what Alpina used to cover the center portion of the silver dollar gauges to make them black? Was it an overlay or paint?

Cheers,

Rich

 

[uai]

I would not put a bet on aything shown in this thread is genuine Alpina. The speedo is e9 btw

Edited April 24, 2023 by uai

[AceAndrew]

The originals are a finely textured satin black paint.  Not an overlay. 

 

I replicated it as closely as possible as shown here, hopefully these'll help show the texture .... 

 

*edit: to state the obvious, I was trying to replicate the black center portion only, not the other details unique to Alpina.

 

 

 

 

[Flunder]

Nice work by Andrew!

Here is one dated 10 68 along with a really good reference pic of an Alpina short bumper 02 dash with black eye susan gauges (from Gert Hack’s book .)

Edited April 25, 2023 by Flunder

[RichenFamous]

6 hours ago, AceAndrew said:

The originals are a finely textured satin black paint.  Not an overlay. 

 

I replicated it as closely as possible as shown here, hopefully these'll help show the texture .... 

 

 

 

 

@AceAndrew For the win! 
Now which paint and was it sprayed or brushed on?

[RichenFamous]

8 hours ago, uai said:

I would not put a bet on aything shown in this thread is genuine Alpina. The speedo is e9 btw

Lifted both of these pics right from this fine forum. First pic was said to be genuine. I’m only after how it was done. 
🍻

[RichenFamous]

1 hour ago, Flunder said:

Nice work by Andrew!

Here is one dated 10 68 along with a really good reference pic of an Alpina short bumper 02 dash with black eye susan gauges (from Gert Hack’s book .)

There’s a book I will seek out. Black eye Susan gauges, perfect!

[NickVyse]

The ti models were black from the factory, so I guess they just used them.

[uai]

1 hour ago, NickVyse said:

The ti models were black from the factory, so I guess they just used them.

no, they weren't. e9 were black from factory.
The dials were made by VDO and the inner part has a certain grain.
The changing of speedos to e.g. 240 etc. was available from schnitzer, gs, koepchen as a trade-in

Edited April 25, 2023 by uai

[NickVyse]

Really? I've got one somewhere. May be it was just the 2002ti and not the 1600ti? A quick google finds this..

 

 

[Flunder]

Yup really, @uai is correct, The 2002ti came with regular silver dollar gauges..

[Mike Self]

21 hours ago, uai said:

The speedo is e9 btw

"Silver Dollar" speedometers in 1600s and  2002s don't have a tenths mile drum in the odometer; that didn't start until the face update with the modell 71 cars with VINs that begin with 2570001.  Check Ace Andrew's pictures of Alpina silver dollar style instruments...

 

That lack of a tenth's drum makes rallying in an unequipped class kinda difficult!

 

mike

[NickVyse]

3 hours ago, Flunder said:

Yup really, @uai is correct, The 2002ti came with regular silver dollar gauges..

 

yeah, sorry all, just my old brain mixing up the memory that 1600 instrument pods are silver and 2002s are black, both with silver dollar instruments. Just off to collect my pension..

[BarrettN]

It may depend on when the gauges were made - or it may be as uai stated, that there are Alpina "tribute" gauges out there. Regardless of the reason, there are variations, and I know of 100% authentic ones that don't match the majority that turn up in a Google image search. FWIW there aren't any good early gauge pictures in the Alpina book by James Taylor. Does anyone have the book "OAL-BB 50 - The ALPINA Book" - I'm curious how much it is devoted to early Alpinas.

Edited April 25, 2023 by BarrettN

[markmac]

Years ago (like 15 or so....) I had an opportunity to buy an Alpina gauge cluster (black silver dollars, 220kph speedo and Alpina tacho).  The Alpina tacho was pretty unique, aside from the logo it had two tell tale needles, one for red line RPM and the other for 'warm up' RPM (basically 3500 max RPM until engine oil reaches 60 degrees Cel.) Pretty cool it had that original sticker still on it).