1932 Ford Truck Build

Kevinsrodshop

Kevinsrodshop

Well-Known Member
This is a cab I found in Saskatchewan. It was sitting on its back for a while so its a little thin in back but now have found another rear panel that's in much better shape. I pulled off the drivers door and found the remnants of the old window in the bottom. My question is how was the glass held in the frame on the bottom? Was the frame clamped onto the glass? Its full of dirt and rust but I don't see any obvious fasteners. Also the coruggated strip I found I assume was the original window track on the sides. Was this covered in the fuzzy stuff we use today? Looking forward to learning more from the experienced guys on this site.

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Kevin,
The glass was held in by a cork strip(friction fit) and yes, that is the remnants of glass channel. It can still be had at most glass shops and they will likely have the friction material as well
Good luck,
Mike
 
Yep it came from Pope. He has a knack for finding cool stuff. Doors seem to be pretty scarce. What's the latest on your roadster?
 
Yeah hopefully i can find a door, Dont even get me started on the Roadster lol im still waiting for my friggen Brake pedal assembly from the Friggen Rod Shop....its only been like 6weeks
 
I found an instrument cluster that I want to use in the 32. I've been searching for one of these for awhile. Its out of a 30s Dodge. A little beat up but with some lovin it'll come back. Obviously it'll need some more modern innards but thats not going to be a problem.

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Started getting the instrument panel apart. Its been apart sometime since the odometer was already at zero but judging by the crud and cobwebs in the speedometer its been sitting for a long time.

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The cluster is coming apart more. I accidentally spilled a drop of vinegar on one of the gauge faces. After I wiped it off I found it cleaned it really nicely. I put half the water temp gauge face in vinegar for about 10 minutes and wiped it dry with a kleenex. You can see the difference it made. Left side is dipped in vinegar, right side not. Doesn't touch the original paint or lettering. The other pic is the water and oil after cleaning.

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I've started gathering parts for the modern gauges update to the instrument panel. I went down to Pick N Pull and got an instrument cluster from a early 70s Ford half ton since the speedo went to the same speed as mine and the sweep was the same. However the odometer is lower than in the Dodge one so I can't use it as a straight swap. It'll have to be a hybrid of the two speedometers. However at least it uses a modern speedo cable with the ability to change gears on the tranny end to calibrate the speedo with whatever tire and gear sizes I end up with. The down side is I'll have to try to make the speedo cable installation look nice.

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I took the body of the instrument cluster apart and cleaned it up then a coat of paint. White on the inside and silver on the outside. Tried this new Rustoleum bright coat metallic finish. That by far is the shiniest bright coat in an aerosol can I've ever used.

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Something I didn't realize until i started this project is Ford typically used the same gauge for fuel level, oil pressure, and water temp. By that I mean each gauge will give the same amount of deflection (or sweep) with the same resistance at the sender. A sending unit is nothing more than a variable resistor. The lower the total resistance in a circuit (the gauge plus the sending unit as they are in a series circuit) the more the current will flow. More current flow means more deflection of the needle (more fuel in the tank or higher oil pressure etc). The higher the total resistance the lower the current flow therefore less deflection (no fuel in the tank, or no oil pressure etc) For a much better explanation of all this go to this link:

http://www.mustangandfords.com/techa...ity/index.html

So how can the same gauge be used for all 3 measurements if the sending units are different? Ford sets up their senders so that, for example, half scale deflection of the needle will occur at approx 30 ohms of resistance. That means the fuel tank sender at a half tank will measure 30 ohms, the oil pressure sender at 40 psi will measure 30 ohms and the water temperature sender at 160 degrees F will measure 30 ohms. All 3 are approximately half scale deflection of each applicable gauge. All these values are approximate. The gauge doesn't care what the sender is connected to and is measuring, only that it has to deflect half way if the sender is measuring 30 ohms at that time.

To prove this point I took the 73 cluster and connected the fuel, oil and water gauges to a 30 ohm load. Sure enough all 3 gauges deflected approximately half scale (the slight differences are due to calibration errors).


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So the only real difference between these 3 gauges is the direction of swing depending on if the needle sweeps from the top or the bottom, but electrically all 3 are the same. You could take one of these gauges and have it measure anything you want as long as your sender measures the correct resistance to give you the deflection you want that matches whatever scale you put behind the needle (degrees, psi, level).
 
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Part of the reason I chose this particular instrument cluster as a donor is that each gauge still has 2 posts coming out the back just like the original Dodge cluster.

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Taking the donor cluster apart gives us this:

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The old fuel gauge and the new fuel gauge:
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The other reason I like these gauges is the ability to calibrate the upper and lower limits of the sweep. The serated looking teeth in the lower left and upper right at the end of each arm is accessible through a hole in the back for adjustment later.

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The new gauge using the original backing plate. It just fits!

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Putting the original faceplate on the new gauge:

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The original faceplate was held on with 2 small screws. Since the point where the needle pivots on the new gauge was different than the original some shifting had to be done to make the needle sweep the proper amount across the scale. Once I had it in the right spot a small dab of epoxy on both sides secured the faceplate to the gauge.

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Great tech post, this is good information, maybe it could be stored in a section fo reference later ........... but hey I'll remember what the thread is called ........ yea right, I'm flat out remembering my own name half the time.:D
 
Next checking the sweep and function of the gauge before we start changing the needle. Half scale deflection = 30 ohms, full scale deflection = 10 ohms:

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Next I removed the orange needle:

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Then a small dab of epoxy glued the original needle onto the remaining stub of the orange needle. These 3 pics show the needle at rest (no power), empty (75 ohms) and full (10 ohms).

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The original cluster used some sort of paper insulator to isolate the studs of the gauge from the rear mounting plate. I had to come up with something else to secure the gauge to the rear mounting plate that would isolate the studs electrically. I found Home Depot sells nylon acorn nuts in 10-32 thread. I cut off most of the domed portion of the nut to give me a new nut with a enough of a shoulder on it to keep the studs from touching the mounting plate.

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Reinstalling the gauge in the original cluster. Old parts with new innards.

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Now I'm moving on to doing the exact same thing with the oil pressure and water temperature gauges. After that will be the speedometer.
 
John in Oz said:
Great tech post, this is good information, maybe it could be stored in a section fo reference later ........... but hey I'll remember what the thread is called ........ yea right, I'm flat out remembering my own name half the time.:D
Click to expand...

On another forum I did create a separate thread that had this modification in it only for future reference if anyone else was looking for it. I thought of doing that here but decided against it for now.
 
This is good stuff. The pics, the explanations, the choice of parts etc, all good stuff. Thanks for the tech tips. Keep them coming.
 
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