1922 fuel guage face plate

[Mark Kikta]

I checked out my gas tank and gas guage yesterday.  Gas tank looks like new underneath and looks very clean inside with the exception of some flaking paint.  No sludge at all.  The gas guage works great too but the face plate is very difficult to read.  Anyone have a picture of what the 21/22 guage faceplate is supposed to look like?

 

Thanks,

Mark Kikta

[Terry Wiegand]

My 1922 Model 48 has a dash mounted fuel gauge.  It is operated by a piece of piano wire that runs in a wound (armored?) cable sheath that connects to the gauge head on the dash and the float bracket on top of the tank.

 

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

[Mark Kikta]

My 22-45 has a guage on the tank operated by a cork and rotating gears

[Terry Wiegand]

Mark,

 

This is the difference between an open bodied car and a closed body model.  Your tank gauge should be a little bit easier to get into operation.

 

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

[Hubert_25-25]

The diameter of the gauge is larger for a Master and the pointer has a double arrow compared to a Standard.  Not entirely sure what was used in 1922.  Post pictures of what you have.  These were pretty basic.  They will be hard to find.  

 

  

 

 

[dibarlaw]

Your gage, part # 35345 will be the same for year/models D-E-H-K  6 cyl. 1921-1922 Models 44-45-49 -X44-45-49

 I know terry Has some very good photos of his restored gage, for his 1916 D-45 and 1920 K Coupe.

[Mark Kikta]

Here are some pictures of the fuel gage from my 22-45.  The gage works smooth and the cork still looks great. Wish the gage face was in better shape.

[Hubert_25-25]

Myers Early Dodge has some parts and similar looking gauges.  

 

http://myersearlydodge.com/fuel.php

[dibarlaw]

Again Terry had his gage professionally restored and they did a fabulous job. He has photos. I can't find where I stored them. 

[Terry Wiegand]

Mark,

The fuel gauge in my 1920 was actually in worse condition than yours.  I simply started over and made the whole thing from scratch.  I made three of the brackets that holds everything together.  I have these two extra ones left.  I bought a set of small miter gears from a local industrial parts supply.  I believe that they were Boston Gear parts.  This has been a few years ago and I do not remember the part number on them.  What I do remember is that for a very small set of gears they were pushing $50.00.  Here is a photo of what I started with.  The original stamped piece was really pretty flimsy to my way of thinking.  I will get into my photo files and see if I still have photos of the finished gauge.  I thought it came out really well.  It is definitely a little heavier than what was originally used plus it works well too.  Nostalgic Reflections did the artwork on the dial for me.  That was the only thing that I did not do.

 

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

Edited December 5, 2018 by Terry Wiegand
ADDED MATERIAL (see edit history)

[Mark Kikta]

Terry,

 

My gage actually works like its brand new, very easy and smooth.  It looks like the dial would press off and the face will come off by bending two little tabs. The cork gaskets are easy but remaking the face might be a good bit more difficult.  If I can find the right face then I can have one made.

[Mark Kikta]

You are right, Meyers Early Dodge does have nice gage dial faces

[Terry Wiegand]

Mark,

Here is a photo of the fuel gauge that Jerry Turner at Nostalgic Reflections did for my 1920.

 

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

[Mark Kikta]

Thanks Terry, very nice looking

Edited December 17, 2018 by Mark Kikta (see edit history)

[Mark Kikta]

Here is my attempt at making a new fuel gage face plate.  It's certainly not perfect but it will do. I cut a piece of sheet aluminum, cleaned it well and applied decal paper.  I designed the new face with Paint 3-D on my computer and printed out the design  I then glued the design onto the decal paper and cut out the areas to be etched using an exacto knife and magnifying glasses. I then immersed it in a salt water bath to etch.  I used kosher salt and distilled water along with 4 D-cells to make the etching process work.  After 20 minutes I removed the piece of aluminum and it was etched well. 

 

Now I hope to paint the etched areas white and the rest black so it will show up easily with a white needle. 

[dibarlaw]

Mark:

I have yet to find a "FUEL PROOF " paint that did not lift on my gages. On my Master I used what was touted to be fuel proof and went over the entire gage with several coats fuel proof clear. After a year most of the finish lifted.

The silver backround I did on the aluminum face Standard gage has also began to lift.

I coated it with Superglue.

 

[Mark Kikta]

Larry,  Did you try Auto paint?

[Hubert_25-25]

Mark, 

   My gauge has been in the gas tank with fuel almost 2 years.   This was powder coated silver, then the powder coaters wife cut out the black vinyl pieces on her laser printer.  Then he used clear powder coat and put it in the oven for a second time.  This is such a small piece, most powder coaters  will do this almost for free.  It is really hard to find stuff that holds up to gasoline.  Maybe you can just have them clear it and cure it.

 Hugh

[dibarlaw]

To answer Mark I did use a fuel rated automotive paint. I did not want to send my units out to Hugh's Powder coater for fear of them being lost. My local Powder coater did not offer anything comperable to what Hugh had done.

[Crazyfamily]

I finally got around to stopping to visit the car for a few, popped the fuel gauge in and while it’s not in for good it doesn’t look bad!

 

The etching I did came out good, I’m happy w it!  I used KBS Coatings inside the markings/letters after I etched in the new markings so it should stay this way long past my time on Earth!  I hope....

 

 

[michealbernal]

That's a great looking face plate on your Gauge.  Thanks for shearing.

[Crazyfamily]

The before and after shows the improvement for sure!

 

[Crazyfamily]

35 minutes ago, michealbernal said:

That's a great looking face plate on your Gauge.  Thanks for shearing.

Thank you Michael!  It’s the same gauge face in both pictures above, just cleaned it up really well and when I did it removed the lettering so I decided I’d do some DIY etching and I’m quite happy w the results, not perfect but the difference between before and after is staggering!

 

 

[Mark Kikta]

Today I tried my hand at Powder Coating my fuel Gauge face plate with my Harbor Freight powder coating system.  I was very happy with how it turned out.  I powder coated  the black first and baked it at 400 Deg for 25 minutes .   I then used a dry paint brush to fill the etched recesses with white Powder coating powder and baked it again. 

 

After completing and mounting the face to the fuel gauge, I cut the old cork float off and installed a new float as you can see below. 

[Mark Kikta]

Here is my finished product.  I still have to paint the bezel that screws on but it looks pretty good and works as advertised.

 

Mission complete!