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Rebuilt instruments...Bah!

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smaceng

smaceng

Jedi Knight
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So about a year ago, I had all of my BE instruments restored. Spent $900 and change. They came back beautiful.
So what's the problem? I have since returned the fuel gauge (needle fell off in shipping), the tach (needle would stick on start-up) and now the combination gauge (temp does not register). All covered under warrantee, but it will run out at the end of the month. Did I just pick the wrong person to restore, or is this the typical sorting pains?
Scott in CA
 

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Knowing who it is I am concerned because I was preparing some gauges to send to him. I most likely still will knowing many who have been happy with the work. But on the side of prudence I am waiting to see how Scott's trouble turns out.

No business always produces perfect work and the response to a problem is what distances the excellent from the good.
 
Scott, we have twins. Miss Agatha says hi.
 

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I had mine done by a company in the Southwest (not California) whose name I won't mention here. The tach turned out fine--I had a refurbished electrical one put into a Bugeye housing.

The speedo was problematic. I got it back and it seemed to have been calibrated for kilometers. Who knows, maybe it was made for the European market. But you'da thought they would notice that when they were calibrating it and said something. The owner claimed that I'd given her some cockamamie speedometer turns per mile, but what I told them was to set it up as original.

Got a bill for $300.

Sent it back. Received with a bill for $150 for the installation of a new gear set. It now shows the speed in miles, mileage in miles, but the trip odometer still reads in kilometers--for every mile I drive it shows about 1.6 miles. I did not know this was possible?? I didn't think it was.

I wish I had just bought a new speedo from AH Spares. By now it would have been much cheaper than messing around with the old one. I am just hung up on not throwing things away.

Just to reiterate what someone else said, no business always does perfect work every day. I have heard other people recommend these folks as doing fine work.

So, as the saying goes, your mileage may vary.


Charlie
 
I know on my Jag it's three sets.....speed, odo and trip.
US cars, it's 1000 RPM and 60 MPH, and the trip and odo work exact off that...you swap gears on the end of the cable at the transmission.
 
jlaird said:
Scott, we have twins. Miss Agatha says hi.
Click to expand...

Oh come on, it's not even close! One has round holes in the steering wheel and one has slots.
 
Palo Alto Speedo took good care of me with my fuel guage, fast and reasonable price.
 
Yes Jack we do have twins...
But you have that Tic-Toc thing for the passenger to look at. So not only does the passenger have a grab bar to hold on for dear life, but he/she can call out the seconds ...like you say the mile marker and the passenger then calls the time...like one mile...60 seconds, one mile...61 seconds, one mile...62 seconds, faster than a speeding bullet, well faster than a TC?
Scott in CA
 
bugedd said:
Palo Alto Speedo took good care of me with my fuel guage, fast and reasonable price.
Click to expand...
I had great service from Palo Alto Speedo.
 
You too can have a tick tock thing if you wish.

Get a clock from an MGB, change the chrome suround to a bugeye one. Vola a bugeye clock.

Ahh, MGB clock came from Tony as a gift. Dam.
 
I'll bet every time you look at that clock you think of Tony. I never met him, being on the other side of the states, but it sure seems he made a lot of love.
Scott
 
Tony was one of a kind. We were friends after 5 min and never looked back.
 
Quick Tony story.

Although he and I had talked by phone and by email numerous times I haven't met Tony. I was at the Nashville British Car Club show in Franklin Tennessee two or three years ago. I knew that Tony was there so I had the guy on the PA system page him. The page was for him to come to the entry table because the Williamson County Sheriff was there with an arrest warrant with his name on it. Had a good laugh with him about that. Had a great time getting to know him personally.
 
So I got my combination gauge back from the unnamed vendor, works just fine, thank you. He asked me if it had been sitting, and I said yes, for about 2 months. He said the gears were gummed up and wouldn't more. No cost other than my postage. cheers,
Scott
 
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