Glass for gauges

[Oakley]

I'm going to look at a Ford 1900 tomorrow and the owner said the gauges work, but are missing the glass. Can it be replaced without having to replace the gauges?

 

[aczlan]

Probably not easily. You will need to replace the whole gauge unless you can figure out how to take off the benzle and cut a round piece of glass.

Aaron Z

 

[Agvg]

There are shops that works on instruments for cars and tractors, speedometer shops can probably fix it.

 

[aczlan]

Taking a look at this thread ( New gauges for the 1900 ) it appears as if they are just standard gauges and you will probably be time and money ahead just replacing them. A shop might be able to replace the lens, but the price will probably be double what replacement gauges would be.

Aaron Z

 

[Oakley]

Than you, both!

 

[FrankTailor]

There is a plastic film that can be removed I believe on both inside and outside faces, but I could not clean the film off. The price for new lenses are so cheap why go through the effort of trying to clean them. I purchased a new fuel gauge lens from Pelican and the diameter was smaller than the original. I almost sent it back but I made it work. It was just barely big enough to fit behind the lens frame, any smaller and the edge would be showing. I'm not sure why the diameter was cut so much smaller than the original. Like someone else mentioned...You can get this glass cut yourself locally. Take the lens out, take it to a glass shop and they will make a replacement. The pelican lens is just a cut piece of glass, nothing special that can't be replicated, in fact, it is thinner than the original plastic lens.
______________________
company

 

[Industrial Toys]

IF you could take the gauge apart and the original gauge is of value, you might be able to buy a cheap chinesium gauge and rob the glass.

 

[i7win7]

Long, long time ago flashlights had glass lenses. Popular Mechanics ran a shop tip. I assume it was single strength glass. They used magic marker, drew circle on glass. Then using rubber gloves, scissors and bucket of water, they cut it out under water. Water reduced shock waves or something?? Never tried it myself, guess it made an impression on me.

 

[Ford850]

Long, long time ago flashlights had glass lenses. Popular Mechanics ran a shop tip. I assume it was single strength glass. They used magic marker, drew circle on glass. Then using rubber gloves, scissors and bucket of water, they cut it out under water. Water reduced shock waves or something?? Never tried it myself, guess it made an impression on me.

I was thinking of flashlight glass lenses too. Hardware stores used to have a box of lenses on display of various sizes.