Practically Classics Forum

I purchased a Herald 13 60 a couple of weeks ago and whilst I`ve started to strip it down, it needs loads of work Bulkhead floors chassis etc, the thing is pretty much as it arrived. Anyway whilst prodding around finding rot, rot and more rot as well as a couple of interesting bodges, I started thinking... When I put it back together it would be nice to know a bit more about whats going on under the bonnet as I drive along. Well the dash is essentially a plank of wood and will need refinishing anyway so I could modify it a little...

So Speedo needs to stay for some strange reason and a rev guage instread of the combined fuel temp guage would be nice. Fuel and Temperature guages would need to be fitted and some warning Lights likewise but what else?

Oil Pressure?
Amps?
Volts?

What would you fit?

I made a "custom" dash for my old Maxi and had Oil Pressure, Voltmeter, Clock and a Vacuum gauge in the dash and a Rev Counter in a pod below and to the right of the steering wheel. The Fuel and Temp gauges stayed in the original position - mainly because of the PCB that was behind the original dash.

I wouldn't bother with an ammeter, though I had one on my Wolseley Hornet (for which I bought the gauges!). Apart from having a thick wire coming into the dash - with the increased risk of shorts etc behind the dash, I reckoned it didn't really say enough to justify using it (and the Maxi had an alternator instead of the Wolseley's dynamo so I'd have needed a 30-0-30 amp meter).

The vacuum gauge was quite handy for fault finding and, if you used it wisely, it was supposed to help you drive economically. There again, I think it was at the bottom of the gauge most of the time when I had the Wolseley!

The advantage of the custom dash was that I was able to move switches to more convenient positions (for me), so the HRW (a stick-on one), fog and driving lights etc were all nicely included in the dash rather than hanging below it.

I would go for oil pressure and voltmeter, you don't really need an ammeter and a voltmeter and the voltmeter is more informative and easier to fit.

Boost guage (plus the associated turbo would be great).

I would get separate oil pressure and water temp gauge, I had the Smiths combined one on my mini and regretted it - two gauges look better than one!

With older cars sometimes less is more- an ucluttered dash looks so much better than one with instruments everywhere.

Having said that I do have a couple of extras, in a radio panel rather than the dash. I have an oil pressure gauge and a vacuum gauge, but both are in period and came from bootsales, anything modern such as you get from ripspeed or wherever would look awful. The oil pressure gauge is a useful early warning tool, the vacuum gauge is a novelty, nice for passengers to look at but of little practical use when driving.

I wouldn't bother with a rev counter, they're not essential, but seem to be standard fitment these days, even the wifes modern diesel has one, totally unnessesary. The only really essential ones you should have are a speedo and a water temp gauge. French cars didn't have these for years and the only warning you got of a boil up was a red light coming on rapidly followed by the engine seizing.....I had one in a pod on my BX, looked dreadful but was essential!