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Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:56 pm

I'm restoring a '55 barndoor bus speedo and was wondering what the rear case color was. Black? Grey? Zinc Plate?

Looked in the gallery, couldn't see much. The speedo I am restoring looks like this one, except it is MPH:

TIA

Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:06 pm

John,
There is an NOS late Barndoor speedo in the classifieds you could look at for a sample.

Dave

Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:30 pm

Thanks for the reply, I found it:

Mine is very similar, but it has a brown painted bezel, red shift marks, and is dated "1.55" (I am pretty sure of the month, but the month digit is real hard to see). It has the same needle but the face is "greener" than the brown in the one above.

I am a Beetle guy and don't know much about buses, but in Beetles the standards got brown painted bezels, while deluxes got chrome ones. Such a thing with buses? Was there a "standard" bus in '55? Is the one in the classifieds for a deluxe bus??

Thanks

Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:36 pm

john,
Yes it is the same for buses as beetles the Deluxe got the chrome ring other than that the speedo is the same.

Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:00 pm

John,

The "NOS" speedo without the shift lines looks much different than I have ever seen. The case is much brighter, the radial lines on the face look much thicker, the 5mph hash marks looks thicker and it is missing the red shift lines as you have noted. I have not seen a 0-60 without the shift lines. Here is my original from my '54:

I have owned (and sold) more than 50 NOS BD speedos gathered from different sources with a wide range of date codes and they have all had the shift lines and they all have had a green hue to them. The needle color match. I may have a few nice faces laying around. Let me know if you need one.

Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:06 pm

Anchovy wrote: John,

The "NOS" speedo without the shift lines looks much different than I have ever seen. The case is much brighter, the radial lines on the face look much thicker, the 5mph hash marks looks thicker and it is missing the red shift lines as you have noted. I have not seen a 0-60 without the shift lines. Here is my original from my '54:

I have owned (and sold) more than 50 NOS BD speedos gathered from different sources with a wide range of date codes and they have all had the shift lines and they all have had a green hue to them. The needle color match. I may have a few nice faces laying around. Let me know if you need one.

Yep, that is the one I am restoring now. Do you know what years they were used? I have a '56 one with a slightly bigger face, 70mph (I think) and clear needle.

The face on the one I have is pretty good. I do need a nice glass for it though. If you have one with no pits or scratches you'd like to sell, PM me. I was planning on getting a circle cutter and making my own....

Thanks

Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:08 pm

My KM speedo dose'nt have shift marks. Did they all have them?

Dave

Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:14 pm

John,

The glass I have is not the best...you probably should make your own.

Dave,

Post up a photo of your KM without the shift lines. All the owners manuals I have in German show the shift lines on the KM speedos.

Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:21 pm

John,

Check Tonny's site for the year changes. Notice that all the speedos he shows, all KM version have shift lines.

http://www.barndoor.dk/detaljer16.htm

Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:26 pm

I thought it was strange that it had no shift marks also. It was an NOS KM speedo, thought that might of had somthing to do with it. I will try to get a pic later.

Dave

Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:43 pm

This is the speedo I have

Sun Jan 20, 2008 9:36 am

splitvws wrote:

This is the speedo I have

Interesting, did you buy it from the same guy that is selling the other non-shift mark speedo?

Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:19 am

This speedo was purchased in the late 90's I think, it was in there when I got the bus but was never hooked up.

Dave

Sun Jan 20, 2008 7:38 pm

The brown bezels are for Commercials, for instance my Truck has a brown bezel. Maybe Standards too? I would guess yes as Barndoor and later 50s Standard typically used the Commercial colors for things, like black knobs.