AutoMeter Style VW Speedo

[fathing]

As I had to recalibrate my speedometer due to larger tires in front, I decided to change its apperance a bid. Now it fits to the style of my monster tach. What do you think, is it cool or what?

The picture can be seen in the gallery:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/148377.jpg

Greetings to all.

Dominique

[Big Luni]

That's a badass speedo. How hard was it to get it apart?

[fathing]

All you have to do to carefully remove the aluminum ring. You do this with a small flat blade screwdriver. Get underneath the ring where the speedo mount is and pull the blade gently around the speedo. Do this a couple of times until it is loose enough to be pulled away. When you are done with the make over you will push the ring back on an d pry it a little so it won’t fall off. It will not look factory anymore but nobody will ever see it after it is installed in the car. A note about calibration; In order to get the dial off you need to pull off the needle. Careful not breaking the thing. It will come off but not easy. Before you pull it off, pull the needle over the stop pin and take a note where it is located compared to the stop pin, (measure the distance). This will be the location you will have to put it back again during assembly. If you miss this step it will not be accurate again. By turning the thing toward the stop you can compensate for bigger tires and wise versa for smaller tires. Calibration is a whole different thing. You need a little setup for that. If someone needs help calibrating the speedo to a certain wheel diameter I can help.

Dominique

By the way Adler is my Lastname, that’s why it’s an Adler Meter Speedo and not an Auto Meter.

[mattt]

I dont understand what you did here. Did you put a new dial over the stock VW speedo unit? Was the dial cut out for the gas gauge, oil light, G light, and hi beam light? That is sweet if it matches your other gauges. I have AutoMeter gauges also, and would like the speedo to match the others. Please explain how you did that? It looks sweet. Thanks.

[fathing]

Yes thats what I did. I scanned the original dial as a template and drew a new face matching my AutoGage Monster Tach. I printed the new dial on a sticky lable which I applied on the original dial. Then I carefully cut out the gas gauge and so on with a very sharp hobby knife. At last I applied a coat of semi flat laquer. I painted the needle and the needle of the gas gauge in orange to match the tach. After everything was dry I assembled the speedo again. Voila!

[bljones]

Nice work.
_________________
OG JHC
Author of Original Rant #1
"It stingd itself to dead... now that is control on you"

2%

[mattt]

You wrote ""I scanned the original dial as a template and drew a new face matching my AutoGage"

How do you draw a new face? Is it done with a computer program? If so, which? I would love to do the same thing as you. I have Auto Meter gauges also but plan to retain the stock speedo w/ gas gauge.

That is an awesome little add you did with your Thing.

I already know how to get the speedo apart, so that hard part is taken care of. I had to disassemble an old speedo I had to get the odo working.

Thanks in advance for any info you can offer up.

[fathing]

Now it gets a little complicated...
Ok in order to scan the old speedo face you have to take the speedo apart. Remove the dial face and carefully bend the two bottom tabs flat. Pull out the needle stop with pliers, pull and twist it straight out. Do not bend it. At the end you are going to be able to reinsert it again an d fix it with a dab of super glue. All in all not a problem so far. Now you should have a somewhat flat aluminium speedo dial in your hand. Lay it on a flatbed scanner and scan it with 300 dpi into your PC. Next take a good picture of your monstertach ( or scan it as well ) and try to locate a font which matches the one used by autometer or copy the font by hand. Don’t ask autometer to provide you with the font, they don’t give it out.
How do you copy that font? I imported the dials into a program called Macromedia Flash, it doesn’t matter which version since we are only going to use it for drawing purposes. I used Flash MX. I imported the dial pictures into a movie layer of this program and drew over the scans in a layer above. I copied the numbers from 0 – 9 of the monster tach and the autometer logo. I my case I changed it to my last name, now it reads Adler Meter. Next I copied the outlines of the VW Speedo the same way, including the dial. After this is done, you have to take the previously copied Autometer Fonts and place them to the right position on the face. You might have to resize them a little to match the space on the speedo. Now you can colour it to your liking. I exported the finished picture as a high resolution jpg. (300dpi) and opened it in Adobe Photoshop. I like the printing possibilities of Photoshop better. I printed it on a sticky label and applied it carefully to the original dial. Cut the holes with a sharp hobby knife All what is left is a coat of semi-flat lacquer. (spray can). Bend the tabs back up into position and stick the needle stop pin back in its hole. Glue it with a dab of super glue. Good luck and post a picture of the outcome. If you need further assistance with the drawing part, send me the scans and I will see what I can do. If you are not into desktop publishing then it might be a little tricky.

Greetings Dominique
dominique.adler(at)bluewin.ch (substitute the (at) with @)

[ronschopper]

Hey Fathing can you help.. I would like to put 135's or 145's on my Bug. would just like to get it close.. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=64660&highlight=speedometer

[fathing]

Your problem can be solved with a little math.

I assume your drill speed is accurate.

Overall Diameter of a 145SR15 is about 24 inches, overall diameter of a 135SR15 is 23 inches. Lets take the middle and go for 23.5”.
23.5” x 3.14 = 73.8” (this is how far your tire will go per revolution.)

Now with your drill turning 1200 rpm (revolutions per minure) your wheel would go 1200 x 73.8” = 88’560” in 1 Minute. Now we multiply this with 60 to get inches per hour. 88560 x 60 = 5’313’600” per hour.
OK, now we multiply this with 0.0000158 (conversion factor inch to mile) and we get:
5’313’600 x 0.0000158 = 84 MPH.

At 1200rpm your speedo should read 84 MPH if you plan to run 135 or 145SR15 Tires up front. Sorry you have to lift your needle off again and advance it a little and test it again.

Now if you mount 135/SR15 Tires on 5.5” rims (you should not, but it looks cool) then measure the real circumference and do this calculation again. On a 5.5” rim the tire gets (theoretically) smaller in diameter.

Don’t blame me if your needle brakes again… and advance it a little more, it keeps those speeding tickets away.

Greetings Dominique

[ronschopper]

Fathing,
I really appreciate your help.. There is no way in a million years would I have been able to figure that out. Thanks again…

[rfoutch]

I just took Dominique's formula's and created a excel spreadsheet that will do the math for you.

You need only know your tire size (inches in Diameter) and the speed of the drill in RPM.

If you would like a copy, shoot me an email.

Randy