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Made a clock from an old speedo
Humbug - 3/11/12 at 02:21 PM

I saw this nice old Cortina speedo on ebay...









...and thought I could make that into a nice retro desk clock with a car theme. £7.40 and a week later it was mine

£4.50 for a quartz clock mechanism and hands:



Use of hacksaw, drill, jigsaw, taps, add in some M5 set screws, washers, an M8 bolt, nyloc and washers, a piece of spare ali sheet, a piece of spare U trim, a glue stick or two, some primer and satin black paint, Mariner Blue touch up paint for the hour and minute hands and voilą, I can now easily tell when it's 30 to 80

I had to get rid of the original mounting bracket, drill through the speedo face for the clock spindle, and glue the mileage dials together then cut them down so they didn't get in the way of the clock mechanism. I used the cut-off back of the original casing to make the base. The back plate is spaced away from the rear of the casing so the hands clear the glass; I could have got a clock with a shorter spindle but I went for the longest one available and in the end didn't need it. Never mind.

Cheers,

Simon






Confused but excited. - 3/11/12 at 02:26 PM

They'll all want one now.


morcus - 3/11/12 at 02:29 PM

That is brilliant.

Would be great if you could set the odometer to say the date.


russbost - 3/11/12 at 02:30 PM

That's really neat, one of my customers did a similar thing with a classic mini speedo, he'd put another engine &box in the car so couldn't use the original speedo, but wanted to keep the look & position as it was, so he mounted an Acewell 70mm speedo in the centre of the Mini one - I think it looks quite cool!


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rachaeljf - 3/11/12 at 02:42 PM

Hell, it's 33 minutes past 70 already, must get back out to the garage and do something.


Fatgadget - 3/11/12 at 03:39 PM

SACRILEDGE!


snapper - 3/11/12 at 03:49 PM

0 to 60 on an old Cortina
You'd need a minute hand

Very cool though, can I have one??


Fatgadget - 3/11/12 at 04:01 PM

quote:
Originally posted by snapper
0 to 60 on an old Cortina
You'd need a minute hand

Very cool though, can I have one??

Obvious the old 'Tina you are on about didnt have the prefix 'Lotus' and the suffix 'Special Equipment'!
Yes I had one and the speedo read 140 MPH


Ninehigh - 3/11/12 at 04:28 PM

quote:
Originally posted by morcus
That is brilliant.

Would be great if you could set the odometer to say the date.


I was just thinking that!


Humbug - 3/11/12 at 04:58 PM

It does do 0-110 in about 50 seconds... tha's how long it takes to get that far round the dial


COREdevelopments - 3/11/12 at 05:56 PM

That's a brilliant bit of work! Looks fantastic!

Rob