Hey folks. As you might've read in another post, my Cruisin Wagon's instruments have needed some work. A while back I scored another gauge cluster with a speedo and tach, and boy, am I glad I did. I carefully pulled the original one out of the car -- which still functioned -- to diagnose non-working lamps, and sure 'nuff, despite my cautious and deliberate efforts, it totally disintegrated, leaving little granules of crunchy white polystyrene snow everywhere. It looked like a box of Tide exploded in my front seat.

So I have another one, in far better shape, ready to go but here's the thing: the original odometer reads about 35,741, and the "new" one reads something to the tune of 25,000 miles less. I could pop the original speedo into the new cluster, but I really, REALLY don't want to take the new one apart for fear of damaging it.

I had an electric motor from a small fan laying around (yeah, I'm one of those kinda guys), and I even rigged up a way to use it to "drive" the new speedo to the correct mileage. It spins it at about 82-85 mph, which is perfect. By my calculations, it would be spot on after running continuously for 11 days.

Is this stupid? Should I bother taking such great pains? Do I have a moral obligation to represent the true mileage on the chassis? Or, since this car is basically a restomod work in progress, is there a point where true chassis mileage ceases to matter?

What do ya think, folks?

-- Jordan

i have to agree with dwayne,  a functioning odometer is worth more than a maybe it might work one.  the mileage on older cars really means nothing because it should actually be a common thought that they have rolled at least once after 35 or so years. as dwayne said unless fully documented why bother, and even a super low mileage pinto is still only worth what someone is willing to pay regardless of the readings. 

cheers