Hi there. New guy with some questions about the instrument cluster.
I have a 77 cruising wagon. Only had it maybe 2 months.
The tachometer hasn't worked since I got it so today I got some motivation to try and pull out the guages and have a look.
Now from the little reading I have done, I am betting a few of you Pinto owners reading already know where this is headed!
By the time I got it out, the white casing of the cluster was coming apart in a way that didn't seem really "normal"? Just holding it with a little too much of a grip would make the plastic start to cave in. By the time I got done messing with it and manuevering it back in, not only did I not get the tach working but lost a turn signal and speedo light from places where the casing broke.
Soooo... does anybody have a spare cluster to sell? Has anybody tried reproducing these?
All the rest of it seems okay but whatever kind of plastic the white casing is made of was not meant to exist this long on planet earth, apparently.
there are no reproduction ones yet there is a member here that was experimenting on reproducing them.but they do differ in a few years. as a replacement you do not want to get one befor 75 as the plug configuration is different. i have not seen one with a tach in it so i am not sure if a non tach one can be made to work.
phil
Sorry to say an EXTREMELY common problem. Even more sorry to say time has NOT allowed me to get these reproe'd, I am buried in my job and other hobbies to raise money for my own restoration. Perhaps someone here will step forward with a donor. As Phil said, there ARE differences!!
Chris
if your instrument cluster has a tach and a speedo it sounds like the rally instrument cluster. do you have separate gauges in the DASH??? The rally cars I have seen had that? this is even rarer that a regular instrument cluster.
jim
Wow, this isn't sounding too hopeful. Finding an instrument cluster in good shape seems difficult enough but I have a fuel, charge and temp cluster separate in the dash so that means I must have the "rally" version? Guess I'm screwed.
I wonder if there's anything I can do to repair what I have. Fiberglass resin?
Or maybe there is a way to adapt another year Pinto cluster to fit my needs.
Well, I am planning to garage the car for the winter of course. Maybe this year's project will be to somehow craft a new gauge cluster.
Dont give up hope yet. :smile:
The std instrument clusters are somewhat easy to find in good shape.
Please post a picture of the back ouf yours, as I am curious to see if a std back could be modified to work. I know a guy who claims to have a bunch of good clusters - I will email him and see what he has...
I am almost hesitant to try and remove it again until I am ready to renovate it, for fear of doing some more damage. They really don't make it easy to get it out and over the steering wheel, unless I am missing some trick.
So far, I've lost tachometer, left turn signal and 2 lights for illumination. I did learn a few things when I took it out as far as how to disconnect stuff and manuever it out of the dash properly so maybe I'll give it a try this weekend.
From what I can see, the main difference is that the standard ones just have a single wiring socket in the middle and the rally has a second socket on the side for the tach and the 3 or so warning lights.
jeff, drop the steering wheel about 2 inches( loosen the front and rear bolts that hold it up.) Should give you perfect clearance.
Wow, thanks for the tip on the steering wheel. I can see this place is going to be valuable in keeping this new vehicle running. I appreciate everyone being willing to share the knowlege.
Let's see if I can get this photo link to work....
(http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs166.snc1/6214_131581530618_743535618_3652848_3916071_n.jpg)
Here's mine.
thats a nice car.
very nice car
when posable lets see the back of the cluster and we can compare them and possibly help with one
phil
by youngest boy says it is a hippy pinto.
Whoa! Sharp Wagon! Is that a made up decal or one of the more graphically aggressive factory decals?
Quote from: dholvrsn on August 12, 2009, 05:58:27 PM
Whoa! Sharp Wagon! Is that a made up decal or one of the more graphically aggressive factory decals?
The decal that was on it looked like this:
(http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs030.snc1/2657_80779830618_743535618_2827972_1350714_n.jpg)
It doesn't show so bad in the photo but the decal was pretty worn and shredding. I used it as a guide and re-did it with paint.
Wish there was a way I could have retained that fade-to-silver effect they had but I couldn't figure out any way to do that with a paint gun.
(http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs174.snc1/6534_121059450618_743535618_3459663_4281832_n.jpg)
Yeah, doing it in your backyard probably isn't the preferred way to do auto paint but I think it came out pretty nice.
(http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs186.snc1/6214_131581520618_743535618_3652846_5588814_n.jpg)
With this color scheme you can't really drive it around if you aren't in the mood for attention!
Very nice crusier, very nice! Hope to have my "barn find" crusier looking that good someday! :lol:
I am >so< inspired by all the great cars/color schemes/mods here. Really, really nice work on those stripes!!
Chris
Jef,
You will NEVER find an instrument cluster for that car.
Might as well get rid of it. Hey - I will buy it off of you.
Deal? ;D ;D
J/K - AWESOME looking CW!!!! Wish i had one... :) :)
Thanks for all the nice feedback on the wagon. I really love this car and am having a fun time fixing it up.
A member on here came up with a '78 cluster for me to buy. It is a little cracked too but not as bad as mine. I'll see if I can figure out a way to repair/strengthen the plastic. Want to replace the lights with LED while I'm at it. The dash lights have always seemed really dim to me, even adjusted to full brightness.
I'm curious if this crumbling plastic is given to certain years, climates etc.. The reason I ask is because my car ('73 wagon) was an S.F Bay area car its whole life (until I got it in 2007). I found my plastic to be in pretty good shape.
I had to cut the white plastic fuel gauge area up quite a bit to get my Turbo Coupe tach / boost gauge to fit. But even with extensive cutting it is still in one piece.
I also got a spare from and early car down here in So. Cal.. Again it was in decent shape. I assume the car was a So. Cal. car all its life and the heat and dry air didn't seem to do much damage.
So, I'm curious to the reason for the failure. Did they change the plastic type? Heat? Cigarette smoke? Stinky farts? :reek:
Tom
I am thinking this is polystyrene and it was just a crappy grade of plastic. Heat & age seems to be its enemies.
If you find a good back cover, carefully clean it well and paint it on both sides with clear POR15 paint. Make two coats per the instructions. I did this to my new back cover and went well. Try to keep it from puddling in grooves, etc.
This really does strengthen it and keeps it together - I experimented with my old cluster cover that was beyond hope.
To brighten the lights more, spray paint the inner side of the back with gloss white (when POR15 is just a little tacky.)
Seems like I have heard that early Pintos the gauge plastic holds up better than mid to late. Like there was something chemically different about the plastic they used.
You know before the Pinto I was fixing up a 77 Dodge van. The plastic of the front blinkers had quite a few hairline cracks in it. While looking for replacements I found that ANY of these lenses I came across had the same thing going on, even if it was still in the original packaging. Age just seems to deteriorate certain kinds of plastic.
As far as "early vs. late" - in '76, the Pinto was released as an "MPG" model due to strict emissions standards and much EPA influence over car makers. Given that the EPA had its hands in the "ingredients" of manufacturing, it makes sense that the chemistry of the plastic was changed to be more environmentally friendly. While perhaps this "improved" manufacturing saved a mere .0001% of all HFC emissions (IF that), it also changed the composition of the plstic in such a way that it no longer had the same longevity.
Of course, cars have NEVER been built to last a long time - all things are manufactured to obsolescence, otherwise companies would go out of business before they released the next model. THis is especially true in today's consumptive society, where nothing is manufactured with real integrity, and is primarily based on cheap Chinese (or other foreign) technology and labor.
Chris
76 and 77 seam to bee the worst for crumbling
Quote from: phils toys on August 15, 2009, 12:31:53 AM
76 and 77 seam to bee the worst for crumbling
I have to say 78 was... ::) My own was the worst i have seen.
I also find the earlier clusters before 74 were better.
Chemical composition means everything about how it lasts.
My 5-gallon plastic buckets I got in the early 90's are breaking apart very easily now. One I had from the late 80s literally broke in half when i picked it up and the bottom half shattered when it hit the ground. They are are all made of #2 HDPE and are kept outside in the heat but out of the sun.
I know different plastics were used in the armrests... the early long ones (usually found on the more "deluxe" Pintos)- the ones with the metal "foot" on them...had a white or cream-colored plastic that didn't age well and their "skeletons" broke within the vinyl molded coverings. Later ones (77-80) had black plastic "skeletons" and the ones I have (I've acquired a few!) are still intact and strong. It's funny (not ha ha funny) that the instrument clusters are the opposite in the brittle department. :-\
I have a '77-8 parts Pinto that I should pull the cluster out and check. See if the cluster is a cluster...... :reek:
At least those '79-80 instrument clusters are so sturdy that you can saw them apart and glue Merkur stuff inside.... http://www.fordpinto.com/index.php/topic,7868.msg68253.html#msg68253 (http://www.fordpinto.com/index.php/topic,7868.msg68253.html#msg68253) ;D