Surveillance Functions Part Two (Post # 121)

Condition of the instruments in 1970.

Joey Lobo, owner of Mo-Ma Manufacturing.  This guy
really knows his business!  

Continued from Part One

After the Veglia tach cable broke I took it down to Albuquerque to Mo-Ma Manufacturing (http://www.momamanufacturing.com/) to see if the cable could be repaired or replaced. Joey Lobo, the owner, swiftly repaired it while I waited and as he handed it back asked "Why do think it broke? You know these cables are pretty tough!" I just assumed it wore out, but he suggested that I try turning the shaft on the back of the tach that the cable attaches to. If it won't turn, maybe the gauge locked up, causing the cable to part. Sure enough, that turned out to be the problem, necessitating another visit to Mo-Ma to have the tach's internals repaired. 

The unrestored speedometer and tach: rusty chrome, cloudy faces, peeling painted surfaces!

The speedometer after restoration by North Hollywood
Speedometer in 2002. The restorer took liberties with The
Alfatross' instruments--inside and out-- that cost a lot of 
time and money to correct.  Thankfully, guys like Joey 
Lobo know how to make it right!

The speedometer/odometer after re-restoration at Mo-Ma 
Manufacturing. Note the 5 white dots inside the number 
ring.

Joey fixed the tach in short order and when I went to pick it up he asked who restored The Alfatross' gauges back in 2002. It was North Hollywood Speedometer--I still have the invoice. Then he asked if authenticity--correctness--was important to me, because he could not help but notice that the tach's dial face did not look as it would have originally. Using an unrestored set of gauges from another 1900C SSZ at this shop, David Smith's car, he showed me how the original speedometer and tach gauge faces were made up in layers: a one-piece concave bakelite plate painted "Light Driftwood" (a brownish gold) with a step in the center to create a 3D effect. 

For the speedometer, the center is labeled "Km/h". while the black outer ring has "Veglia Alfa Romeo" printed directly to piece. This layer is overlaid by a clear plastic concave lens with the 0-220 white numbers and lines printed on its back side (I still remember seeing the speedometer for the first time 47 years ago, assuming it was in MPH, and thinking "Man, this thing is fast!"). The last layer is the glass lens that covers everything.
Joey pointed out a neat detail on the original speedometer face: five white dots on the gold center circle opposite 60, 90, 120, 160 and 180 KPH. Did they actually mean something or were they just decoration? Joey let me ponder that for a few moments then pointed out that the dots corresponded closely to five velocities in MPH: 35, 55, 75, 100 and 120!

So now The Alfatross' gauges are back and properly restored.  This experience has taught me several important lessons: (1) Don't just assume that someone offering a service like instrument restoration knows what they're doing when it comes to your particular devices. It is well worth spending whatever time and money are required to vet potential choices before consigning your original parts to a vendor. (2) Make a thorough record of the original condition of the parts you consign to a restorer before you send them off--and thoroughly check them for appearance and  function when they come back!

Some examples of the instruments Joey Lobo at Mo-Ma Manufacturing has restored. Many Pebble Beach winners sport instruments restored by Mo-Ma.  All it takes is knowledge of what they looked like originally . . . and a warehouse full of unobtainable parts.  Oh yeah, and then there's the  30+ years of experience.  And the eye of an eagle. And the patience of a saint. And the hand of a neurosurgeon.  And . . . .

Gratuitous beauty shot of the properly restored tachometer.  Joey was not happy with the
quality of the chrome on the surrounding bezels. If he were doing the whole job he would have sent them to the chrome shop he always uses.  Problem is, that would have delayed the restoration by another month, so I decided that was a level of perfection we could sacrifice in order to get The Alfatross back on the road sooner!

Surveillance Functions Part One (Post # 120)

The 6 Veglia gauges as they looked in 1969 when I bought
The Alfatross.

"Surveillance", along with battery charging, signalling, engine starting, service, and lighting, is one of the 6 basic functions of The Alfatross' electrical system. It is a very simple system comprising the gauges and their sending units as well as a few warning lights. Far from being mere decorations, they keep watch over the condition of the engine, battery, and fuel supply. 

If The Alfatross were going to be just a trailer queen shuttling between Concours d'Elegance it wouldn't matter if the gauges didn't actually provide any useful information. All they would have to do is look good. But that was never part of the restoration plan. Every part of The Alfatross has to work.

When I sent The Alfatross' 6 Veglia gauges to North Hollywood Speedometer for restoration in 2003 I really had no idea what to expect. They had them a while, charged me $1,356.28, and sent them back. I thought they looked great and was pleased! They didn't actually get installed and tested until winter 2015, at which point I discovered to my surprise that the oil and water temperature gauges didn't work. Then the mechanical tach cable broke. 

This made me realize there is a lot more to "restoring" gauges than just making the bezels and faces look good. I began to get suspicious. How can gauge restorers make sure the gauges work with the senders in your engine unless you send them the senders, too? No one ever mentioned that although it should have been apparent to me from the beginning. 

The water temperature gauge on Dan
Allen's workbench.  The sender is
immersed in a pan of water heated to 170
degrees.  The gauge is calibrated in Celsius.
Dan Allen.

The large tachometer and speedometer are centrally located above the wheel and surrounded by the smaller oil pressure, oil temperature, water temperature, and fuel level gauges. The mechanical oil pressure gauge worked fine, as did the fuel gauge after fiddling with the sender, but the two temperature gauges were completely dead--no needle movement at all. Apparently, to the guys at North Hollywood the word  "restoration" does not include making sure it works. So what was wrong?  Was it the gauges themselves or the senders or the wiring that connects them?  How do you trouble shoot them?  I knew needle movement on the gauge is based on changing resistance in the circuit between the sender and the gauge and that it can be adjusted, but even if the needle moves, how do you know the reading is accurate?  

I went on line to find out more about gauge problems and how to cure them. Not surprisingly there is a ton of information available on the subject in general, but not so much relating directly to Veglia gauges manufactured in 1954. The article below was helpful, but describes the calibration procedure for instruments having electromagnets that can be adjusted without opening their cases. To access the adjustment screws in The Alfatross' temperature gauges you have to open their cases--something I didn't want to do.  

This article in particular was helpful and deals specifically with gauges on a 1960 Giulietta.
Giuliettaletta Spring 2001.

The next challenge?

After flailing around for several days I contacted Dan Allen to get his advice and ended up sending him the water temperature gauge for an autopsy. Turns out the gauge could be repaired and, once mated to a compatible sender he had in his stash, could be adjusted to read accurately all the way to boiling. I re-installed the water temperature  just in time for the Santa Fe Concorso and it worked perfectly, but the oil temperature gauge was still moribund--and I was about to discover a much bigger problem affecting ALL The Alfatross' instruments, one that would that would teach me the difference between a generalist instrument restorer and a truly expert one--and set me back another month! To be continued in "Surveillance Functions Part Two" . . . .