Who restored your gauges? Are you happy with the results?

[hemi71]

 

That does look good!

Nice job.

[cdecristo]

I chose Auto Instruments. good Turn Around about 3 weeks. Gauges re-screened, Clock Quartz conversion , Ampmeter Rebuilt after I fried it, Needles painted, lens polished

$594.00. I was very pleased, but , this is a pricey thing to do to your car .

[miketyler]

Those do look good - looks like Greg Garner is selling repro light tubes now so is nice to know there is a source besides Ebay if you are missing one

[chevyconvert]

after reading the thread regarding whether or not the amp meter is a hazard (still  )...Is changing the amp meter out for a voltage gauge part of what you have done when you restore the gauge cluster?

[MEK-Dangerfield]

after reading the thread regarding whether or not the amp meter is a hazard (still  )...Is changing the amp meter out for a voltage gauge part of what you have done when you restore the gauge cluster?

Yeah that was some thread, wasn't it?  It looks like just Redline converts your amp gauge, to a volt gauge. It also looks like you have to send your gauges to them too. I just saw the story in Mopar Collectors guide yesterday. I was hoping this could be something that they could send you, but I guess not since the face of the gauge would need to be changed slightly.

  Mike

[dwbiggs]

Sent mine to Auto Instruments...had to call them twice to get them working on my gauges and they are way past advertised turnaround time.  Hope they do good work.

Dan

[AllGreen70RT]

Thanks everyone for the responses.  I went with Auto Instruments. I sent my cluster in a little over two weeks ago. I called them a couple of times to check the status. They finally benchtested it yesterday and said it will be 1 - 1 1/2 weeks before its done. I don't think thats to bad for this time of year. Assuming they stick to that timeframe. My only complaint so far is they stated after the so called benchtest, that all of my small gauges didn't work. I knew the oil pressure didn't work, but the other gauges were working when I took them out of the car. They went back and benchtested again.  Guess what, only the oil pressure gauge didn't work. It makes me wonder, what their initial benchtest consisted of. If I didn't question it, at $85 per gauge it would have been another $255 for gauges that worked. From what I am hearing everyone who has dealt with Auto Instruments has been very happy, so hopefully this was just an honest mistake. I will post pictures when I get the cluster back.

[4Cruizn]

Definitely keep us informed!!   

[dwbiggs]

Don't expect them back in 1-1 1/2 weeks...as I said they have had mine for going on 6 weeks and all I had was speedo, clock, and tach repair...no refacing.  You may get lucky though.

Dan

[AllGreen70RT]

Got my instrument cluster back from Auto Instruments today. After 5 1/2 weeks and $750 it looks great and hopefully functions as well as it looks. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

[4Cruizn]

Sweet!!  Was wondering how that worked out?!! 

[dwbiggs]

Well after about 10 weeks of having my speedo, tach, clock, and lense I finally got back my stuff.  I have tried anything functionally yet but I can say I was fairly dissappointed in the work they did on my speedo.  I had a broken needle that they said they would repair.  They did repair but the it looks like s&*t.  The repair itself looks OK but the repainting looks like it was done by a preschooler.  The round section at center of needle looks like it was done with a Sharpie and is glossy instead of the correct flat finish and rough looking like it was done with a paint brush.  The needle was painted flourescent orange but is uneven in color like they just painted the area where the break was repaired.  Very amateur looking job and couldn't have done better myself.

On a good note...the lens polishing looks good and hopefully the gauges work well mechanically.

Dan

[Rev-It-Up]

I'm really shocked you got shoddy work from Auto Instruments!  Ours came out absolutely beautiful.  I'd send them back.  That's a lot of money to spend on something that's not right.

[dwbiggs]

Its weird because I called them about 4 weeks after having gauges and they said all was done except for polishing lens...got the same story about 2 weeks later.  This week I called them and they said thatt he speedo would not magnetize, whatever that is, and they were having trouble with it.  I then get everything back two days later.  I wonder if they just rushed to get it out and just did a rush job on the needle.

I am tired of waiting and just want to drive my car this Summer. I am going to try to repaint the bad areas and hope the mechanicals are working.

Dan

[AllGreen70RT]

I finished hooking up the instrument cluster last night and took the Challenger out for a short ride. Except for the ampmeter everything works fine. The ampmeter needle doesn't seem to move. It was working prior to sending the cluster in. I'll take a look at it tonight. Hopefully its something simple. Any suggestions on what to check?

dwbiggs
It took 5 1/2 weeks total on my cluster. They repaired the speedo needle (looks great), oil pressure and clock. Refaced everything, polished lense, recalibrated tach. Ours were both there at the same time, I'd ask them why yours took twice as long. Whats the deal in the difference of repair quality?