Speedometer plastic lens and colour of casted metal part

[rivowner1]

Hi, I am trying to restore the speedometer / instrument cluster in dash panel. The painted areas on the cluster are all white both on the face towards you and under the hood over mph scale. I bought a used an extra cluster and that was painted in some brown under the hood and white towards you. Shall it be two colours ?

As I have to have km/h and not mph I can not use an extra plastic lens that is looking good though they are engraved in relief in mph and the frame is plasted together with the plastic front with mph numbers. Is there any separate chromed frames (arch-type) without mph plastic to buy ?

Best regards Jan
Ford Fairlane 500 63A
Serial no D7LV-140997
Production code 13B-3032
Colour JE but now red and black

[RICH MUISE]

My first thought was to say you're probably out of luck with that one, but on second thought I'm guessing all the fords that were built for Canada, probably had the Km/h, so they may not be that hard to find...just need to search for a Meteor..maybe some of our Canadian friends could help.
An alternate idea would be to restore it as original with the mph, but actually use an aftermarket speedometer attached to the column or dash as you would a tachometer.
Rich

[Alex L.]

My 57 is Canadian built and has Mph on the speedo, so a metric one may be pretty hard to find.

[canadian_ranchero]

ford of canada parts list did list km speedo for export.i have never seen a km 57 speedo.canada did not go to km speedo till the mid 70's

[rivowner1]

My wife came with a good idea. The mph markings is just above the small window where you can see the speedo-needle. I can have small fine number attached to this area and keep the original mph over them. My inspectors from the authories demands km/h markings. The other question of what colouring of different parts of the speedo housing into the coupe has is still of interest. I have a 72 boattail also since many years, thats why my name is Rivowner1. Have a nice weekend / Rivowner1

[Alex L.]

you could custom make one.

you could just cut out a piece of plastic to the same dimensions as the original part, then paint or print a new scale on it using the mph marks to determine where the Kmh marks should be.

[canadian_ranchero]

the speedo in my ranchero has been calibrated to to read in kms.50km shows about 50 on the speedo,100km reads about 100 on the speedo.not real accurate,but close.something to think about that may fix your problem

[rivowner1]

On my Riviera I have a special gearbox between th TH400 and speedo cable. That makes it km/h with the original mph markings. But...the small gearbox was very expensive

[rivowner1]

If you look at the picture you will see what my question on colour is. The speedo houses is different from each other despite that one has the sheet metal insert in and the other has not. Which one is the original colour set up, two tone or one tone ? /Jan

[57chero]

Anybody feel free to correct me if I am wrong, Im pretty sure the sedan body- ranchero -and wagons were all one color and the fairlane 500 body styles had the two tone dash.

[Alex L.]

my 500 has the two tone dash.

[RICH MUISE]

and my custom 70A had the single color, so 'chero may be correct.
Rich

[wildhog]

Just a question, has any one ever seen a km speedo for a 57 ford? I have had a export 55 and a export 56 km ford speedo's in the past, but have never seen a 57-58. Also I have heard of people finding 57 Fords that were old police cars, so has any one ever seen a police certified 57 speedo. I have seen a 1954 certified speedo. Tom

[Meteorman]

Canadian  cars of that era werent  produced with km/ . You say the authorities want it to be in km/, i take it you imported it from the U.S. usually you just have to put a sticker on to show your speed, put one on, please the man and take it off.

[hrsky]

12 years ago I sold my 57 Country Sedan and it had the km speedometer. If I remember right, it went to 220km/h. This was an export model.  HR