VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 27 Chevy Speedometer

Hello Everyone,

I am a new member of this page and have viewed it for a very long time. My name is Dan Voelkel and I am the proud owner of an early(May 27 casting dates) 27 Chevy 1-ton with the increased horsepower engine.

I am currently restoring the truck from the ground up and began working on the speedometer last night. After a few adjustments and a bit of cleaning it is now working fine. However, I need new digits for the ribbon and two drums.

If anyone can steer me in the correct direction for speedometer parts I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Dan

Dan
welcome, I have 2 27's. got a rebuilt speedo from http://www.20schevyparts.com/ Gary. he would know about parts also. This place is the best.
Ken

The Filling Station www.fillingstation.com has decals for speedometers.

The Filling Station doesn't list decals for the 1927 speedometer.

I have not checked but the wheels in the '27 and '31 speedometers look the same size. If that is the case then many of the decals in the '31 set will work on a '27. May not be all but some are better than none.

Thanks Everyone,

Gary Wallace lives 10 minutes from my house and I have to deliver my cam to him in order to receive a regrind anyway. I will pick his brain when I meet with him.

Dan

According to the Filling Station, their 1929-32 speedometer decals will also fit the 1928 speedometer.

Dan
lucky you, 10 min from early chevy!
Ken

I believe the 1927 and 1926 speedos are the same. Last year I redid my 1926 speedo. I made the decals myself using a drawing program and waterslide decal paper in my inkjet printer. I wrote an article in our club newsletter, The Running Board, in which I described the process. Back copies of the RB can be accessed at http://clubs.hemmings.com/eacc/running.html. It is in the April 2013 edition. I have the picture files and I'd be willing to e-mail them to anyone who needs them. You would have to buy your own decal paper and print the decals yourself. You can get waterslide decal paper on ebay and you can get it for either inkjet or laser printers.

Btw, if you are on the Edmonton Antique Car Club RB site, there is a lot of good reading there. There are quite a few articles that I have written on various aspects of my 1926 Touring restoration. I did every bit of the work myself and wrote an article about just about every topic. Since I am the editor of the newsletter, you can find my contact info inside each edition.

Hi Guys

I can confirm that The filling Stations 29-31 decals will fit a 27 Chev

I reconditioned my own 28 speedos a few years back using the decal kits

See the process http://my28chev.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/2009-speedo-restoration.html

Cheers

Ray

Ray,

Absolutely Beautiful! I love your work and attention to detail. I share the same passion you have for completely self restoring everything as I completely disassembled the speedo on my 1970 Chevy Nova. Unfortunately, I did not document it with pictures to share. However, it works flawlessly and looks great.

Thanks,

Dan

I think you're right as far as the odometer wheels are concerned. However I don't think they'll work for the face. I believe the 27's are black with white lettering whereas the '28's are black lettering on an off-white background. Waterslide decals work great when the background is light and and the surface is flat. Putting a new decal on a black speedo dial is more of a challenge. Printers only print in color and not in white so you have to print the whole dial decal in black. The letters remain clear. If you are using clear decals the dials themselves have to be painted gloss white so that the lettering shows white. Since the speedo face is not flat you will need to make some relief cuts and these will also show as white. On mine I colored those in with a black sharpie and put on a coat of laquer. I could have carefully painted the areas behind where the relief cuts would be with gloss black.
I think we now understand why they don't sell decal sets for pre '28 dials. Too much trouble!
Of course you could take the easy way out and simply paint the dial black and forget about the lettering. Most people wouldn't notice.