All the gauges I have, have a wear mark behind the empty side of the gauge, so I assume this is normal for the age of the gauges? All my gauges are for 1941 and 42 cars. You can purchase new gauge faces from Chevys of the 40"s, for $19.00 for the 1947 set. They have black faces with white letters.
I finally found out what I did wrong when testing the gauges. I was assuming you put the hot wire on the drivers side back terminal and the ground on the passenger side terminal or sending unit terminal?
The ground was suppose to be connected to the metal 4 inch backer plate the gauge is mounted on. This causes the gauge to register as full or to move to its farthest right position. I found the information on a 2006 posting by George33Eagle. Thank goodness for our index of posts.
So now I know how to see if a gauge can register full or empty. Installing a sending unit and wiring it to the gauge should allow the gauge to tell you the amount of gas in the tank? I see no reason that my gauges would not accurately tell the volume of gas in a tank. Perhaps someone can point out why I actually would need to hook up my gauges to a sending unit to make further tests to verify their accuracy? I have no electronic background so maybe I have oversimplified the proper testing needed to assure the accuracy of my gauges. If you are still interested in purchasing one of these gauges please send me a PM. Thanks, Mike