New Life for Old Gauges

Do you have a problem with the 60-year-old gauges in your classic muscle car? After over a half-century of faithful service, they may have finally bitten the dust. But it might be that new high-output alternator you installed is just too much for the old ammeter. Or that old factory tachometer that worked with a stock points ignition can’t cut it with an electronic ignition system, especially if driven by a CD or multispark ignition box that always needs a full 12 volts. Then there’s that late-model transmission that has no provisions for hooking up a cable-driven speedometer.

All too often legacy factory instrumentation just doesn’t play well with modern upgrades. Replacing them with aftermarket instrumentation is one possible solution, but some hot rodders want to preserve the classic dash appearance in these increasingly rare and expensive cars. If you’re one of those people, it’s possible to give old factory gauges a new life: Keep their original stock faces, but replace the internals that drive them with modern, solid-state parts and stepper motors that offer broad compatibility with late-model modifications with greater reliability and accuracy.

Redline Gauge Works is one shop that specializes in gauge upgrades and conversions. Owner Shannon Hudson started working in the instrument-repair business at North Hollywood Speedometer back in 1988 when he was just 18 years old; so yeah, he knows just about everything there