Good evening all, I got my hands on a speedminder speedo for my 70 442 but it has the letters and numbers for a column shift car and mine is a dual gate. I originally thought I would simply dissasemble it and swap faces but come to find out that the speedminder needle is semi riveted through the faceplate so that looks like it's not going to happen. So now I would like to remove the lettering with a solvent of some kind. First I tried windex and that did nothing, then I tried mineral spirits and it doesn't seem to be doing anything either. If anyone has had success with another method I'm all ears. I can remember just trying to wash these things and the lettering just wiping off, I can;t believe it's on there so good. The other concern is taking the black off the backing with a strong solvent. Thanks...Tony...

 

I've got a couple of those column shift speedminder speedos in my cars. I tried different black markers to blot out the letters. Not real professional, but if you test different kinds of markers on a small part of the letter, you will find one that will work & look pretty good. Once in the car & with the lens on it, it is hard to detect unless you're looking for it. Hope this helps.

 

That is definitely an option and I appreciate the advice, the multitasking sharpie...

 

Well I tried coloring the script and didn't like the way it came out so I decided to risk dissasembling it and my floorshift version to make one. Most of the dissasembly is straight forward until you get to the speedminder needle which was riveted through the faceplate into the gear for speed adjustment. Actually I think the gear had a long neck that protruded through the faceplate and was somehow rolled over the needle instead of a classic rivet.
At this point it's risk ruining a rare part or reassemble it the way it was, so I risked ruining it and drilled out the center of the rivet and riveted it with an alluminium one where the original was bronze I think. Then drove out the rivet pin and put the whole thing back together again. Well in the end of it all you really can't see the rivet so it doesn't matter and it works and looks great. If I weren't such a stiff I would have taken pics along the way but at the time I was sure it was going to be ruined and so I didn't.

 

Why don't you send it out to someone who repairs these speedometers professionally?

Speedminders are too rare to experiment with.

 

It's done now but if I had known what I was in for I would have sent it out for sure!

 

So who does these repairs/restorations? I have a speedminder for my Cutlass that I was also going to attempt restoration. It needs a new faceplate so I was going to swap my existing one for the one that is stained.

Also, are the speedminder speedos plug and play or do I need to install another wire to the connector on the back of the speedo?

 

Check with these guys:

http://www.bobsspeedometer.com/1/120/index.asp

 

Thx for the link Starfire. Sent them an email inquiry to find out if they work on the speedminder units.