[FlynBrian]

I always thought the old speedboat aluminum tach mounts were Cool! Well, so do a lot of other hotrodders and they are pretty pricey when they come up for sale. So I had the filler neck from my 60 Falcon sitting in front of me one day and it dawned on me it had a similar shape to it. I have an aluminum fuel cell in the Falcon, so I decided to fab up my own cool tach mount in honor of the old speedboat mounts. This is what I came up with, the flake paint job on it, cost less than $19.00 in materials it's new ford blue engine enamel from tractor supply$6.99 with a kids glitter kit from Kmart $4.00 and Tractor supply clear enamel $6.99 I sprayed it with the new ford blue, let it dry, then sprayed a light coat of clear and sprinkled blue glitter on, then another coat of clear, then sprinkled on silver glitter, then another coat of clear, and another sprinkling of blue glitter, the stuff Kmart has is pretty big flake, so I kept adding coats of clear until I got it to pop in the sun like I wanted. It matches my blue flake steering wheel great. The tach was a gift from a close friend, it's a Sun Super Tach II brand new in the box he had for 30yrs. So you can take something you normally would throw away, fuel filler neck and make something cool out of it. I am 46y/o and going back to finish my aeronautics degree, so money is tight, most of what I build is stuff that I recycle, when I spend money it's for the stuff that is absolutley necessary that I can't recycle or fab.
Crazy Flaked Tach Mount: The Alien

After last coat of clear, drying in Fla. sun on the roof of my workbench 49 Crosley:

60 Falcon Fuel Filler Neck:

I just cut a hole the diameter of the fuel filler neck into the speaker grille, then slid the tube through from the bottom of the speaker grille and spot welded the filler neck flange to the speaker grille, then I trimmed the leg off the tach column mount and mig'ed it to the other end of the filler neck tube. Dressed the welds up with a grinding wheel/ flapper disc, then smoothed out the welds with filler, then primed and painted. My buddy told me the other day that he saw the flake glittering in the sun a good ways before he passed me going the other direction. I've gotten great compliments on it, I think we all like sparkly things!

 

[OpelGasser]

Good Idea!!!

Affirms one of the LONGTIME "Hot Rodder Rules..... Never throw away anything.....

My "fuel pressure gauge" is mounted on the hood of the Opel using a chrome mounting cup for now....

I saw this on the Internet somewhere.... thought I'd might make something like this someday.

 

[ProMetalShop]

Crazy Flaked Tach Mount: The Alien

NOW THAT'S COOL

 

[ProMetalShop]

Brian you going to leave your interior as is ? Or you doing a sheet metal interior ?

 

[FlynBrian]

Steve,
I have a pair of early 60's Ford stepvan bucket seats I grabbed out of a neighbors trash-pile, they are black, they have the really cool raised seat brackets, I will give them the holesaw treatment for lightnening and cool 60's racecar look. Right now the car has the original bench seat in it, and it's quite heavy. I plan on making aluminum door panels an rear interior panels. Need to get the trunk compartment firewall up soon & rollcage in. I have learned to do one project at a time on it, that way I keep it where I can drive it and enjoy it. I have been bad about jumping around on multiple projects in the past and never had one running long enough to really have fun with it. So I changed my strategy with this one. It eventually will get a little sheetmetal replaced on the body doesn't need much, then i'll get shiny paint on it. I have been keeping track of the stuff that I do to it and the 48 Jeep pickup i'm doing and will ad build threads to the forum as I finish them. Thanks for a Cool Forum!
OpelGasser Cool!
Thats where my inspiration for this came from. Thats an old aluminum speedboat tach mount. Everytime I found one on eBay they sold for some pretty good $.
So I did the next best thing and made my own. The flake paint job was an experiment, I wanted to see if I could pull it off on the cheap. The aluminum mount would look great polished.

 

[1946Austin]

Very nice work! Nothing better than fabbing stuff for the car from spare materials! I love it!
I sometimes drop by the local muffler shop and get scraps fromtheir metal bin for very cheap! They don't get anything but scrap tin price for it, so they're glad to let it go. Some of the new diesels use really large diameter tubing, and a little kink in a 90 bend makes it junk, but the remaining piece can be used for this type of mount easily.

 

[FlynBrian]

1946Austin,
Very true, I have an local metal supply business that will sell me pieces of metal I need out of their scrap bins. My rear suspension I am doing on my 48 Willys Jeep Pickup is all from recycled material and parts, have less than $70.00 in it, so far. These cars and trucks were built back in the day with the same kind of spirit. If you couldn't buy it off the shelf you got it out of the junkyard or built it. Plus it is fun to make something from nothing, thats why I love Gassers so much, every since I was a little kid I admired the creativity that were put into them. Sometimes crude, but they got the job done. Why Gassers have so much Attitude!

 

[OpelGasser]

...... If you couldn't buy it off the shelf you got it out of the junkyard or built it. Plus it is fun to make something from nothing, thats why I love Gassers so much, every since I was a little kid I admired the creativity that were put into them. Sometimes crude, but they got the job done. Why Gassers have so much Attitude!

Very good points.

I love finding a car at a show or cruise that has all kinds of unique one-off little pieces of creative work/parts.... stuff that many people don't even notice.

 

[Marks63PontiacGasser]

Exactly my thought process guys. That's why I do things like the aluminum rod steering colum drop.

I think it gives people a double look and a thought for even just a second of, heys that's neat. Mark L

 

[FlynBrian]

Marks63PontiacGasser,
Thats an Awesome column drop, Very Cool! Like OpelGasser said thats the little things I notice when i'm admiring a ride. I appreciate all those personal touches like that.

 

[Marks63PontiacGasser]

I plan to mount a shift light in the pin hole too, but I was still looking for a spot to mount my tach. Now I'm thinking about doing what you just did, but mount it coming down and out from under my dash top overhang. That might be just the thing to be different. Thanks for a great idea Brian. See, that's what this board is all about. Mark L

 

[1946Austin]

This is an old picture early on in my build, but you can see my column drop. Similar to Mark's, but not as fancy. Just a old rod from a small engine that was broken in the shop at work.

 

[FlynBrian]

Cool Vall,
I like it, bunch of great ideas on this site, cool thing is we have place to catalog all these cool builds and ideas right on gasserhotrods!
Mark, sweet spot for the shift light!

 

[19mach69]

I too got a great idea from this. Not quite the same but it made me think of a new way to display my tach on the dash. Great use of what was in essence a part destined for the scrap bin! I need to hide my shift light somewhere now.

 

[Marks63PontiacGasser]

Vall you should 'a tol' me ya taught of it b'fer me, But I can say---MINE'S BIGGER 'N YOURS IS---HA!!!!

The Gladiator formerly known as Markus O'Farticous

 

[ProMetalShop]

Mark, what pin hole, I must of missed something. Steve O notso smartous

 

[OpelGasser]

I have also been thinking about using a shift light and also hide/disguise it somewhere ?cool? ..... still working on it.... more to a build project than turning wrenches

 

[FlynBrian]

Steve I think he means he's going to mount his shift light where the piston pin hole is in the top of the aluminum rod.

 

[ProMetalShop]

Ah yes , thanks Brian, I believe Mark had posted that a while ago in his build thread....

 

[OpelGasser]

Mark, what pin hole, I must of missed something. Steve O notso smartous

Like this "pin" hole ..... (slightly modified while engine was running) causing all kinds of other parts to change .....

I have also been thinking of a way of using a "shift light" and doing something "different" with it....