7/24/04
Glass Circles

It was harder than I expected, but I finally found someone to cut a piece of glass to replace the one I accidentally broke when taking apart my gauge. It’s kind of embarrassing, but I have to admit my fault. Actually, this acts as a good reminder to those who are going to re-do their gauge faces. When prying on the tabs, make sure to pull ALL of them back enough to take the gauge apart, or else undue stress may put just enough force on the thin glass gauge face to crack it. Lack of patience, and too much force made me look for a week to find a replacement piece of glass.
 
I know I was singing the praises of New York City a few weeks ago about how you can find almost anything, but this city is not without fault! Getting a piece of glass cut was a surprise problem. In NYC, the glass specialists are pretty busy, and don’t really have the time to work on small orders, especially something specialized like cutting circles. My problem was compounded by the fact that the glass I was looking for was pretty thin stuff. No one in the city wanted to cut my 2-1/4 round of glass, so I had to look elsewhere.

I stopped by Diamond Glass in New Rochelle, NY, in the same town of East Coast Trim where my car is getting her new interior. This suburban store was more receptive towards filling my order, even though they knew how hard it would be. Cutting small circles takes some practice, and could take several tries without cracking the glass, especially when cutting such a thin piece for the one I was replacing. I picked up my finished lens in the afternoon for $5 bucks and was ready to complete my final gauge.

It’s not the greatest picture, but what do you expect when photographing something clear?

I brought all the pieces up to my house to finish up the gauge. I needed to cut a new gasket for the lens since the old one was rotted.

The original one was specially beveled to fit in the chrome ring, but I had to improvise a replacement using a piece of rubber gasket material, and an O-ring that fit inside the chrome ring.

Here it is ready for installation!

Previous Restoration Day
Next Restoration Day
Home page