Porsche work is the largest share of what comes through this shop, and has been for decades. The instruments are almost all VDO, and they arrive from every era: Pre-A 356 gauges, 911 and 914 clusters, and the dials out of the water-cooled cars.
The three things we do to them are below. Restoration is showing first, repair and customization are a click away. For how the bench process works in general, whatever the badge on the car, see restoration, repairs and customization.
Porsche Gauge Restoration
Most 356 work is the 60mm gauge family: speedometer, tachometer, the combination gauges and the clock. We restore them, and we also build them, which is the unusual part. The gauges we make and sell include the 356 triple combination gauge, a reproduction 356 clock, a 356 electric tachometer and other 356 60mm gauges, along with the 914 triple combination gauge. So a 356 that arrives with a dial too far gone to save is not the dead end it would be elsewhere.
What restoration involves on the bench is the same for every car, and it is set out on the restoration page rather than repeated here. What changes with Porsche is the reference: knowing what a correct Pre-A dial looks like against a later 356, which font and which needle color belong to which year, and which of those details a concours judge actually stops to examine.
Four of the cars in our portfolio are Porsches, a 356 Pre-A, a 1973 Carrera RS 2.7 returned to German market specification, a 1970 911E and a 1993 964 backdate.
A fifth car in the portfolio carries Porsche instruments without being a Porsche: a 1988 RUF Vanagon running a full 964 set, made to read the van it is actually in.
Porsche Gauge Repair
Repair is the shorter job: the instrument still works, but not correctly, or it has stopped altogether. What follows is what actually comes across the bench, by model and by instrument, rather than a general description of gauge repair. It is not the whole list, and we will keep adding to it.
356 Combination Gauges
The oil temperature gauge and the fuel gauge each have their own coil driving the needle across the dial. Those coils fail, and when they do we replace them. Six volt or twelve volt, it makes no difference to the job.
356 Speedometers and Tachometers
Usually a worn bearing, lubrication that has dried out, or oil that has leaked into the gauge. We disassemble the instrument, clean it, install a new brass bushing and calibrate it. Magnet heads and shafts sometimes need replacing, and frames too. Almost always the magnets need recharging and the hairsprings get replaced.
356 Odometers
Broken-down wheels, which we replace.
356 Electric Tachometers
Ninety percent of them come in with a failing meter coil. We fit a new VDO meter coil with a new circuit board and calibrate it to four cylinders.
911 Clocks
The Kienzle electromechanical movements always fail, and they are not repairable. We fit a new VDO quartz movement inside the original case. The exterior looks no different, the front reset knob still works, and it still behaves as a clock. The advantage of quartz is that on a car which is not driven much it lasts considerably longer than the electromechanical movement did.
911 Tachometers
Most often the circuit board has failed, or it is incompatible with the ignition system or the distributor. We fit a universal circuit board calibrated to six cylinders. Sometimes the meter coil has failed as well, and that gets replaced with a newer meter coil or with a stepper motor, depending on which the customer wants.
911 Speedometers
Much like the 356 mechanical movements. Brass bushings go bad and the pot metal goes loose. We install brass bushings into the frame, charge the magnets, and fit new hairsprings as needed.
911 Combination Gauges
The same coil issue as the 356. When new coils go in, a new sender is always provided, except on a tank or fuel gauge, where it is calibrated to whatever sender is being used.
911 Electronic Speedometers
The most common repair we do, and it is almost always the odometer gear breaking. We also replace multiple components on the board so that it can be calibrated, tighten the pot metal, and service the odometer drive motor.
Porsche Gauge Customization
Customization is mostly the water-cooled cars, and mostly dials. We make custom gauge dials for the 964, 993, 996, 997 and 991, for the Boxster, Cayman and 718, and for the Macan and Cayenne, covering the tachometer, the speedometer, oil pressure and oil temperature, oil level and fuel, and the clock. Send photographs of what is in the car now and what you want it to read, and we will tell you what is possible.
The Spyder Speedometer
One of the more unique jobs to come across the bench: a speedometer from a survivor class racing Spyder. The owner wanted it refurbished, and wanted halo LEDs added while it was with us.
What made it interesting is what he asked for alongside them. Rather than replacing the original lighting, we fitted the traditional incandescent bulbs as well, wired so that a switch on his dash moves between the two. He can run it modern or run it exactly as it was, and change his mind whenever he likes.
Conversions are the other half of this work. Reading a kilometers-per-hour speedometer in miles per hour is a common request on imported cars, and the FAQ covers what that involves.
A full custom set is written up on the 1970 911E Canyon Carver page: five dials screened new, each one carrying a topographical map of a road its owner drives.
What It Costs and What It Carries
Our pricing is a flat rate. Where an instrument needs a bench test before anyone can say what is wrong, that charge is absorbed into the repair rather than added on top of it, so the test costs you nothing extra once the work goes ahead. Everything we repair or replace carries a two year warranty.
You can start an order and print the ticket to enclose with the parts, or ask us first if you are not certain what you have. We take work from anywhere in the country and from overseas.
Also on the site: Mercedes-Benz gauge restoration, European classic gauge restoration, and the instruments and makers we work on.