Rough night working on the 210

[Duke_CityR]

So, when I bought my 79 210 five years ago, I was really unhappy with the big blank spot in the dash where there is supposed to be a factory tach, but this car did not come with one.

 

So I set out to search all the wrecking yards locally here to find one. Finally, after 4 years of searching, I found a 1980 210 with a factory tach. Now the gauge clusters are different, since the 79 has the round gauges and the 80 has a square, boxy cluster. But, the tach is almost identical.

 

So, I carefully removed the tach from the 80 cluster.

 

The only thing that needs to be modified is the upper left corner of the gauge face. Right above the "3" you have to trim away about 1/2 inch to get it to fit snugly in the 79 opening.

 

So As I was trimming away last night, This is what happened to me.

 

I have waited 5 years to get a factory tach in that opening, guess I'll have to wait a little longer now. So far to date, I have only broken 2 things on this car. But last night, this one really hurt.

 

Does anyone have an extra tach face laying around? LOL. I'm sure in 4 more years another one will come along.

 

Anyone else have a similar situation where you searched and searched for that one piece and when you found it, you also managed to break it?

[LeviGideon]

I'm so sorry for your loss. haha Have you thought about cutting a new piece of plastic and having a decal made to match the faceplate? Maybe a longshot, but if you've got any graphic design experience and a copy of photoshop it shouldn't be too big a task.

[Will]

Some solvent glue from a plastic supply store will glue it back together. This stuff:

 

 

The acrylic plastic is very brittle - never use clippers to cut it - cutting slowly with a saw, and sandpaper work really well though.

[Will]

...just be careful not to get glue on the painted side of the plastic - the repair should be almost invisible since the break is so clean.

[king bee66]

at least the clock is still in tact, those are pretty rare too.

[datsunfreak]

FWIW, while getting thin in the yards these days I believe the '78-81 510 tach works too. And almost all of those came with tachs.

 

I once swapped an '81 510 cluster into my '81 210 with very minimal fuss. Just had to add the wiring for the tach.

[Duke_CityR]

Thanks for all the input guys. I was able to glue it back together, but I'm not happy with how it looks at all. My buddy has quite a bit of experience making custom gauge faces, and he told me how we can make a new one. It's just a lot of work. For now I am going to keep searching and maybe I'll get lucky again and find something. But I know that I have a back up plan if I don't get lucky.

 

BTW: I'm never going to use any of the additional parts from that 1980 gauge cluster pictured above. If anyone else wants anything from it let me know. I'll give you a really good deal.

 

Thanks again for all the support.

[JAS]

I remember along time back on zcar.com, that you could download whitefaced guage covers to your computer to print to media whatever you needed... there is templates for tach's you can use or start with on your computer.... then print, "laminate" to plastic media, cut/install

[brianof253]

How much do you want for the 1980 210 cluster??? I'm in Tacoma, Wa