1913 Oakland Speedster Dash Clock and Stewart Warner Speedometer Restoration

This is the car clock and speedometer I received to restore. The cable is attached to the right front wheel and is driven by a gear on the hub. The speedometer was made by Stewart Warner as an add-on item for the car owner. The bezel was soldered on as the attaching screws were stripped. The discoloration on the dial was a result of the solder flux running inside. The clock is a Waltham cased by American Clock Co. you have to screw off the clock bezel to wind the clock weekly.

Here's the speedo after restoration. The case was polished by the same source as the clock and mostly it needed a good cleaning inside and lubrication. The reset knob on the left was missing so I made a new one. In order to restore the dial, I would have to had a silk-screen made of the original lettering and then send it to be replated and re-screened. The customer didn't want to spend the money it would take to have the dial replated. So this is vaguely related to timekeeping since it is in miles-per-hour.

The clock simply needed a good cleaning. I also had a local source that is experienced in brass automotive restoration polish and lacquer the case.

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Here is a representation of the coupling I made. The tricky part was the internal keyway. I broached it on the lathe by taking a tool bit ground to the correct width, shimming carefully to the lathe centerline, and making umpteen passes taking about 0.002-0.003" off per pass, all hand cranked from the longitudinal feed.