Didn’t quite know which topic to put this under, so I picked the speed shop, as it is somewhat performance related.
Wondering if anyone knows what brand of mini tach gets used to make a mini tack in your clock “dummy” insert? Been thinking about doing one in there, and I had to take my instruments out to get my AC stuff squared away, so now would be the time. I have a clock I could put in there, but it don’t work, and I would need to restore the plastic face somehow anyway as some of it is broke away.
Thanks,
David
Thanks for the link Dave. Was just wondering if some small tach from local parts store for 40 bucks could be bought and I could do it myself. Price is fair for Rocketman’s,
David
I installed the Rocketman one last summer. Works great, a little hard to see at night though.
Thanks again. Probably won’t go that route. Doesn’t sound like the best option to try to put a little tach in where the clock is suppose to go. With my car having a 4-speed a tach would be nice. What are others doing for a tach in a standard car and making it look good?
David
I did the Rocketman tach as well, and have had no issues seeing it at night.
Back in the '70’s when I had no money I spent a weekend destroying the dash of a '68 standard Cougar to install one of these:
I ended up cutting the bezel around the factory clock opening completely off the dash and then epoxying the Suntune unit in its place. It worked OK but it definitely looked like an 18 year old hacked the dash up to install a instrument that didn’t match anything else.
I used rocketman’s Mustang mini-tach. The Cougar mini-tach is on back order. The Mustang mini-tach has a flat face and should make it easier to see. The font for the numbers matches the Cougars as well.
Steven
That looks great!
Yea Steven that looks nice. Still curious what kind of tach they are starting with to make these. I did watch a youtube that shows a guy using a 20 or 25 dollar 2inch tach off Amazon. It looks ok except for all the hot glue he used to attach it to the back side. Another thing I thought about doing was the rally pack gauge pods like the Mustangs use, doing a tach and oil pressure gauge (cuz an oil pressure gauge would be nice on a rebuilt motor) until I checked out pricing on those pods. Can’t really do anything underdash having a console.
David
David I’m sure you can find a mini-tach that will work in the clock space of the standard dash. I’d bet if you Google you’ll find many choices to fit your budget. I briefly thought about the Mustang rally pack but it didn’t address the clock/dummy section on my standard dash. You’ll have to pick the route that works best for you. I ultimately decided on Rocketmans tach for a couple of reasons. 1. He’s a member of The Classic Cougar Community 2. He offers a quality product and 3. His products are more than just “using guts/electronics” of another tach. They are made to fit and match like a factory gauge. Here is a picture of my mini-tach before I installed it.
Steven
Im late to the game but I used the amazon tach, it looks ok to me, cost about $25, i didnt use the hot glue, i inserted from the front and used the supplied nut ring on the back. fit pretty good, snug. i have yet to install the gauge package in the car so i cant say how well it works driving around, yet.
VDO makes a very nice 2" tach -
For clarity, Rocketman doesn’t start out with a cheap eBay tach. Bob used to work for a US based manufacturer of instrument movements. While there he developed his own tach. After he left the company he continued to buy from them until the company eventually ended production. He then spent considerable time and money finding a new source that could build what he needed. I know this first hand as I tried but failed in helping him find a good contract manufacturer. He has since found a new source and at the same time updated to current technology. What you don’t know is how difficult it is to make these work accurately. There are all kinds of different ignition systems in use on our cars and some present major challenges.
So if you cut up your dash to fit a universal tach and it doesn’t work you own it. The wonderful thing about this hobby is that we all have lots of choices and what you do with your car is up to you. One choice you have is to support the people that Have devoted resources to give us great solutions.
I am not trying to beat up the guys using off the shelf tachs . I am trying to clarify that Rocketman product is not the same thing. He emphatically does not start off with off the shelf tachs and stick a label on them.
Bill well said in both of your posts. Everyone has to do what works best for them. I’m very pleased with the mini-tach I got from Rocketman. The fit, finish, packaging, and quality are wonderful. As stated earlier In this thread I went with the Mustang mini-tach because the Cougar unit was temporarily out of stock. I like the flat face and the fact that the dial states RPM x 100 and the font matches the Cougars gauges.
Steven
Bob, AKA Rocketman makes a great product. While they work great for a Cougar they don’t for a Mustang. The clock is in a different position and the steering wheel winds up obscuring part of the tach. I am fortunate that my Shelby has a full size 8000 rpm tach.
I just purchased Bob’s headlamp relay/breaker kit for my Shelby because of headlamp brightness fluctuation when I have the center high beams on.
-Keith
Bill,
Thanks for clarifying for everyone out there (like me) that may have thought that Bob was just ‘re-canistering’ some brand of mini-tach.
I personally apologize for my own ignorance to that fact. 
I think Rocketman has some great products, and has obviously came up with a great many solutions for shortcomings and repairs on our old cars.
I’m sure at some point I’ll use some his modern day tech in my car or any upcoming project.