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MG TD TF 1500 - TD Speedo Numeral Strips

Attached is a pic of what I believe to be original numeral strips removed from a flat faced TC or TD speedo. The ratchet gears had 67 teeth which is something I'd not seen before. I'm now aware of 67, 64 and 61 toothed gears. What is interesting is the offset printing on the back of the two removed strips. This shows the 10ths wheel in orange suggesting that the strips were originally printed on both sides of a large sheet and then individually cut to size as required. One of the strips on one of the original wheels is ever so slightly narrower adding credence to this cut to suit theory. Cheers
Peter TD 5801


P Hehir

Pic 2. Shows a pic of an odometer comparing 3 NOS white on black numeral strips that I'd just fitted with those originals yellowed with age. Still seeking a supplier of font accurate NOS strips to complete the restoration of a couple of mechanisms. It seems that the orange 10th wheels were not affected by 65 years of exposure to light. Three chronometric speedo mechanisms are visible on the right of the pic. I could also use some 54 toothed ratchet gears to enable conversion to the 4.3 rear end. A brass ratchet gear is shown in the 1st pic. Cheers
Peter TD 5801


P Hehir

Might drop Hugh an email. He is up in Canada, but rebuilds chronometric speedo's and tach's

jenntoo@shaw.ca
Bruce Cunha

Hi Bruce. Hugh and I communicate regularly. Along with John Marks in England, he was a big help when it came to restoring and modifying the first flat faced chronometric speedo/odometer that I converted, after fitting the 4.3 diff.

If there are any locals here in Oz who are interested in getting a quantity of these strips please get in touch. With half a dozen or so of us chipping in the cost per sheet of strips would be reduced substantially, as much of the cost is in the preparation of the artwork. I'm happy to do the leg work. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Good to hear Peter. Hugh did a fantastic job on my set. Clock even works.
Bruce Cunha

He's good value Bruce. I also managed to get my clock to work too. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

As this thread is about to disappear is anyone anywhere interested in getting hold of some of these new numeral strips? The best approach seems to be to have them printed on UV stable ultra thin vinyl and then simply stick them over the existing strips. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

I'm always interested, Peter. As you know, I printed my own, but would like to get the correct font. Arial is close, but not close enough. Do you have it?
Lew Palmer

Thanks Lew. The process is I take an original strip to the guy who made the ignition switch decals for me. He scans it into his computer and then using a sophisticated art program and vinyl printer, he produces a few strips to ensure the font length and width are 'dead on balls accurate'. Once I'm happy with the colour and font size he'll then produce the strips in A4 sheet form at whatever quantity I require. These are UV stable, adhesive backed and covered with a highly durable ultra thin film.

Most of the cost is in the artwork and this is what I'd like to split with a few people. All correspondence in relation to the production costs will be sent to those interested. Estimate a couple of hundred for the set up and then probably about $10/$20 for an A4 sheet. Half a dozen people at say $50 AU per head would get the ball rolling and probably provide one sheet of white on black and 1/4 of an A4 sheet (A6) of orange on black for each contributor. Each A4 sheet would produce about 120 strips or enough for 15 speedos. Those contributing could then on sell sets of numerals to recover their outlay and/or make a tidy profit.

Even though stripping down and reassembling an odometer appears to be daunting it really is pretty simple, although it is a little taxing, as you do need some patience. The beauty of this approach though is that the numeral wheels can be refreshed with the mechanism intact. Email me at pjbm at bigpond dot com if you'd like to get involved. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

I had a go at scanning in an original NOS strip as a high definition JPEG @ 1200 dpi and then opening it with Paint. This allowed me to sharpen up the scan so that it should be OK to print from. When blown up to 1/2 fill the screen the numbers were all surprisingly messy. Lots of black on the white. Took an hour or two to rework and clean up all 10 numerals. Size is now 2.4 MB. This effort should reduce the cost substantially. Just waiting on a call back from the vinyl printer so I can get things underway. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Certainly not a job for the faint hearted, I tried to put new numbers on my TF speedo and stuffed it up
George Mills

George email me at pjbm at big pond dot com. and I'll give you a call. Be interested in hearing of your experience. Assembly of the set of wheels can be a real test of patience. Like everything on these cars there is a technique involved. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

I recently purchased a set of numeral strips from a guy in Italy. The strips never arrived, Pay pay have issued a refund. Just wondering if anybody else actually bought a set? Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Peter,

Here is an update on my initial thread entitled "odometer characters" I bought these strips from the supplier in Italy and did receive them. they are good quality, the characters are a good match, however there is a small difference in the total length. The attached photo shows this difference between the numbers "5" and "6", at the joint of the strip.

I mentioned this to the supplier and he is willing to make new sets with the corrected dimensions which I have supplied. He is concerned about the return on his investment, If I can assure him of this, he will go ahead. The other issue is the global health situation. Italy is the most impacted country in Europe and, as France, is in total lock-up. So we cannot give any timescale.

Would any interested people mail me, john dot scragg at wanadoo dot fr.



John




J Scragg

John you have mail. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Peter

What happened to the numerical strips I gave you? They were genuine Smiths, are the TD and TF speedo versions different?

Graeme
G Evans

Hi Graeme, they were great and I used them to replace the numerals on the instrument that I have fitted in my TD dash. As far as I'm aware the TC/TD/TF numeral wheels are the same.

In my role as the Public Officer of a rapidly growing international T Type movement (M.G. T Type Owners & Restorers Club Incorporated), who are focused exclusively on the restoration of M.G.'s built between 1930 and 1955, I've had requests for more of these original strips. As you know the NOS material is as scarce as the steam at the rear of a rocking horse. I'd love to be able to supply these to our members at or even below cost. Clearly this is almost impossible as none of the NOS items exist.

Yours were probably the last on the planet; (except from the stash that our friend and TTORC member in Canada acquired some years ago)! However the decals can and should be able to do the job. Obviously the more members who are involved, the cheaper the strips become, where a point could be reached where they could be made available to members for a token amount, say at $1 per wheel. There are technical difficulties however in using decals, not the least of which is getting the precise length of a strip. Ideally they should be indistinguishable from the NOS originals and the brief HAS to be that are and should be able to be used in concert with them. The decal approach is to use the original wheel and simply stick the decal over it. Even though the difference in thickness and wheel diameter is minute, the cumulative effect can create problems as has been so clearly illustrated by John Scragg, who used decals from the Italian supplier, over his original wheels. John's pic above illustrates just how difficult it is to achieve this.

M.G. TTORC will be looking to find an Australian manufacturer who is prepared to work within the restrictive and exacting set of parameters that we and this exercise demands in terms of font, width, colour, overall length, size, shape, UV stability, cost etc. There are now well over 100 of us and our numbers will continue to grow until we reach the next cap of 200 members. BTY, the next M.G TTORC Newsletter should be arriving in mid April. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Graeme here are your NOS strips instated in my speedo. Thanks mate. I think they look great! The ratchet wheels have been changed to permit both the odometer and the tripmeter to read accurately with radials and a 4.3 rear end. The TC/TD 30 mph switch has been relocated on top of the fibre wheel to illuminate the light where the indicators would be fitted on a later TD in the centre of the fascia, when the speed reaches 70 mph. Safety FAST! Cheers
Peter TD 5801

P Hehir

Peter

Looks like an excellent result.

Graeme

G Evans

This thread was discussed between 11/06/2018 and 29/03/2020

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