Veglia voltmeter

[chris.richard]

Does anybody have a picture of one, or know what the wording on the originals is?

[guy mayers]

Hi Chris, there is a picture of one in the Stratos Super Profile book I think. The wording is in white only, saying AMPERE on the gauge with -50 and +50 in white on the scale, there are three gradation marks in white, full deflection left, centre and full deflection right. Good luck finding an original! In all the years I've been looking I've never seen one with the correct scale outside of a Stratos.
Guy

[chris.richard]

Originally posted by guy mayers
The wording is in white only, saying AMPERE on the gauge with -50 and +50 in white on the scale, there are three gradation marks in white,

Er, that's an ammeter Guy!;) Thanks anyway!

[roger001]

wakey Wakey....... It's supposed to be an ammeter.

[chris.richard]

What's supposed to be an ammeter?:confused:

[mogul_x]

The voltmeter is supposed to be an ammeter. Stratos were originally equipped with an ammeter, not a voltmeter.

The Veglia ammeters are very rare, and usually very expensive if you do manage to find one. Since they're so hard to get a hold of, I guess some owners substitute whatever they can find. I take it your car has an aftermarket voltmeter in it?

[chris.richard]

I'm fitting a voltmeter, as I agree with Roger's earlier post that we measure temperature, not flow in our cooling circuits, and voltage is probably more useful than current in the electrical circuits. I've got an aftermarket voltmeter and several Veglia guages of various sorts, and I'm going to amalgamate them, but I am not sure of what the Italian wording on a voltmeter would be.

[roger001]

?? Volta ??

[mogul_x]

According to Babelfish, the Italian word for "Volt" is.... "Volt". likewise, Italian for "volts" is "volt"

In English, "Volta" is "time" "Volte" is "times".
"Volti" is "faces", "volto" is "face"
"Voltu" doesn't appear to be a word, and I've run out of vowels.:D

I tried translating "voltage", in the hope of coming up with a new root to explore, but that translated to "tensione" in Italian. All permutations of that translate back into English as "tension" or "tense", so I guess that's a dead end.

So, I guess the markings on the gage you have are good enough. As for a Veglia voltmeter - I don't recall having seen one in any of the Fiat 124 / 850 gage sets I've seen on E-bay. Anybody know whether they ever even made one?

Cheers

[chris.richard]

Roberto Cassetta told me they did, but I can't find his email now, it might be on my computer at work. He'd had some new ones made from the original factory, but the cost if I remember was several hundred pounds. Smith's are cheaper!

[David May]

Hate to disappoint you all, but its Volt! (And there's no plural of foreign words, although Count Volta would probably disagree!)

Dave May

[chris.richard]

Originally posted by chris.richard
Roberto Cassetta told me they did, but I can't find his email now, it might be on my computer at work. He'd had some new ones made from the original factory, but the cost if I remember was several hundred pounds. Smith's are cheaper!

Found it - the cost is 485 euros (£380)

[guy mayers]

Check out this link, the pictures of the Stratos inlcude a reasonably clear picture of the dashboard

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6472&item=2412290602


Just keep scrolling down the list of cars until you come to the Stratos!
Guy

[chris.richard]

First attempt.

[mogul_x]

Chris,

OK, after seeing your first attempt, I have to know - how did you do that? I may want to try the same trick on my Ammeter. :D

[guy mayers]

Looks like the same way I made my Ammeter. A spare gauge has to die to provide the casing, bezel, glass and inner face. Mask off the tiny lettering on the bottom of the gauge (Veglia Borletti) and use a craft knife blade to remove any lettering by holding it at 90 degrees to the inner face. You may get away without damaging the black paint but will probably end up having to repaint it with satin black to restore it. Then replace the lettering using "Letraset". It is available at stationers and craft shops in white and yellow in different sizes. A good match can be found.
Then obtain an ammeter or voltmeter of any description and gut it, modify the Veglia case to accept the new internals. Next job is to remove the needle from the new instrument. Leave as much as possible but it should all be hidden from view by the inner face when the gauge is reassembled. Paint the face satin black and apply whatever letttering you want, remove the needle from the original Veglia gauge and glue it over the stump of the replacements needle. Reassemble and tell everyone you bought one from Roberto Cassetta!
Guy

[chris.richard]

My method was slightly simpler, and probably not as authentic a finish. I used the aftermarket casing, inner face (with the scale on)and "works". The Veglia guage donated the outer face, glass and bezel. The outer face needed to be filed down to a slightly smaller diameter to fit into the inner face. The new lettering was done with the drawing tools in Microsoft Word, and printed onto matt photographic paper, trimmed to shape and glued over the existing lettering. Th edge of the paper is horizontally across at the edge of the outer face just below the lettering. I haven't got a note of the colours or the font with me, but can supply them if anybody is interested.