Slabside Clock question

[Murky781]

Pulled the trigger today and ordered a slabside for my wife and I'm starting the parts search. Just wondering if anyone has the year of the Falcon clock used in the originals and of course where it might be obtained. Any help will be greatly appreciated . Thanks in advance

[1985 CCX]

Galaxie

Good luck!

[PeteF]

I understand that clock was used in various Ford models, Galaxie, Falcon, in 1962 -1963 . Bob at ERA could point you to a source....... good luck

[WardL]

I got a Smith clock to match the other gauges. I think it looks great, but not sure what others think.

[strictlypersonl]

I think that Jim H's car used the British clock rather than the OEM Ford's, but I could be wrong. Maybe Jim can step in here. A web search didn't turn up any Ford clocks, but Google ain't perfect.

[Dan Case]

Evidence suggests that clocks were made by Ford's supplier specifically for Cobras because the front bezel was made of very smooth steel that could easily be chromium plated. The 1962 Galaxie clock's front bezel is usually made of standard mill finish metal, zinc plated, and dichromated lightly. The rough dischromated bezel of the clock in a Galaxie doesn't show. (There is a 1962 Galaxie cluster on ebay(R) right now that illustrates this.) The very smooth chromium plated bezel of a Cobra's clock is exposed.

It is common to find Galaxie clocks that have been rebuilt and modernized with their front bezels reworked to chrome plate so they can be sold for Galaxies or Cobras.

[PANAVIA]

I would use a Smiths , or Autometer clock with a aluminum sub bezel you can make on a lathe. -- the Ford clocks are not repro'd and they are TOP money so a beter solution might be the above.

Steev

[Murky781]

I've found the Smiths and the Auto.., but if you go to this link and look at the clock in the car t is not a 2-1/16th diameter. Galaxie clocks I've found have all been square, and only a couple of Falcon dash clocks, that aren't right either. Odd one, but I'm determined. Keep those cards and letters coming. thank you

[WardL]

The diameter of the chrome ring is about 2.2".

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by Murky781

Galaxie clocks I've found have all been square, and only a couple of Falcon dash clocks, that aren't right either.

Read my post #6 above again....the 1962 Galaxie clock is the basis of the assemblies used in Cobras. You have to be specific to 1962 and not just ask for Galaxie clocks. 1962 Galaxie clocks are not rare used and not very rare NOS. They are usually not cheap if they run. Any major obsolete Ford parts dealer should have at least one in stock.

Yesterday there were 1962 Galaxie instrument clusters in auctions on ebay®, one showing an excellent picture of the clock mounted in it. Search "galaxie clock 1962".

[barry950]

We have an original 289 Cobra and the clock and the wiring loom were from a '63 Fairlane

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by barry950

We have an original 289 Cobra and the clock and the wiring loom were from a '63 Fairlane

I will suggest that your car has been repaired with Fairlane pieces somewhere back in time. Ford spent a lot of effort to deal with the warrantee issues of early Cobras and many revisions that occurred with the order starting at CSX2201 were aimed at ending those problems.


The 1962 Ford Galaxie clock used as a starting place was sold as a dealer installed set up as C2AZ-15A000-A ELECTRIC CLOCK KIT, which is not a Fairlane anything.

Cobra chassis wiring harnesses for cars with Ford electric system and SW gauges are quite a bit different than 1963 Fairlanes as new cars. The stock harnesses (there are multiple sections) have Ford part numbers unique to those Cobras and the two main sections had FoMoCo® part number labels on them. Like many Cobra unique parts on that series of cars the part numbers started off with unusual X(plus one of three other letters) prefixes and not the C3OE prefix 1963 Fairlane parts. Example: The harness section for the front of the Cobra that plugs into the rear firewall connectors is FoMoCo XB-954434. A few low mile original owner cars still have their paper tags intact. People have been using pieces of Fairlane harnesses to repair Cobras since the 1960s, probably because they were easy to get. (I found parts of a cut up and spliced in 1964 Falcon harness in a Cobra once.) I laid out an original harness set from a low mile wrecked Cobra we were repairing next to a Fairlane harness set. I consulted a Ford wiring supplier that had original drawing information. After it was determined that lots of work would be required to modify a Fairlane harness to exactly match a Cobra the manufacturer made a new harness from NOS components for the project.

[Mark IV]

Dan,

So are you the guy Ken Rubin at Alloy Metal Products made a Cobra harness for? He told me years ago he did one for someone "who insisted" and he was not gonna do another he said!

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by Mark IV

Dan,

So are you the guy Ken Rubin at Alloy Metal Products made a Cobra harness for? He told me years ago he did one for someone "who insisted" and he was not gonna do another he said!

Name doesn't ring a bell. By the time I got one, five (5) harnesses were made with new Ford specification wire, vinyl wrap, and cloth weave but with NOS plugs, connectors, and FoMoCo 1963 vintage fuse blocks. The only things missing were the paper part number tags. Right now at least three different shops make replacement harnesses and two different places have made part number labels. All of them are expensive. One shop has made new headlamp and turn signal extension harnesses based on my reverse engineering of original sections.

I have purchased two harnesses. One with NOS ancillaries and one from another shop will all reproduction (no FoMoCo logos) ends. Both were expensive.

It is getting common to replace the 45 year old harnesses now as more and more original cars experience insulation cracking up. Wiring fires in a Cobra are real exciting I am told.

At least I don't have to mess with original GT40 harnesses. Their replacements are insanely expensive.

[Dan Case]

There are two large harness sections plus
- a harness for the fan in front of the radiator, connects Ford ends to Lucas ends.
- a harness for each head lamp, Ford to Lucas adpaters in affect as above
- a harness for each front turn signal, Ford to Lucas as above
- a harness for each tail lamp, Ford to Lucas as above
- a harness for the SW XF- tachometer and XF- tachometer sender
- a harness for the tag lamp which is also a Ford to Lucas adapter

The diameters and lock in features of the Ford and Lucas "bullet" connectors don't match. I learned the hard way that buying Fairlane harnesses, loose wires, Lucas male and female connectors, and part of a big Ford harness for the 1963 alternator plug wasn't going to be acceptable to fix my red car. Yep, bought all that stuff. Hated to toss most of that stuff but since I was trying to get away from wiring problems I let the professionals make harnesses.

[xb-60]

CSX2514 has a 2 5/8" SW fuel pressure gauge in place of the clock in a street dashboard, if that is of any interest. It's a customer ordered FIA bodied car though, not a slab side. I have a picture somewhere of the dash ....
Cheers,
Glen

[LMH]

Hey all,
Question about the original clock used in 289's. Was the trim ring made just for the Cobra? Is the clock reproduced now with a chrome trim ring?
Larry

[S1013]

Appreciate for all the info. I am also doing a slabside right now and uncertain as to what to do about the clock. Not sure exactly how much I want to torture myself with this right now as to finding a Galaxie clock & doing the fabrication, but I at least need to come up with size of the hole to have ERA put in the dash. In looking for a clock for my Sunbeam Tiger I recently came across a Smiths reproduction. One was on ebay, the auction is over but here is the link for what its worth:

Smiths Clock Reproduction for Sunbeam Tiger and Alpine | eBay

[xb-60]

With clocks in 289 Cobras, there are two paths depending on whether the rest of the instruments are Smiths or SW.
If Smiths, then you need to be looking for a 60mm Smiths clock, a CE.2194/0X, which was used on a number of Rootes Group cars. There is another 60mm Smiths clock which looks better (less ‘messy’ than the CE.2194/0X) but not sure where it came from, and then there’s another alternative as well which is a 60mm Kienzle clock, looks very much like a Smiths design, and I have a picture of one fitted to an original car. I have one of these; it came from a 60s Rover 2000TC so is period correct. It needs a chromed double-vee bezel to replace the black single-vee, but these are available from CAI (the guys who make the Smiths gauges).
The last option for a Smiths instrumented car might be to use a 52mm Smiths clock, available from Nisonger, but to my knowledge this size Smiths clock wasn’t used on Cobras.

See: Nisonger Instruments :: the exclusive Smiths U.S. Warranty & Service Center since 1949 (its down at the bottom of the page)

If the other gauges are SW, then it seems that the Galaxie or Falcon round clock is the one. They do look a little cheapo though - my apologies - but that’s what the later SW instrumented cars had.

Cheers,
Glen

[jon@harrison.ne]

The clock is from a '62 Galaxie. I have a few used and two NOS. All the original Cobras I have seen had the case chromed. On my replica I popped off the case (zinc plated) and had it chromed. The slightly tricky part of an installation is to carefully cut out the mounting hole with the groove to fit the clock and then wrap the leather tightly around the hole. This is not anywhere near the way it was mounted in a Ford. Several years ago I was paying $50-$100 for a used clock and after some cosmetic work and a quartz mechanism you had about $200 in it. I got the NOS units for someone that would want to do a Pebble Beach restoration of an original. The judges would want to hear the ticking of the original mechanism. By the way, the hard part to find is the ammeter "charge" light-the light between the turn signal lamps. I found some NOS a while back.