Gauge Question

[OCTARD]

Hello folks,

Here is a picture of the 1970 Chaparral Camaro dash, and the three gauges on the far left of the dash appear to have a black bezel.  I'd also guess they were a Stewart-Warner 2 1/16" unit, but I don't have a better picture that would allow me to confirm that.

These items noted in the Chaparral Camaro are NOT the later "Heavy Duty" style Stewart-Warner gauge.  Though the "Heavy Duty" Stewart Warner gauges had a black bezel, it is a distinctly different shape.

Does anyone know anything about a vintage Stewart-Warner gauge that had the classic style bezel, but in black instead of the more common stainless bezel?

-Chad

[OCTARD]

And I don't think the gauge bezels in the Chaparral Camaro were painted.  Here's another period race car dash (DeKon Monza) with similar black bezeled Stewart Warner gauges.

-Chad

[JoeC]

I have some old SW 2 1/2 inch gauges. Some have a chrome ring and others have a Stainless Steel ring.
I was told the Stainless Steel ones were sold for marine use. They may have sold a black version also.
I have seen some tachs that were  sold in black finish

[Jon Mello]

Chad, I've got a '66 Stewart Warner catalog and I don't recall any black bezel gauges being in there although I'll look again to make sure. I do recall some marine usage gauges where there ring was not chrome but I don't remember it being black.

[JoeC]

I know when looking for old SW gauges the 250 water temp is more difficult to find as many of the ones I see are 265 max.
It is said that the 250 is correct for the 67-69 cars

[Jon Mello]

Joe, I think the best way to determine that is to check out the date codes which are usually ink stamped onto the case of the gauge after the part number. You can see the Stewart-Warner date codes here. You might find a gauge that would read 359M-L3. The first numbers would be the gauge part number and the L3 would translate to March 1967.

[OCTARD]

I realize that I may be the only one that cares about the black bezel Stewart Warner gauges... but I thought I might note that Jim Hall's Chaparral 2E and 2G also seems to use black bezel 2 1/16" gauges. (pic of '67 2G dash shown).

I'll find out more about these some day, hopefully through a future forum member.

-Chad

[Jon Mello]

Chad, just a note to say I did look in my '66 SW catalog and I saw nothing about any black bezel gauges. I'm not saying they didn't make them then but I so far don't see anything that is of help to you. I'm sure we'll get an answer eventually.