A speedo Restoration Rip Off

[kent400]

Just had a Suzuki GS 550 speedo passed to me that had been restored at a cost of £150, after just 99 miles it stated to make a noise and the needle was erratic. The owner contacted the restorer who wanted another £100 to look at it again and quite obviously the owner wasn't happy with that.

The speedo is one of those plastic bodied type, basically a plastic pot with the bezel securing the glass. The plastic body had been cut in half to get to the mechanism when really all that needed to be done was to remove the bezel and two screws at the bottom of the body. It had been glued back together and some parcel tape wound around where it was cut.

The problem with it was easy to spot, it was partly seized at the drive end, this of course should turn freely and it should be almost possible
to spin to square drive with match stick. i could possibly got away with a dribble of light oil in the drive end followed be a good few spins of the drive but I wanted to check the rest of the mechanism to make sure it was OK. Well the mechanism hadn't been cleaned or lubricated, so all the owner had for his money was glass cleaned inside, bezel painted satin black and a spot of red paint on the needle

Glued the body back together and made rather a better job of it and even ran a spot of white paint around the joint so it was less obvious. This speedo sits in a housing I understand

The restorer wasn't revealed to me but just the clue 'Mr B' . Why in the world would the plastic body be cut when the bezel could be remover, OK it's a bit tricky but with thought and care it's fairy easy. In fact an easier gauge to deal with than our SOHC ones, no band remove, no body to paint and no metal base to re-zinc plate.

The speedo is now back on the bike and working fine. Tested to 85mph apparently. i'm sure that anyone with a moderate level of skill could have made a far better job of this than this so called gauge restorer.

[royhall]

Wow, £150 is a bit steep even if he had done it correctly. As you say, no painting or plating etc. Bet he didn't even get a new fascia overlay either. Mr B you are a bad man!

[Eyeguy]

Well, I've used Mr B, if it's the obvious name I'm thinking of, many times and his work has always been superb. I suspect the PO might have had a go himself and blamed it on him.
Unconvinced of West London 
Cheers
ATG
Paul

[Trigger]

The only Mr B i know is Mr Bean and i wouldn't have him down as a restoration man

[AshimotoK0]

Creator of Paddington or 'Shaken but not stirred'! 

[Ashdowner]

I think I know who Mr B is. He doesn't come cheap but he has a really good reputation and I'd be surprised if he bodged it. I talked to him about mine my Honda CB550 where the red zone on the revcounter had turned white and asked if he supplied stick on faces. He didn't and was a bit sarcastic with his answer. Anyhow I decided to buy some from an advertiser in Tansha and pull the recounter apart myself - which was actually no hassle but a matter of care and patience - in readiness for the arrival of the faces. What arrived was a total disappointment - wrong colour, wrong font, wrong length of markings. Also nothing like the crispness of my original dial markings & numerals but like it had been printed on a poor laser or inkjet. So bad I decided not to even use them but cut the red zone off and stuck it on. Looks ok if you don't look get a magnifying glass out. Did a bit of research and it seems all the stick-ons look the same as if they came from some computer file that's done the rounds. My personal advice is avoid at all costs.

[AshimotoK0]

Never seen his work to be fair but I have see a pair of CB250K0  'clocks' with plastic bodies that 'Our' Peter on here restored (Member Kent400) and they looked superb. So my advice, to anyone on here is consult our 'Peter' first... he can only say no.

Cheers Ash

[kent400]

Some interesting sugestions as to who Mr 'B' might be. I never met the owner of the speedo, a phone conversation followed by a couple of notes and here they are! [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[kent400]

Cor the compoter skills must be improving, an attachment!

I certainly don't think this was a poor restoration attempt by the owner from our phone conversation. As the owner mentions the speedo
had been cleaned up nicely and the owner assumed that the mechanism had some attention. Sadly it hadn't.

On the subject of dial face overlays, I too have used overlays for the chap who advertises in Tansha and found them to be OK although most of the time if I can't get new faces I'll print my own on vinyl, it's a bit of a time consuming process in that the original face is scanned the the image repaired and finally printed. Getting the size spot on takes a couple of attempts. Colour is also a bit of a problem and because
I suspect the original faces where printed at differant times there is a colour variance. Do both the speedo and tacho at the same time and you get the same colour. I don't supply overlays, I have done so in the past only to find that someone fitting them has made a mess of task and I have to supply another. I think the record was 4! If push comes to shove I might apply on the the owners face, I mean dial face