[DeTomaso] headlights vs temp guage

[Steve Hawkins]

If you wan't speedo and tach gauges you can see then add a second bulb,
directions at Space City Pantera's website.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of MikeLDrew at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2009 3:09 AM
To: cuvee at sbcglobal.net; detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] headlights vs temp guage



In a message dated 2/21/09 0 17 9, cuvee at sbcglobal.net writes:


> Don't waste your time with the crappy 5W bulb they are not worth the 
> time!
> I changed mine, a waste of time! Got to be something better?
> 

You're wrong.   I've seen noticeable improvements in the brightness of the 
main gauges by switching to a 5W bulb, not only on the car I'm working on
now, 
but on numerous other Panteras I've worked on as well.   As an experiment,
with 
this car, I put 5W bulbs in all the minor gauges, and they were actually too

bright (that is, they were once again brighter than the speedo/tach).   So I

put 3W bulbs back in the minor gauges, and then the ammeter was too dim.

The final solution was 5W bulbs in the speedo and tach and ammeter, and 3W 
bulbs in the fuel, water temp and oil pressure gauges.   Now they all look 
exactly the same.

None of the gauges are what you would call bright--but they're not supposed 
to be.   You don't want bright lights blasting your eyes and screwing up
your 
night vision; they should be bright enough to be seen, and no more.  Most
older 
Italian cars are set up this way (as are Volvos and other European cars),
and 
it's done deliberately.   American cars are set up to look like Las Vegas 
inside.   That's partially because our roads are generally more brightly
lit, and 
partially because American automobile customers (and the marketing and 
engineer types who construct cars for them) are bozos.

With respect to your car, it's possible that a previous owner may have 
installed 5W bulbs already, so that when you changed them for new 5W bulbs,
there 
was no improvement?   Did you happen to check the markings on your old
bulbs?

The old bulbs in #3535 were original, and marked as being 3W.   The old
bulbs 
in my car, #3960, were probably not original, but there's no way to tell; 
they were unmarked and it was impossible to determine what their wattage is,
but 
the 5W bulb I installed tonight is substantially brighter than the bulb I
took 
out, so I'm assuming it's 3W.

My car took the opportunity to be combative once again, of course.   Having 
just performed the same operation on #3535 a few minutes earlier, I knew how

easy the job SHOULD be.   It took less than five minutes on #3535, and just 
under an hour with my own car, to change one stupid bulb in the ammeter.

GRRRR!!!!

Mike

Mike


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