[Mike Davis]

I have a 80 SE W72 WS6 301 car that I am restoring. It has the 100MPH speedo that has the old 79 style font and does not match the Tach font. Odometer numbers is above needle centerline like the rest of the 80's model 85MPH speedo's and has the 3 lights in the bottom of the gauge for seat belts, brake and check engine light.
I have only seen a hand full of the 100MPH 80 models, all had the old font. Dodes anyone know if there was a reason for these? Or if it was a W72/WS6 only type deal?
Just curious if someone knew why....

['ol Pinion head]

Have never ran across an original installed 100 mph speedo in an '80 Bird. Cant remember running across an '80 T/A with a check engine light, & Ive worked on and parted a bunch of '79-81's. My Dad & I special ordered '80 Turbo T/A's in June of '79. My dad worked for GMAC, parents owned a 79 T/A, & we were friends with local Pontiac dealers family. There was little info on the Turbo T/A's 's in the late Spring of '79, I was frustrated I'd missed ordering a '79 400 4spd car so decided to order a Turbo SE. At the very first, Dad & I thought the '80 turbo cars would have shaker hoods as that was the tradition of the TransAm. Then we viewed preproduction artwork of the hood bulge as well as the first option UR4, a digital boost guage, that we both ordered, but never made it onto production cars.

All of the first '80 Turbo builds were built of the VanNuys plant, and there was a hold on production with the turbo 301 engine. This hold delayed the first production turbo car builds into the first week of Oct of '79. My '80 SE arrived Oct 18,'79. My parents fiero bronze turbo came in a few days later. These were the first turbo cars in zone 20 & two Pontiac zone reps, which my Dad knew well, called Dad & wanted to come down & test drive my '80 before i took delivery. I did not want them driving it hard, so they ended up driving down & test drovemy Dads car the first of the following week. Both of those early 80's had federally certified 85mph speedos. In '91 or 92, I picked up cheap, an '80 SE base 301 T/A. It had same 62X interior as my '80, but was built 4000 VIN earlier at Van Nuys in the 107000 VIN range. A super straight car, with no engine or trans & a 2.41 posi disc rear. I ended up parting that base horse SE (i wouldnt today). it also had an 85 mph speedo & gauges. Still have the harness & guages boxed up.

The only two things I've ever ran across instrumentation wise that were '79 usage & continued on to early 80 model Birds were the small font "79" style AC control lense & the '79 and earlier small font auto trans selector lense. The very first '80 Indy Pacecars were built in Nov of '79 & they had this enlarged font style lense but with a red prism to direct the glow of the light through the AC lens & the auto trans selector lens. At the same aprox time of production, the regular (non Pacecars) lenses on the '80 model AC control head & the auto trans selector lense went to this more modern larger font style lense. Both my '80, my dads '80, as well as the late Sept base 301 SE parts car all had the small font "79" style lense. My brothers good friend Jimmy lived about 1/4 mile down our suburban street & Jimmy took delivery of a maroon 80 turbo T/A with t-tops. That was mid Nov of '79, & was the first I saw with the newer bigger font style lens on the AC control head. For a few years I occasionally worked on Jimmy's '80 turbo T/A as well as over a dozen other 80's & 81 turbo cars.

[Mike Davis]

I had a 80 Pacecar and it had the 85MPH. They messed up and did not put the red shift indicator in it.
Here is the instrument cluster out of the 80. Car is an unmolested 1 owner car. Took these out to clean and replace lense due to crack. Notice the odometer is where all 80 models are.

[77 Canamman]

Shows that quality control was at it's best in those days. The fonts on the oil/temp and speedo don't match up at all to the rest of the instruments. Thanks for posting that uber-rare speedometer.

[77 Canamman]

I was thinking about this further.. I knew I had seen that speedometer somewhere else before. It appears to be a very similar unit as the one found in floor shift 1975-77 A body Lemans with the standard dashboard. Those had the odometer above the needle, three lamp pods, and blue KPH coloring, instead of the 1979 yellow. One minor detail between the two is the different km/h script between the units. Otherwise they appear the same.

[78w72]

Originally Posted by 'ol Pinion head

The very first '80 Indy Pacecars were built in Nov of '79 & they had this enlarged font style lense but with a red prism to direct the glow of the light through the AC lens & the auto trans selector lens.

curious what you mean by "red prism" on early 80 indy pace cars? are you saying only early pace cars used a red prism vs later ones & 81s having something different for the red?

reason i ask is because every 80 & 81 pace car i have seen or owned as well as the 79 10th anniv cars didnt use an actual prism, the inside of the entire gauge housing was painted a bright fluorescent red to create the red back light glow that shined through the gauge & the trans shift indicator. im sure you were aware of that, but maybe im confusing what you meant by prism.

['ol Pinion head]

The plastic lens in the AC control head has a very small prism that directs the light sideways in front of the back ground. I've disassembled quite a few AC control heads & original gauges out of '80 Pacecars. The '80 Pacecars seem to have suffered a much higher salvage rate than '81 pacecars. Looking back I've parted on over 3 dozen '80 Pacecars, including two I owned as partscars. Also personally ran across at least two dozen more that either I couldn't buy parts off of, or they were just too far gone. Just a horrible survivability rate. No leather interiors, no Recaro seats, once the exteriors/ interiors started looking really bad, many were trashed.

Pulled first set of gauges out of a totaled 80 pace car in '83 or 84, G&R latemodel GM yard in S OKC. It was that year or the next year that I also bought a new lens from the dealer & painted an original '81 rear AC control housing fluro red. Did this changing my good friend Jon's 81 turbo Formula over to complete pace car red lighting. For his silver W50 Formula I carefully repainted the back of the gauges, gauge front filler panels, & the insides of the guage housings. Since that time, have disassembled & cleaned half a dozen other pace car guage/ AC control unit sets.

[78w72]

Originally Posted by 'ol Pinion head

The plastic lens in the AC control head has a very small prism that directs the light sideways in front of the back ground. I've disassembled quite a few AC control heads & original gauges out of '80 Pacecars. The '80 Pacecars seem to have suffered a much higher salvage rate than '81 pacecars. Looking back I've parted on over 3 dozen '80 Pacecars, including two I owned as partscars. Also personally ran across at least two dozen more that either I couldn't buy parts off of, or they were just too far gone. Just a horrible survivability rate. No leather interiors, no Recaro seats, once the exteriors/ interiors started looking really bad, many were trashed.

Pulled first set of gauges out of a totaled 80 pace car in '83 or 84, G&R latemodel GM yard in S OKC. It was that year or the next year that I also bought a new lens from the dealer & painted an original '81 rear AC control housing fluro red. Did this changing my good friend Jon's 81 turbo Formula over to complete pace car red lighting. For his silver W50 Formula I carefully repainted the back of the gauges, gauge front filler panels, & the insides of the guage housings. Since that time, have disassembled & cleaned half a dozen other pace car guage/ AC control unit sets.

yes the AC controls werent painted red inside like the gauges, it was more of a red piece of thick translucent tape or very thin plastic from the pace cars ive parted & on the 81 pace car i own & was blue on non pace cars.

sorry for confusing the term 'prism" but to me a flat piece of tape or plastic isnt really a prism by definition.

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Originally Posted by 78w72

sorry for confusing the term 'prism" but to me a flat piece of tape or plastic isnt really a prism by definition.

Isn't the bulb end/color end of the lens cut on a 45°ish angle?

So that it reflects light from one end to the other (like a prism) as opposed to shinning back to front.

Clay

[78w72]

Originally Posted by "QUICK-SILVER"

Isn't the bulb end/color end of the lens cut on a 45°ish angle?

So that it reflects light from one end to the other (like a prism) as opposed to shinning back to front.

Clay

not sure of the exact angle of the lens at the bulb end but it does look like some type of angle to help shine the light into the housing, not sure if that is an official prism with just one 45ish cut. but the flat red tape or plastic cover is what creates the red glow from the bulb.

i may have been hung up on what i remember a prism to look like, i had some as a kid that were a triangle or other pentagon type shape that would throw a rainbow when placed in the sunlight, or like the pink floyd dark side of the moon artwork.

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