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J-3 Instrument panel

KOZ

Registered User
Grand Rapids, MI
Can anyone give me some information on J-3 gauges?

-What years were black verses cream?
-What ones specifically had the Teddy Bear on them?
-Were all gauges beveled glass?
- What was the original brand compass used?
- When or did they use a sensitive alt?
- What hole size were the gauges verses the compass?
- How do Wag Aero's reproductions pass the "Pepsi test"

I would like to see some photos of stock "show Cub" panels, cant seem to find any on the web. Im looking for Originality, How did they come from Piper? Thanks in advance for your advice. There is certainly allot of knowledge here.

Koz
 
Hey Koz, the inst. that I shipped you are an original set for a 46' J-3, the only thing I would do is have the bears put on the airspeed an altimeter if there going in a J-3. I'll send you a pic of the panel in our 43' L-4A that we restored a couple of years ago, it was exactly the same as the post war J-3, exept all the outer rings were balck, in the J-3 only the airspeed, and altimeter, and compass are black, the tach & op/ot had polished rings. We had Keystone do all the inst. they do awesome work. The tach in J-3 was counter clockwise, and the later cream faced tachs in the PA-12's and such were clockwise rotation. The compass could have been Airpath or a B-16 I'm pretty sure, and they are the same size as the airspeed and altimeter. All the gauges should have the beveled glass. The pre-war's used four different tachs Stewart warner w/ a bear, Stewart Warner w/o a bear, and a waltham with the "railroad tracks" with or without the bear.
The U.S. gauges used in the pre-war's are hard to come by. And I would not use wag's cream faced gauges in a authentic resto. they just don't cut it, in my opinion anyway. Clyde Smith junior makes great panels that are exactly orig. just specify what year, they are all pre-cut. Get the December of 2001 Vintage airplane it has a pic of Joe Fleemans J-5 panel, thats how inst. will look when you get them back from Keystone. But on the inst. in the J-5 like the one above, the outer rings on the airspeed, alt, & compass are all panted in wrinkle finish, and the screws were painted over and hidden I don't know how that was done, I'm pretty sure that was only in the J-5. The post war J-3 I believe just had a satin black panel, and the pre-war J-3's had wrinkle finish black panels.
 
Ryan,

Thank you. Do you have any contact info on Clyde Smith?

Koz
 
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