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Monday 9am - 6pm Tuesday 9am - 6pm Wednesday 9am - 6pm Thursday 9am - 6pm Friday 9am - 6pm

Abbott Instrument Restoration

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United States
Portland, OR
Abbott Instrument Restoration

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Concours quality service, repair, and complete cosmetic restoration of vintage temperature, fuel, pressure, amp gauges, speedometers, tachometers and clocks.

We repair gauges to perform the way they did fresh from the factory using NOS parts

10/09/2026

AC manufactured speedometer for a 1958 Willy's M38 before and after (top). VDO manufactured speedometer for a 1971 Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer before and after (bottom). Similar aesthetics and general design but wildly different internals. Both fully disassembled, rebuilt and calibrated to spec. The plastic lenses on both units required a lot of sanding and polishing to get them clear again. The owner of the AC speedo wanted the bezel left as it arrived and the VDO owner elected to have it painted black among other cosmetic improvements made to each.

10/05/2026

1930 Buick Model 40 gauge assortment after and before. All of these gauges are OEM AC manufactured movements with the exception of the hydrostatic fuel gauge which was built by King-Seeley. Each gauge fully restored and calibrated. Fresh plating throughout. The artwork was all fairly strong once we got everything apart and initially cleaned so the customer opted to have us improve upon it as much as possible rather than fully refinishing. We also rebuilt his hydrostatic fuel sending unit but completed this earlier than the gauges so he could install and start the vehicle.

09/21/2026

National Gauge and Electric manufactured mechanical temperature gauge from the 1920s before+after. The gauge was fully rebuilt and the dial refinished. These gauges have some innate design issues but they can be brought back to life and improved in a few ways which make them far more robust.

09/15/2026

Nothing like rebuilding a bezel wind clock that someone else assembled incorrectly and wildly damaged on top of the issues which were already present. She runs strong now. Few more hours carefully assembling and making/fitting a glass lens and it'll actually be done...

08/20/2026

The Cascade Pacific Plymouth Club is having its annual car show this Saturday 8/22/2026 at Clackamette Park in Oregon City. Free admission for spectators opens at 10am. Raffles and silent auction. Always a fun show and the weather looks great so if you are in the area, definitely check it out. See you there

08/18/2026

Backmount MotoMeter manufactured 1931 Auburn temperature gauge after our full salvage...I mean overhaul. This gauge was seen by several different gauge shops before us, one of which refinished the dial but could not get the gauge to function. This was certainly one screwed up movement by the time we received it and it presented with glue on crucial components, leaks, and deformed/jammed gear interfaces... In most instances we would have looked at it and said the gauge is trashed, let's find a more suitable core but you can't do that so easily with Auburn stuff so we rebuilt and fixed all of the craziness. The gauge now fully functions as it should and retains none of the prior "work" except for the refinished dial.

08/14/2026

Stewart Warner blue line marine gauge assortment before and after full rebuild for a hotrod build. Cosmetics all original but greatly improved. All gauges fully serviced and calibrated.

Not for sale 😢. Our customers send us their gauges or cores and we restore them to the level they require for their specific build, be that daily driver or concours show car. Any and all vehicle alterations are taken into account including voltage, polarity, engine, fuel tank, air conditioning, radiator cap pressure etc. Our standard as a vintage restoration shop is to get your authentic gauges functioning as good as, or better than, they ever did new.

08/07/2026

Fuller story... Local car builder calls us and tells us about their saga with an original clock and the gauge shop they used for a full gauge package "Concours restoration" based on a strong referral they received. After numerous times shipping the clock back and forth with said unnamed gauge shop over the course of many months, local builder says the other gauge shop "can't figure out what is wrong with the clock" and asks if we will take a look at it because this vehicle is headed to the 2026 Pebble Beach Concours in days and the clock is n/f...

We hesitantly agree to take a look and see if there is something hiding in the movement that is being overlooked (clocks can hold tricky unintuitive issues and this is what we expect given it's 3+ times of alleged rebuild). We get our hands on the clock and open it up only to immediately identify 3 major red flag issues that any basic clock repair person could identify (2 in the video)... Just over 24 hours later the car builder now has a clock that has actually been overhauled (there were far more issues than the 3 obvious problems initially noted).

In normal circumstances when we agree to rebuild an OEM clock, a process which is incredibly labor and focus intensive, the process takes place over the course of days to weeks with extensive testing to ensure everything really is operating optimally.

FYI: we do not consider ourselves master clock makers/techs, our knowledge and expertise is born entirely out of necessity and experience. So many "automotive clock repair" people have no actual ability beyond marginally cleaning the accessible internals, it's like an auto detailer claiming to be a mechanic because...cars. Dead giveaways that you can use to determine if your "automotive clock repair" person is more auto detailer than mechanic 1) the clock movement is not absolutely pristinely clean 2) wd40 is present or touted as the solution to a problem 3) lubricant is highly visible throughout the movement (specialized lubricants should be used incredibly sparingly and only in very specific places)

Rant complete. Enjoy your weekend 😁

08/05/2026

1940 Mercury gauge cluster before and after rebuild. Original art and plating cleaned and improved as able. All gauges fully rebuilt and calibrated for use in an original 6v+ vehicle (requiring use of the correct sending units which means calibrating the gauges utilizing OEM points style sending units which do not provide continuous output and which are no longer produced). Waltham speedometer fully torn down and rebuilt including both the total and trip odometer assemblies. This cluster is a bit of a chore to rebuild because lots of the components were never intended to be removed or serviced but we got it done and it cleaned up rather nicely.

07/29/2026

Stewart Warner mechanical script and big block speedometers before and after refurbishment. Original dials and artwork cleaned and greatly improved. Following complete rebuild (including the odometer and trip assemblies) these speedometers now accurately convey speed and operate as smoothly as ever. There is a huge difference between a speedometer that "works" because you can forcefully rotate the magnet shaft and one in which you can freely rotate the magnet shaft which is not being bound up from the odometers on back...and no, the fix is never to just add oil and hook it to a drill unless you really like destroying old and ever more rare parts😆

Happy motoring

Address

10860 SW 74th Avenue
Portland, OR
97223

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 6pm
Tuesday	9am - 6pm
Wednesday	9am - 6pm
Thursday	9am - 6pm
Friday	9am - 6pm

Telephone

+15032461287

Website

http://www.abbottinstrumentrestoration.com/

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