Factory Speedo?

[spyderhunter]

I recently bought a Mirage and was told it had a RARE 120mph factory speedometer. I have the dash out and ....well I would like some comments from the Professionals here on the site. Any one else is more than welcome to comment with any light they can shed on this. I have my doubts; but is there any way to tell what options came with the car from the serial# on the car? I don't have the build sheet or anything on the car. Thanks for the input.

[cjbiagi]

MY 75 Monza has a 120 mph speedo. Some later cars only had a 85mph I think. I don't know if I would call it rare, just some years had them and some didn't.

[72 SS PNL]

that speedo is out of a 75 , i can see some cuts in the metal face along the tach and 20-30mph area

[cjbiagi]

Yeah, the tack may indeed be a 75, interesting there is no needle? The needles were white in 75. The rest of the gauges are from a later car.

[spyderhunter]

Yeah, the Mirage is a 77 and the metal cut on the right of the gauge kind of gave it away for me. Now I need to find out if the car really is a Mirage or just a 2+2 with a kit. The drivers side door has stickers inside that says it was altered by Michigan Automotive and the rocker trim has Mirage on it but that stuff could have been added. Also the drivers side door has the adjustable mirror, but the passengers side is not. I'm not going to be happy if I find out I spent the extra money buying and shipping a 2+2 from Arizona to Maine and having to completely redo the entire car. If it is a Mirage then the extra effort and money might barely be worth it in the first place, but I'm not getting a good feeling. The stripes were also painted on the car. I thought they were all stickers.

[cjbiagi]

If I remember correctly the stripes were decals except for around the cowl area which were painted. If the car was repainted at some time they could have easily decided to just paint the stripes on. My guess is that you do have a real Mirage that was just modified a bit over the years.

[my79monza]

Since I bought my Monza which was the base model with no gauges I have been purchasing various instrument panels and gauges and have found that the speedo and tach vary between white needles and red/orange.
My 79 speedo was white as well as my 80 but I have a couple of speedo and tach with the red/orange needle, all I know is they are from somewhere between the 76 and 78 model years.
I did run accross a 100 mph speedo (White needle) and am now installing it along with a NOS gauge instrument panel, I have no clue as what year had the 100 mph speedo.
Rewiring to go to gauges was quite interesting I must say, but patience prevails.

Merle

[72 SS PNL]

sounds like you bought 1 of dans old mirage's

guessing its the blue interior 1 ? atleast i think its the 1 that had the 120 speedo , the sticker in the door is correct , ive seen 1 of his mirages at his old job and it did like like a correct mirage

[spyderhunter]

You're familiar with the car? Yes that's the one. I think it could have easily bought one all done for a lot less than I'll have in this when I'm done. The car really needs everything; The motor has a hole in the base pan, so that doesn't look good even though it turns over by hand. The whole interior other than the back seats needs to be replaced (the door panels are ok,but not perfect), windshield, all gaskets and door rubbers, and the body work. Guess that's why it's a project! But I plan to make it as close to a show car as I can. But I'm sure there will be other things that will slow down the plan.

[gerbsinmd]

Welcome aboard! We'd like to see pics of what you have and progress along the way. Check out my Mirage, it was pretty rough too when I got it. Its come a long way, but its taken 6 years. This place is the place to be for this kind of car.

Darrel

[72 SS PNL]

search for dans(drop the S) posts on here , he had quite a few and info on the company that did the modifications for chevy to get the mirage

did you get the red int or the blue int ? i dont remember which one he said had the 120 i think it was the blue one , and was the 1 he had the longest

[spyderhunter]

I have pics posted under "Mirage restoration in progress"(Scroll down a little). I haven't added any more pics because there hasn't been anyone looking. I appreciate the comments and any information you guys have about the car. I see that Dan has been a member for quite a while and he seemed to know quite a lot about the Mirages. I am learning more as I go. I only remember seeing one back in the early eighties, and I never saw another one since. I always thought it would be cool to have one so now I'm going to find out, I hope. If anyone has information about parts and can't type any faster than I can, I would rather call to discuss and BS all that goes with fixing these up. You guys seem to know an awful lot about it and I've been out of the loop for 20 or so yrs. when it comes to working on cars. I am usually too busy to work on MY stuff, but I'm really excited about this project and I have always wanted to restore an old car. I had 3 spyders when I was younger so this is kinda up my alley. Any help is humbly appreciated. Thanks guys!