Zero odometer or not

[Philip A.]

Car is a mid-year undergoing complete frame on restoration. Entire driveline redone. When having the cluster restored would you zero the odometert, why, and what are the pro and cons?

[Michael W.]

Re: Zero odometer or not

'Zero' on the odometer infers that the entire car is 100% new, unused and untouched. There's a reason the aviation industry uses the terms TSN (time since new) and TSO (time since overhaul).

[John H.]

Re: Zero odometer or not

Car is a mid-year undergoing complete frame on restoration. Entire driveline redone. When having the cluster restored would you zero the odometert, why, and what are the pro and cons?

Phil -

I left mine alone - people get a kick out of looking at what appears to be a brand new car with 87,000 miles on it.

[Patrick S.]

Re: Zero odometer or not

IMO if the car has a title that shows the milage, you should leave the original milage. That is what I did.
Pat

[Mike M.]

Re: Zero odometer or not

i've never rolled back the odometer on any of the numerous c-1 and c-2's i've restored over the years. mike

[Tom P.]

Re: Zero odometer or not

In May of 1981 when I bought my 63 SWC, nothing worked on the dash and it showed 54,075 miles.

In those days you didn't' just " send your cluster out", so I scrounged for parts, learned how things worked and reset her mileage to zero.

Today she shows 56,766 miles of smiles. We have been to Bloomington, Carlisle, Bowling Green, Mount Washington, up and down the Blue Ridge and all the way to Key West. A Top Flight at the 2010 Florida Regional was a highlight.

The true mileage has never been a secret.

But after 30 years, Blue Thunder is for sale, and I always regret that I reset the mileage to zero.

I hate to think I'm getting old, but my advice is to leave the mileage be.

[Joe L.]

Re: Zero odometer or not

Car is a mid-year undergoing complete frame on restoration. Entire driveline redone. When having the cluster restored would you zero the odometert, why, and what are the pro and cons?

Phil-------



The mileage on my 1969 currently reads "00000.0". However, I never reset it. Just before I put it in the garage "several years ago" for the current project, it was near to "turning over". So, I drove it around until it got very close and then I drove it up and down my street to get it right to the above referenced point and I backed it into the garage. The car actually has 200,000 miles on it, but no one other than I that's owned the car since new would know that.

The point here is this: with old cars that the odometer only reads to 99,999.9, the speedometer "resets to zero" every time 100,000 miles is "racked up". So, when one finds a car with a certain mileage, say 26,375, one does not know whether that means 26,375, 126,375, 226,375, 336,375, etc. I firmly believe that most of these "low mileage" old Corvettes have more than 100,000 miles on them. So, what it says on their odometers really means nothing.

So, I would not bother resetting it to zero. For one thing, it's against the law. For another thing, as I described above, it means nothing, anyway.

[Randall K.]

Re: Zero odometer or not

Interesting topic, as I recently sent my '72 speedo out for restoration to a vendor highly recommended by several NCRS members - and came back reset to 0. While I wasn't expecting that, if nothing else it just advanced my miles unnecessarily by about 4,000 (odometer showed approx. 96000 when I sent it out).

I supposed the tip for people sending their speedos out for restoration is to record their odometer reading, and ask whether or not the reading can be preserved during restoration.

[Paul J.]

Re: Zero odometer or not

'Zero' on the odometer infers that the entire car is 100% new, unused and untouched. There's a reason the aviation industry uses the terms TSN (time since new) and TSO (time since overhaul).

Zero means 100k miles on an older car, or perhaps even more, as Joe suggests.

However, I'll probably reset mine, since the mileage on it is incorrect, and it will give me an easy way to tell the mileage since the complete rebuild.

[Pat M.]

Re: Zero odometer or not

I wouldn't reset it. My 70 reads around 30K, and I know from its history that means at least 130K, and maybe 230K. But I just like knowing its continuously been recording actual mileage.

Also, doesn't turning back old odos cause telltale white lines around the numeral columns?

[Al R.]

Re: Zero odometer or not

I recently sent mine out for restoration. The highly respected restorer called me to ask what I wanted to do about the mileage. The odometer did not work when I purchased the car, so I told him to reset to 000000. That way I can keep up with miles since rest. and maint. a lot better. In N.C., there's a box u check on the title stating the true mileage is unknown, which it is, so no deceit is there. I guess it's up to each individual!