Does anyone by chance know the font that is used on these Daytona gauges? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Which...the nos. or the Veglia type in the center? It may be hard to determine as a "font" - a lot of manufactured applications of type (such as this) were one -off art with film negatives created for silkscreen purposes. Obviously, it had to come from some original art, but in that time period, photo-reproduced type came from a fairly limited number of families, and something distinctive was usually either created/owned by a company or one-off art. It looks like a variant of "Optima" but the thick/thin relationship is not dramatic enough, and the lopped "4" says this is either a custom typeface or doctored for the application. The silkscreen application can also inhibit the accurate reproduction of the type, which amy account for the uniform thicknesses. The Veglia could be any number of variants of Engraver's Gothic - the sans serif all caps is very common- the proportion of single elements is the only thing that distinguishes individual fonts in this wide-ranging family. We recently had to create custom art for a manufacturer who was recreating a metal stamp to accurately reproduce some OEM markings on a very good repro steering wheel, as there was no "font" to work from. It was painstaking, but ultimately you would have to carbon date the wheel to tell it from an original. What do you need to make with the font?
Sorry, after almost 100 views, I didn't think I was going to get a response. I am not exactly sure what is planned for the gauges. The Daytona owner had extra gauges after his restoration was complete and he asked me if I could replicate the gauge face. I told him that a template could be made for screening, but it would be easier if I could locate the font. I know that there is a company in the upstate that restores gauges, perhaps I should try to contact them.
