Finished the restoration on my instrument cluster. The aim was to take the cluster back to as close to factory specs as possible. I may at one stage in the future replace the speedometer as its face isn’t 100% with a little surface rust in a few spots but for the moment its good enough.
The speedometer was replaced with another a while ago by the PO as the one that was on there had severe rust issues. The record of the original mileage on the vehicle was lost and as the odometer reading was therefore meaningless I reset it back to 0. As I am doing a frame-off restoration and pretty much everything is going to be rebuilt this is going to make it easier for me to keep track of things.
I started of by completely disassembling the cluster. You will notice the damage done by the PO to the bezel by using long nosed pliers. For some reason this seems to be the tool of choice for disassembling/assembling instrument clusters by 40’s owners. Every second pic I see of a cluster has this damage. The bezel is made from tin-can material and is very easily damaged and long nosed pliers should not be used under any circumstances. They are a poor choice of tool for anything requiring the bending of tabs as they will cause damage, even if just to the tabs. If you are going to use pliers then use small electronics type pliers with no teeth and make sure the ends are as thin as possible. Bending back the tabs on the cluster can be accomplished with the handle of a plastic screwdriver taking care not to crush the bezel.
Once the cluster is disassembled you can remove the three glass pieces from the rubber seals after which the seals can be removed by carefully pulling them off, they are attached with glue (I remounted them with a small amount of silastic). There was an amazing amount of dust and crud trapped around the seals on mine which no doubt was contributing to the rust that was starting to form in those areas. I removed the glue from the seals with a bit of thinners. I then stripped the paint and pickled the bezel in an acid solution to remove the rust and the old zinc plating. Third pic shows bezel out of the pickle batch with a bit of wire wheeling done. The other pieces were also pickled and then everything was re-plated and chromated. There are three foam gaskets that will have to be replaced (one for high-beam, two for indicators) as these will most likely be crumbling and adding dust to the inside of the cluster). I re-painted the faded needles with HiPo Parts HP-FLRED-01 Speedo/Gauge Needle Fluorescent Red Paint. The inside of the frame also needed to be done in white paint. Bezel was sprayed in a colour matched paint.
I do not recommend plating complex parts such as these to noobs. Get your techniques right first and do a bit of plating before attempting them. Plating things with nooks and crannies takes a bit of attention and know-how to get right and you want your mind on the job not on things you should already know. Lastly, handle the chromated parts with cotton gloves as the acid on your hands will corrode the parts over time and you are going to be doing a fair amount of handling when re-assembling.
The speedometer was replaced with another a while ago by the PO as the one that was on there had severe rust issues. The record of the original mileage on the vehicle was lost and as the odometer reading was therefore meaningless I reset it back to 0. As I am doing a frame-off restoration and pretty much everything is going to be rebuilt this is going to make it easier for me to keep track of things.
I started of by completely disassembling the cluster. You will notice the damage done by the PO to the bezel by using long nosed pliers. For some reason this seems to be the tool of choice for disassembling/assembling instrument clusters by 40’s owners. Every second pic I see of a cluster has this damage. The bezel is made from tin-can material and is very easily damaged and long nosed pliers should not be used under any circumstances. They are a poor choice of tool for anything requiring the bending of tabs as they will cause damage, even if just to the tabs. If you are going to use pliers then use small electronics type pliers with no teeth and make sure the ends are as thin as possible. Bending back the tabs on the cluster can be accomplished with the handle of a plastic screwdriver taking care not to crush the bezel.
Once the cluster is disassembled you can remove the three glass pieces from the rubber seals after which the seals can be removed by carefully pulling them off, they are attached with glue (I remounted them with a small amount of silastic). There was an amazing amount of dust and crud trapped around the seals on mine which no doubt was contributing to the rust that was starting to form in those areas. I removed the glue from the seals with a bit of thinners. I then stripped the paint and pickled the bezel in an acid solution to remove the rust and the old zinc plating. Third pic shows bezel out of the pickle batch with a bit of wire wheeling done. The other pieces were also pickled and then everything was re-plated and chromated. There are three foam gaskets that will have to be replaced (one for high-beam, two for indicators) as these will most likely be crumbling and adding dust to the inside of the cluster). I re-painted the faded needles with HiPo Parts HP-FLRED-01 Speedo/Gauge Needle Fluorescent Red Paint. The inside of the frame also needed to be done in white paint. Bezel was sprayed in a colour matched paint.
I do not recommend plating complex parts such as these to noobs. Get your techniques right first and do a bit of plating before attempting them. Plating things with nooks and crannies takes a bit of attention and know-how to get right and you want your mind on the job not on things you should already know. Lastly, handle the chromated parts with cotton gloves as the acid on your hands will corrode the parts over time and you are going to be doing a fair amount of handling when re-assembling.
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