Gauges

[bezhawk]

It's been pretty cold, so instead of heat up the whole shop, I 've been working in the front office area, rebuilding gauges. The 2nd photo shos the redlines touched up, and the face cleaned, and the needle repainted

[swvalcon]

Looks good. Same here it's been so cold I haven't went out to the shop at all. Only -19 this morning.

[TWChamp]

I just bought a set of gauges for a 1950 Commander, but the needle of the oil gauge is getting dark.
These are the glow in the dark gauges, and I'd like to recoat the needle if it's possible.
These are nicer than the ones in the Land Cruiser, so I'll swap them.

[StudeRich]

Nice work Bez, they look Great! Are the Red/Orange markings the only thing that is actually re-painted?
That HAS to be an Art.

[ndynis]

What StudeRich said. Great looking.
Nick

[bezhawk]

Nice work Bez, they look Great! Are the Red/Orange markings the only thing that is actually re-painted?
That HAS to be an Art.

Yes, well....no the face gets scrubbed with denatured alcohol, and cotton balls. Then I matte clear the whole face. This brightens the white, and darkens the black. Speedo gets oiled, and cleaned, and sprayed down with more alcohol and blown dry, then sewing machine oil on pivots, and grease on the odometer gears. Then more cleaning on the face to prevent fisheyes when applying the clear.
Clocks get the winding coil removed, and the mechanism under checked for wear. The points are dressed with a fine diamond wheel on a Fordham flex shaft from my jewelry days. Then the mechanism gets blasted with Kroil and blown clean, blasted with alcohol, and blown clean again, thn sewing machine oil on pivots. The face gets the same treatment as getting the needles painted, and faces cleared. The lens is plastic on Avanti clocks, so they get polished.
Tachs get checked to make sure the pivots are tight, and the moving coil magnet has free full sweep without rubbing anything. The light mask behind the lenses get sand blasted, and repainted white on the back side, and flat black on the front. The bezels never get hammered back in place, but I roll them on without any shock to the instrument.
If the rectifiers are burnt or resistors, or plain wire coils burnt then I can repair them, but resistance heat wires I can't . Anything worse to the faces and guts, I would send out to be professionally re-faced.

[52-fan]

I just bought a set of gauges for a 1950 Commander, but the needle of the oil gauge is getting dark.
These are the glow in the dark gauges, and I'd like to recoat the needle if it's possible.
These are nicer than the ones in the Land Cruiser, so I'll swap them.

Some of my needles were chipped. I used a mixture of glow-in-the-dark craft paint and some gray acrylic paint on mine. Both came from Wal-Mart. The glow paint was too green so I kept mixing in grey until it looked right. I still need to improve my dash lights, but it does glow.
BTW Cleaning the faces with alcohol did wonders. The gauges were in better shape than they first appeared.

[TWChamp]

Some of my needles were chipped. I used a mixture of glow-in-the-dark craft paint and some gray acrylic paint on mine. Both came from Wal-Mart. The glow paint was too green so I kept mixing in grey until it looked right. I still need to improve my dash lights, but it does glow.
BTW Cleaning the faces with alcohol did wonders. The gauges were in better shape than they first appeared.

Now, that's another very nice improvement. I'll have to check out the glow paint from Wal-Mart, as well as craft stores.

BTW, when I bought my 50 Champion about 4 years ago, the gauges were so dim that I thought all the bulbs were burned out. After I let the car set outside in the bright sunlight a few times, it seems they are much brighter now.

[StudeRich]

Tom (TWChamp), you probably have a lot of dust and dirt on the Ultra Violet Lenses in the Gauges, loose Bulb sockets, dead bulbs etc. unless you have been there, Done that already.

[ddub]

Bez, what paint did you use on the needles?

[bezhawk]

Orange Acrylic enamel from a hobby store.

[TWChamp]

Tom (TWChamp), you probably have a lot of dust and dirt on the Ultra Violet Lenses in the Gauges, loose Bulb sockets, dead bulbs etc. unless you have been there, Done that already.

I was thinking it could be that also, but am not looking forward to laying upside down under the dash. I'm not a teen anymore. LOL

[lschuc]

I was thinking it could be that also, but am not looking forward to laying upside down under the dash. I'm not a teen anymore. LOL

It's much quicker and easier to take the Avanti dash out of the car.

[52-fan]

I was thinking it could be that also, but am not looking forward to laying upside down under the dash. I'm not a teen anymore. LOL

I just took mine apart. I had to figure out things that Leonard had done anyway so it was easier. Not bad if you take your time.

[TWChamp]

The round gauge clusters on my 50 Commanders are easy to remove, but the 50 Champion doesn't look like it's nearly as easy.