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Pat Garvey
I have a complete spare set VDO guages that I picked up thru the years, plus a metric speedo (it was free). Want these to be ready off-the-shelf for use, but the insides of the glass (early, I believe) are fogged up. I know the later ones have plastic lenses, but mine are from '71 & '72. Want to clean 'em up.

Looked at PP articles about this, but they seemed a little "barbaric" when it comes to getting the lens out.

Anyone have any tips on how to remove the bezels, without damaging them? No, I don't need them & am unwilling to send them to Palo Alto & spending a bunch of bucks on them. Something I can do myself, please?
70Sixter
I did it once. Not pretty from the back, tho. But the rubber gasket hid it.

You just have to work a thin blade around between the rim and the gage. Slowly and patiently.

Putting it back together was no fun either. Bend and tap, tap, tap.
Pat Garvey
QUOTE(70Sixter @ Nov 9 2006, 05:27 PM) *

I did it once. Not pretty from the back, tho. But the rubber gasket hid it.

You just have to work a thin blade around between the rim and the gage. Slowly and patiently.

Putting it back together was no fun either. Bend and tap, tap, tap.

Yeah, got that impression from a PP link. Steady & slow.

Guess the VDO speedo shops probably replace the outer bezel & have a special crimping tool to do so.

I'll do these myself, because they're spares & nothing lost if I screw one up.

Thanks for the input!
914-8
Yeah, a shop would use a new bezel.

But it's not hard to reuse the old one. The metal is fairly soft and easy to peel back and tap back down. If you want, after you get it tapped down as nicely as possible, you can sand the now slightly wavy tapped down backside of the bezel, mask it off, and hit it with some flat or semiflat black. If you're reasonably careful, it can look surprisingly good.

Of course, once you push the rubber gasket in place, the backside of the bezel isn't visible anymore, even when the gauge is off the car.

But none of this affects the way the gauge looks once it's mounted back in the car.
Pat Garvey
QUOTE(914-8 @ Nov 9 2006, 09:17 PM) *

Yeah, a shop would use a new bezel.

But it's not hard to reuse the old one. The metal is fairly soft and easy to peel back and tap back down. If you want, after you get it tapped down as nicely as possible, you can sand the now slightly wavy tapped down backside of the bezel, mask it off, and hit it with some flat or semiflat black. If you're reasonably careful, it can look surprisingly good.

Of course, once you push the rubber gasket in place, the backside of the bezel isn't visible anymore, even when the gauge is off the car.

But none of this affects the way the gauge looks once it's mounted back in the car.

I'm sure new bezels are available. Ant idea what type of compression tool is used to form the in place?
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