I have some down time while I am waiting for a quote for some body work. I took the opportunity to focus on the interior a little. Plus the car will be sitting for the winter. I started to rip out my guage cluster and was wondering what others have done to re-finish it. So far I have stripped the guages and cleaned up the glass. It was real foggy. I also sanded the guage holder down to bare metal and primed it. Not sure if I am going to plate it or just simply paint it. I think I am going to paint the rings with 2 different colors. The pictures show the guages back to gether but not re-crimped. If anyone has done anything to make them look better let me know.

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i painted mine flat black to reduce reflection.

Thats kind of what I thought I wanted to do. I will paint tonight and post a pic in the morning.

Not sure if I am crazy about the red but overall it`s not bad. I do like the new lights that I added for the gen, and oil
warning. Deffinently looks better than rust.



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Those red inner accents kinda make the gauge pod look like something the might have come from the Porsche Speedster re-issue based on the 911 body from a handful of years ago. Remember the race-ready interior, mostly black with red accents that matched the body and (sometimes) wheel color?

http://www.performance2and4.co.uk/964_speedster_n.htm

I'm sure that you'll come to love it real soon: I do already !

Thanks for the feed back. I am also in the process of re-doing my dash. I have some ideas for for accenting the black vinyl with a hint of red on the edges (I have never attempted to cover a cracked dash). I have modeled it in pro-e and it looks kind of cool. Worst case is that it looks horrible and I rip it out.
Thanks again.

Joe...I like the red accent that you added to your gauges and I'll be looking forward to seeing what you with your dash. I'm toying with the idea of taking one of my extra cracked dashes and experiement with it. Posssibly glassing the entire dash and then spraying it with a textured vinyl paint. Just thinking...

i don't think anyone has admitted to liking my dash (except me), but it matched the bumblebee body paint i did.
a couple other things i did where to add the 911 oil temp gauge, replaced the faded lens for the low fuel warning light with a peice of reflector for better visibility, added small light pods for e-brake (and a spare yet to be used). i also repainted the rev warning indicator.
of all the things i have done, this is about the most satisfying accomplishment for me. i still have more to add at some point...
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I kinda like it, but please don't paint your stearingwheel.

I definitely like the accent color around the gauges, both red & yellow.

How do you disassemble the gauges? I need to take mine apart & clean them up at some point, and taking the bazel apart would make it much easier.

my tool was a medium sized pair of tweezers. i bent the business ends to 90°, one very small tip, and one about 1/8th inch. it helped me pry the bezel up without hacking it too much.

once the edge is up you can gat a small screwdriver in there to work it.

getting it bent back down is tougher in a way.

COOL ! ! ! Those yellow accents rings against the gray and carbon fiber-look is terrific. I kinda agree that the yellow wheel accent detracts from the elegance of the gauges though. They're lost behind the wheel . . . maybe paint the horn "ring" gray to match the bezels with a yellow pin line surrounding it, or dress out an aftermarket wheel to look a little like this MOMO?

http://www.momousa.com/detail.php?category...amp;product=409

thanks, tc
i have been thinking about the gray (testors "panzer gray" rattlecan from the hobby shop) instead of the yellow on the horn pad. nice call on the pin line.

i like that momo. i have an old school momo, but no center button. so i'm waiting until i find one then i'll try it out.

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I think you can see from the pic that I was in need of some updating. I think I will work on the vinyl this weekend and hopeffuly have it re-assembled by late sunday. I do have spend some time watching the Pats beat up on the Colts though.

I used a screwdriver to gently pry the ring pieces off. You have to kind of bend the edges outward and than pry it open. Putting back together is tough but be patient.

It`s been over a week and I finally managed to get some time to work on my dash a little. Remember this is only an experiment and it is not done yet. I think that with a little more work My old cracked dash might be a little more presentable. With that said the only real way to have a mint dash would be to buy a new one. I found that covers are about $100+. My first attempt is a $7 fix. Here is a pic of what it looks like after the first pass.

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I wish I had some full pics to show of before because there were many cracks all around. I will look for some pics later and I will post a pic after" phase2"

Found 1 before pic. Not the best but is`s all I could find



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WHOA ! ! ! ! WOW ! ! ! How did you Do that!?

Joe, that looks unbelievable! Can you run through a quick materials list and procedural? It's just beyond belief that those two pics are of the same dash.


Lotus65,

I grabbed up some of the carbon fiber-look covering, like yours, from the internet last week . . . and copied you on the gauge bracket. That stuff is really, REALLY neat! Mostly straight forward application and, with a little heat, conforms to nearly every shape that you throw at it.

I also did one up in black crinkle paint, one in metallic anthracite gray, and left the plastic textured one as-is, just to see . . . out of them all, your idea looks the best.

Thanks. I still want to let everything settle before I declare victory. I just hope people dont look at my work and call it a hack. My intent is for the typical guy on a budget to fix something that looks horrible. i guess that kind of means it is a hack but oh well. It is an inexpensive solution. What I did was buy some plastic filler made by "loctite". It is sold at Walmart for about $2. I filled in all the cracks and let them dry for a few hours. Next I sanded them smooth to the surface. I cleaned the surface with some fantastik. Also at Walmart I found some truck bed coating that has a VINYL POLYMER BASE. I sprayed the whole surface of the dash. I am a little concerned because some spots dried with a little bit of wrinkle. I am wondering if I should have applied a primer first. I think I am going to strip it down and primer it first and than repeat it. I will provide pics later. The ni ce thing is that the coating has a texture so if some of the spots are not sanded great it kind of covers them. The coating is called Dupli-color truck bed coating.

Lotus65,

Is that a recent change? I don't remember that from the get together. I like it!!

I agree, I'd probably leave the wheel black or paint it grey. That way, the gauges and the very nicely painted horn crest draw your eye. Did you paint the horn crest yourself? If so, what did you use? I was planning to either paint mine or buy an aftermarket one to attach. I think the way you did yours looks cleaner.

I also like the red accent to the bezels. I think accent touches like these that match the body color or paint scheme, like your bumblebee, help tie the car together better.

Here is a pic (taken with my old crappy camera) of my gauges. I painted the needles all white so that the blue LED lights would be better reflected by them.Click to view attachment

Then I added an extra bung in the dead zone on the top of the tach so the light would be more uniform.Click to view attachment

Then I added aluminum bezels to al the gauges to match both the dark silver grey of the car and to match the silver buttons in teh center of the gauges.Click to view attachment

DR Evil,
I am starting to experiment with my own faceplate. I have a prototype made and it looks kind of sweet. I am not sure of the color yet but it is multilayered so during the day it is an orange color but at night it is close to the color of yours. I need some LED`S to finish it. Here is a quick picture of what it will look like during the day. For now I have a Porsche crest but I am not sure what the final product will look like. I will post some pic`s when I am done. The final face will not have the black and will be clean.

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