Refreshing the Optional Gauges

Old Blue came from the factory with the optional Alternator and Oil Pressure gauges mounted on the outer flats of the bezel. To mount them I will have to drill holes for each of them in the reproduced bezel, however before doing this, I will clean the chrome, polish the plastic and repaint the needles so they are fluorescent red again instead of the faded orange they are today.

1966 Ford F-250 Custom Cab Instrument Cluster

Tasks:
1. Breaking down each gauge
2. Removing rust and polishing chrome on the rings
3. Polishing the plastic lens
4. Painting the needles

ALT Gauge removed from bezel - rust on face ring 

Breaking Down the Gauges
To clean the gauges I will break them down to their components parts, which requires a small flat head screwdriver to pry up the retaining tabs located around the lip of the chrome ring. There are 5 tabs and you want to take care not to bend them back and forth as they can break off with too much movement.

Removing Cover Ring

Lift the tabs and the chrome ring separates from the gauge housing, allowing the plastic lens holding ring to be lifted off the gauge. The lens separates by gently pushing up from the back of the holding ring.

The lens holding ring has a slot at the top and the lens fits into this slot to allow light from the bulb in the gauge housing to illuminate the face of the gauge at night. The lens can only fit one way into the holding ring.

The lens is plastic

The Face plate on these gauges are chromed metal and the inner face is painted argent just like other surfaces on the bezel.

Removing Rust and Polishing the Ring: 

Face Ring 

The ring has rust and pitting on the chrome so we will use the same techniques we use with our bicycle handles ... using aluminium foil dipped in a little water, we rub the surface of the chrome lightly removing rust and bumps. I want to take care not to mess with the argent inner surface as I do not want to repaint since they are in pretty good shape.

I will use Mothers Chrome polish to shine up the surface and we should be good to go !

Polishing the Plastic:
The plastic lens has a few scratches and is dirty so we will use the Novus product recommended by TAP plastics to remove scatches in plastic and to give the surface a clean surface. The Novus products work well and I use the #2 and #1 only on the gauge lens. I carefully avoid the white paint on the lens (OIL / ALT) so I do not mess up the original mask.

Plastic Scratch Remover and Polish 

Painting the Needles:

The needle in the gauge has faded through the years and is now a light orange color. Reading on the FE forums from others who have refreshed their gauges I follow their recommendations and get a RED FLUORESCENT paint pen from the local Michaels. I selected the liquitex brand. Everything I read said to make sure you get fluorescent paint as normal red will not show up as well when driving at night with lights. 

I slip a piece of newspaper between the

Ready to paint needle

needle and the black background to keep from messing up the black and gently apply the red paint to the needle ... 

Red Paint Pen

The needles are delicate and move around a bit. I took care not to push too hard or to bend the needles and just gently stroked on the paint, occasionally, pushing the pen down on a piece of newspapers to keep the paint flowing. The shape of the needles required I paint the left side and right side separately, doing a couple of coats to cover the needle completely.

Reassembling the gauge is just the reverse of the tear down process, once again take care when bending the ring tabs.

Refreshed Optional Gauges

I am pretty happy with how they turned out.