Task Force Instrument Cluster Refurbish

[Dan in Pasadena]

This same info is in my chron thread (Danny Boy is BAACK!!) but I thought maybe it would be hard to find for someone searching for JUST info on instrument clusters, guages, etc. This is NOT a show worthy restoration by any means. It is a garage workbench job for a daily driver (mine) using commonly available parts and materials.

My existing cluster had cracked plastic, faded and chipped off odometer numbers to the point of being invisible. There was oil seepage from the oil pressure guage, 50 years of dust, lost screws and pitted chrome. Hopefully, this helps someone else:

Before, front and back:




Oh, and the invisible odometer numbers:


I totally took it apart, noted missing screws, and assessed what I was going to have to do to make it acceptable to me? Wire wheeling (bead blasting would be better, but I can't do that...yet!) painting the faces flat black, find a paint for the interior as mine was flaking off, new green plastic for the signal arrows, new lense, new chrome bezel.


I found that THIS Rustoleum paint; Satin Apple Green, comes somewhat close to the color of the cluster interior. For a restoration its not close enough. For a driver? Close enough for me! Brighter, but that's ok.


Odo numbers partly replaced to show the difference! By the way, instructions say to sand the old numbers, I didn't. I wiped them all down well with Acetone. WE'll see if that comes bac kto bite me


Reassembling after painting everything. You can see the El Cheapo flat black I used on the guage faces. I had it already and figured, "What the heck". I think it came out fine...for a driver


The needles were all faded to nearly white so I masked the small ones with aluminum foil and took of the speedo needle to spray it all using the same apple green.


That's it for now. I will go over to The Truck Shop in Orange, CA tomorrow to get new green plastic for my signal arrows. I REALLY wanted to finish it up this weekend but hated to reuse the old faded out crap. Plus, after getting everything looking so much better I decided to use something better than my scratched and pitted chrome bezel.