Restoring instrument cluster

[2low72]

Whats the easiest way( if any) to restore an instrument cluster. Ive heard talk about it but not sure how to do it without breaking anything. thanks

[krue]

What are you wanting to do to it? New bezels can be had fairly cheap from some of the vendors that hang out here.

[402GLH]

They aren't too hard to take apart.. I broke mine down, cleaned it up and put it back togather, didn't run into any of those "Suprises" where springs etc jump out .. and you go "Oh Sh#$"..

You can match the paint on the needles, but I am not sure about the greenish/white background paint..

[Ruckus]

You can do a search on it....I took the advice of others: Wal-Mart has it : Krylon paint, fluorescent orange, and the pale green color. Both colors matched very well- I just did mine yesterday. Looks almost new and it wan't hard.

[Pilgrim]

Removed mine, cleaned it up, repainted where necessary, repainted needles, cleaned inside of lens. Much easier than working on a heater coil, and like 402GLH said, no snakes...

While the cluster is out, good time to check wiring, wiper and washer pump motors, leaks in firewall, defroster duct, vacuum out crud.

[Longhorn Man]

Something you can do while it is apart, is painting all that funky green white. It'll give off more light, and in a brighter color at night. You'll actually be able to read your guages at a glance instead of doing a double take.
Here is a pic pirated from Josh.

[71Chevy4-speed]

Hmm...everytime I think about doing something and might ask a question...its already on here...lol. I love this website. quick question...what is the gauge next to the the oil pressure that is blank?... Its not coming to me what it could be. I was thinking volt meter or auxilary fuel tank gauge?...and what are the lines on the side of the fuel guage?

[bpmcgee]

Vacuum.

And mine isn't blank!

Brian

[Longhorn Man]

The 'blank' hole is used for a vacume guage or an air pressure guage on the C/40 and bigger trucks, but in the light duty rigs, they were always blank.
As for lines on the side of the fuel guage...

[too much stuff]

The lines on the side of the fuel, are you referring to the idiot lights for brake and temp?

[Jeepster376]

Is it a big deal to add a vacuum guage? Is there anyplace where one could be ordered? I'd love to add one. LMC Truck lists all but the vacuum guage.

[Warbones]

My oil pressure guage is loose after I put it all back together. I don't know if this is common or if you will run into the same problem. I go to tighten it and find that it is all crooked afterwards. I need to remove and restart. What type of guage cluster do you have?

[Low69CST]

I put a new bezel and lens in mine. If you reuse your old lens, get some rubbing compound at a car parts store. That will take out most of the scratches and shine it up some. The white stripes on the guages will smear if you use a wet rag to clean them, but they will clean back up with a dry rag imediately after.

[71Chevy4-speed]

hmm thats cool. I wasn't refering to the idiot lights...to much stuff.... I ment the lines next to them on the side.

[jmanz69]

There is no purpose to the lines, just there for looks. They don't go to some super obscure guage that no one has. It would look lop-sided if the speedo has lines all around and the fuel gauge didn't.

[jorgensensc]

Go to www.durangedesign.com and get theoverlays for the gauges. Ask for the black with white lines and he will make them for you, no problem. That is what I did and mine look brand new. The lines on the overlays aren't perfect, but they are not bad for a driver. Then just paint the needles orange and you are good to go. I also recommend painting the back of the instrument cluster white, it really improves the brightness!
Shawn

[bouncytruck]

jorgensensc - can you post pics of your gauges with the overlays? I have a tach dash that I'm working on but some of the gauges have surface rust, including the tach. I could easily swap the rest of the gauges with my current cluster but I would still have some surface rust on the tach. I was thinking about getting their white face kit, but I don't really want white gauge faces.

[jorgensensc]

sure, I willl post them tonight when I get home.

[Josh]

Just a quick thing about durange designs, they were banned from this board for spamming, and refusing to pay an advertisers fee.

[jorgensensc]

I was unaware of that Josh Sorry I will not recommend them on this forum again.
Shawn

[bouncytruck]

Josh, I'll avoid their products then. Do you know of any other companies that make a similar product?