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Question for you: Did you do anything to the light channels (or whatever they are called) that light the front of the cluster from the three lights from behind? I replaced the lights with LEDs thinking that would brighten up the cluster, but it's still really dim. I did bypass the dimmer control.
This is something I recommend you verify before putting it all back together.
I masked them all off and that was it. The silver paint had some scratches on the bottom where you could see the clear plastic laying underneath..i had some extra silver paint and touched them up.
Mine is all LED now and when my new lamps module comes next week i can plug it all in...Im assuming it is going to be brighter and crisper. My back ground lighting was never that bad to begin with....not sure why your is dim??
Has anyone tried painting their gauge cluster frame with "Rustoleum flat black for use on plastic" as Tony has used here? How well has it last?
Mine is speckled with this white spots, a lot worse than what's shown on this thread. I scrubbed it off with a plastic pad under warm water and soap and got all of it off. After drying where the white spots were the surface was left with tiny pits. After 3 days of the frame seating in the house the white speckles are coming back on the edges of the frame. Whatever this stuff is I am thinking will come back out through the paint.
My cluster had the speckles also, and after separating the lens and polishing it with Novus plastic compounds, I used red scotchbrite to smooth the zits off of the cluster and to scuff the surface for painting.
I used Krylon plastic primer, and SEM trim black, also a plastics safe paint.
It's been on my cluster for around a year and looked good the last I checked, but the car isn't driving yet so not certain that it's a complete success.
The car is going to be seating outside in the heat. So wonder if the white speckle will grow out again when its humid out there and bubble out the paint work on the cluster.
My garage was into the 120 range this summer, and I haven't noticed anything new on my cluster, but can take a close look if you want an update.
I'm not a professional painter, and the finish wasn't as smooth as I'd have preferred, but it was still far better than the speckled look it came to me with.
I’ve done (2) clusters so far, and tested on a 3rd…
used McGuires PlastX and elbow grease on the lenses…
Cleaned, primed and prepped the gauge house prior to paint. (1) in satin black, and it has been sitting in my shop in heat and humidity for (3) years now with no spots returning……(no pic handy)
I did this recently. I just scuffed the bezel panel with a scotchbrite pad to knock down the highest speckles. I actually thought that maybe those speckles were supposed to be there, so I didn't remove them completely. Then I rinsed the panel with soapy water, let it dry and then painted with Duple-Color "trim paint." I thought it came out pretty well. I did push some little strips of paper towel down into the light channels so as to not get them painted black.
My clear plastic has some pretty egregious scratches on them, but after trying some plastic polish in one area I thought that it left a haze. This haze was evident after several applications. The unfortunate truth is that any abrasive will leave microscopic scores in the surface equal to the abrasive's size, so you'll never achieve a perfectly smooth surface again. So with that thought in mind, I chose to go with what I had and used silicon to reseal the cluster.
Tip: have some compressed air available. Its really hard to keep dust out of your project and you don't want to do all this work to find a little white speck right on your tach after its all put back together. Don't ask how I found that out.
I think those speckles are supposed to be there too. Anybody ever seen a new one and did it have speckles? I’m talking about an older model. At least 82. Did a new one have speckles??
I think those speckles are supposed to be there too. Anybody ever seen a new one and did it have speckles? I’m talking about an older model. At least 82. Did a new one have speckles??
I think those speckles are supposed to be there too. Anybody ever seen a new one and did it have speckles? I’m talking about an older model. At least 82. Did a new one have speckles??
my 88 did not have them when I bought the car. Overtime they developed with the car seating outside. They are not supposed to be there. Just not sure what that stuff is made out of for it to do that with age.
I just thought that it must be some uber-tech light deflection technology that scattered distracting light rays away from the driver's eyes. Good story anyways.....
01-20-2013, 03:26 PM
