gauge dissassembly

[steve8462]

i have a couple of gauges that appear to have gotten moisture in them at some point. once it came into contact with some old Italian dust in there, it dried up and makes the inner glass and other surfaces look dirty. how do i go about taking them apart to clean them?

[rlux4]

Step 1; Remove gauge from dash.
Kidding! (I have no self control, and couldn't resist it.)
But seriously, the bezels are crimped onto the gauge body. It's soft aluminum, so it can be removed by carefully bending the crimp out with a small flat bladed screwdriver. Be patient and don't rush it and you should be OK, the most common mistake is being too agressive in the process. Once you've uncrimped the bezel it will come right off, it's just a matter of pushing the crimped edge back onto the gauge body when your done with the cleaning. This method is most used to replace the famous cloudy clock face.
Ron

[RRoller123]

Anyone tried Rain-X (both sides of glass) to get rid of this damned cloudy clock problem?

Pete

[blurple124]

Anyone tried Rain-X (both sides of glass) to get rid of this damned cloudy clock problem?

No, it wouldn't. Rain-X causes water droplets to bead up and Fog-X prevents fog (moisture). The clouding is caused by UV exposure to the plastic.

Besides, if you were going to go through the effort of removing the plastic to Rain-X both sides, then you are better off just putting in some plexiglass or glass that is clear to begin with. You can find plastics that will not cloud in the sun.

[rlux4]

The cloudy clock face isn't surface discoloration, it goes all the way through the plastic. You can buy new glass from some fo the vendors or make your own. I did it using UV inhibiting Lexan and it worked great. This picture shows the bezel edge that has the ripples from prying it to uncrimp it from the body.

Ron

[RRoller123]

Interesting! Thanks for the explanation. Wonder why only this instrument has the problem, not the others? The others get a little cloudy but then dry out when the sun warms things up. I would expect Rain-X would work on those. I guess the clock was manufactured by a different original supplier? Lexan (acrylic) with a UV inhibitor would fix it for sure.

[GeorgeT]

Interesting! Thanks for the explanation. Wonder why only this instrument has the problem, not the others? The others get a little cloudy but then dry out when the sun warms things up. I would expect Rain-X would work on those. I guess the clock was manufactured by a different original supplier? Lexan (acrylic) with a UV inhibitor would fix it for sure.

The clock is the only instrument to have a plastic face; presumably since it's much easier to drill a hole (for the stem) in plastic than in glass.

[steve8462]

thanks for the tip on carefully prying off the bezel. i am going to attempt it tonight. last night i finished the fuel system and installed the front brakes and calipers. the wheels are being media blasted as we speak. tonight i will hopefully finish the gauges and put the dash back together and toss a seat in it for its first test drive. keeping my fingers crossed.

[steve8462]

does anybody have two large black bezels they would be willing to part with? i need to replace the sppedo & the tach bezels