So I didn't get really detailed step by step pics, but though this might help someone, so I'll post it here anyway. I was in the middle of a dash teardown, vent cleanout, and dash respray and decided to take the opportunity to redo my gauges a little.

The tricky part is taking your clear lens off without cracking the hell out of it. Just gently pry at it and try to stay close to the edges.

Once you have your lens off you can use small brushes and Q-tips to clean out any dirt, dead bugs, and junk. My needles were super faded. You can repaint them with a small detail brush and some Testors model car enamel. I used plain red on mine.

My lens was full of pitting and swirl marks and honestly it was so ridiculously cloudy that it drove me nuts trying to look through it. I'm sure there are all sorts of great products out there to buff the plastic with. I ended up using McGuire's cleaner wax first, then finished off with McGuire's show polish wax. I just used an El-Cheapo buffer from Autozone with the replacement terry cloth buffing pads.

Here are some pics.

Before:


After:


After it's all said and done, just use some super glue around the edge where the lens sits on the cluster and it should be good for a while longer.

 

Good little write up.

I did something similar for the gauges on my 72. Spent a good 3 hours cleaning, painting, and resealing them and im still not 100% happy. But for being 43 years old they look pretty good lol

 

Thanks man. Yeah I couldn't get 100% of the swirl marks and pitting out of my lens either, but man what a difference. I sat in the truck and just looked at it for a few minutes thinking "Damn that looks so much better."



Here's a few shots of the dash respray I'm working on using Krylon fusion satin black. Very happy with the results thus far. Trading my stock steering wheel for an old school Grant GT soon. Can't wait to get this interior all done.

Before:



After:

 

Throwing some wide angle cool white 194 LED bulbs into the cluster makes a huge difference too.

 

I'm thinking about picking up some red ones. Dunno yet though.

 

I just put some white 360 LED'S in my dash. Love'em! Big difference.

 

I think the white LED's are the way to go. I had red ones in my cluster for a while and I thought the color was good and all, but it was a little harder to see the guages. I have the white LED's now and I think it's way better

 

After you guys suggesting and giving good reviews on the white LED, I've been looking at a ton of pics on the old Google machine and think I'm liking the white more now.

The red ones seem to be a borderline pinkish shade of red. I want to put some red digital gauges in later down the road for oil pressure, water temp, etc. So that's why I was wanting to go with red, just to keep the same color across the board. The white one's look a lot cleaner and have a more crisp look to them though.

I'll try to get a close up picture of the gauge needles and the brush I used later on today.

 

Totally forgot to get the close up of the needles. This is the best I could get.

 

rite on! they look pretty darn smooth! nice change...

 

Thanks man.

 

Looking good man!

I'm only using a little bit of cooking oil (just a few drops) on a clean rag every single day. And it actually works.

 

To buff your lens cover? How many days have you been working on it?

I've heard of people using toothpaste to buff clear plastic also.

 

Usually it takes me 2 days, wash n dry then repeat on the 2nd day.