Instrument Cluster Restoration Tips , 1967-72 A-body , 1970-76 A-body

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BLKNBLU340DSTR

1971 Duster 340
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Livermore,CA
Good article. Another way to locate holes it to mark package shelf on the bottom before. Using the same techniques, I am locating "Rear Air".

Another way to spiff up instrument panel gauge clusters. Buy a length of shelf paper. Make a template> You could lighten things with a birch kind of paper,
light dash.jpg
(This one also has White Face gauges) or you might also use something like engine turned aluminum.

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Make certain the template fits well, when the material has been cut. Trial fit before exposing adhesive on back. To assist in locating material on instrument cluster use wet water mist on plastic and a burnishing pen to press material into place and not have air bubbles underneath. The same materials used on the dash can be used on deluxe interior door panels to create a more unified look in the interior.

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Guages refurb cluster.JPG
 
Any tips on how to straighten the plastic instrument bezel? Mine are a bit wavy

View attachment 1715508964

View attachment 1715508965
It doesn't look too bad really, especially the passenger side. If you are bound to do it yourself, remember that it took literally years of exposure to sunlight to get what you have now. I supppose you could try to re-warp it. Camp a piece of angle iron across the front and see if that will straighten it out without cracking anything. If it straightens it out, great. While it is straight and clamped, use a heat gun or a 1500 hair dryer to try to get the plastic to develop a new memory of its shape.

Back in the dawn of my beginning to restore old Mopars, there was a guy in San Antonio, TX who would restore and repair old plastic, especially stuff that appeared to have a metallic finish on it. What he would do is take yours in as a core and sell another to the customer. If you core was unacceptable, there would be a core charge on your bill, too. The last time I visited down there, he said he was getting out of that part of the business, He cited the difficulty in plating and he had lost the person who "washed" in the "wood" grain on the dash. Times and circumstances change. I noticed that they are advertising plastic repairs. I'm not sure if it is a return of his service or whether he is selling off restored cores from inventory. It's a small business, but they did first class work. Check out their web site. If you want a quicker answer than email give them a call.
 
we just did this. DMT overlay and a Sharpie ( from Michael's) stay away from a cheap paint pen. The first one I got was oil-based made in China. Between holding the part down with one and and bending over and smelling that **** and then the fact that the damn thing don't put on paint until it puts on too much paint it's well worth it to drive somewhere and get a good one
 
Layson's sends your pieces somewhere - I've had good results, but it ain't cheap. You do get your own restored originals back, so if you send them pretty good stuff you get that back restored
 
Layson's sends your pieces somewhere - I've had good results, but it ain't cheap. You do get your own restored originals back, so if you send them pretty good stuff you get that back restored
We did pretty good once I got a decent paint pen and a little miniature paintbrush to head a small narrow razor blade type Edge in cut my girlfriend loose on it she kicked *** at it if I can't polish out the lenses, I'm definitely going to do the poly carbon sheet trick that you taught me here I've tried to post a picture for times of it but it's giving me grief..
 
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