Biohazard
The bulk of the cluster, after the gauges, is the front panel, the housing, and the circuit boards.
All of these got sprayed down with ammonia and thoroughly washed at the kitchen sink. Even the hardware and bulb sockets were dumped into coffee mug full of ammonia (outside, lol) and agitated for 5 minutes. Everything clean..... *picture the recruit in Full Metal Jacket cleaning his rifle.
So I was light-sanding the entire panel in prep for paint...
...when I discovered that the reason the wood grain looked so nice was because it was a repro overlay. Guess my decision to go black-n-silver was the right one!
It took all day to sand off the flaking chrome plating.
So many little corners, pits, nooks, crannies, etc. This is no project for the lazy.
Rinsed everything off, let it dry, and spent a few hours carefully applying and trimming masking tape. Oh, almost forgot: there were two cracks in the vicinity of the radio bezel along the bottom edge of the panel which needed (and received) a JB Weld repair - easily applied to the backside.
So, there it is - my first coat of silver drying outside. It is in the mid-80s and dry as a bone. Light winds means low dust. Excellent painting conditions!
I decided on Rustoleum's matte nickel for the silver color. I taped-off the labels (flasher, wiper, etc.) so I won't have to mess with them. For the chrome, I'm just going to use Dupli-Color's chrome stuff. Not going for concourse quality, just an even and pleasing aesthetic.
The bulk of the cluster, after the gauges, is the front panel, the housing, and the circuit boards.
All of these got sprayed down with ammonia and thoroughly washed at the kitchen sink. Even the hardware and bulb sockets were dumped into coffee mug full of ammonia (outside, lol) and agitated for 5 minutes. Everything clean..... *picture the recruit in Full Metal Jacket cleaning his rifle.
So I was light-sanding the entire panel in prep for paint...
...when I discovered that the reason the wood grain looked so nice was because it was a repro overlay. Guess my decision to go black-n-silver was the right one!
It took all day to sand off the flaking chrome plating.
So many little corners, pits, nooks, crannies, etc. This is no project for the lazy.
Rinsed everything off, let it dry, and spent a few hours carefully applying and trimming masking tape. Oh, almost forgot: there were two cracks in the vicinity of the radio bezel along the bottom edge of the panel which needed (and received) a JB Weld repair - easily applied to the backside.
So, there it is - my first coat of silver drying outside. It is in the mid-80s and dry as a bone. Light winds means low dust. Excellent painting conditions!
I decided on Rustoleum's matte nickel for the silver color. I taped-off the labels (flasher, wiper, etc.) so I won't have to mess with them. For the chrome, I'm just going to use Dupli-Color's chrome stuff. Not going for concourse quality, just an even and pleasing aesthetic.
