Believe me-I'm grateful to have it. I have the Duster and the Harley as active projects right now and since we're shutting down for 4th of July week to do inventory I'll spend that long weekend replacing the sound system in the Lexus. And I'll have plenty of room.
As I posted earlier I
have been working on the Duster, just not posting boring updates about wetsanding. And there have been other projects going on so the wetsanding isn't going quickly. Quite honestly I've burned out on body work but I know eventually I'll have to slug it out and get it done. Moreso now that I finally have a motor-which is strapped down in the back of the truck and ready to go to the machine shop next week.
But I haven't just been wetsanding and while Gibson Brands was shut down for the month of April I took advantage of the opportunity to tackle the dash cluster. When we last saw the dash I was prepping the frame for paint (
wetsanding...). I decided to take the time to get the gauge cluster ready. It was my intent to simply send it out for rechrome,
but... I contacted a place to get it done and he couldn't do it. The repair I did on the section under the radio opening would've dissolved out when he soaked it for his prep procedure so I had to look for an alternative. I found commercially available spray paints unsatisfactory-they looked like paint, to put it plainly. However, I am a scale modeler and one of the tools I have in that toolbox is Alclad II, Bright Chrome. I used it to repaint some wheels for an old Revell '57 Nomad and while the build itself is giving me fits the wheels look great.
So I went that route with this.
I started with cleanup. I put the plastic in the tub and wetsanded it through the stages finishing with 1500 grit.
Next was to redo the flat black inside the bezel openings. Here I went with some flat black spraypaint I had kicking around:
Note I also removed the flasher switch from the '68 Barracuda part. This was followed by a top coat of Krylon flat clear.
While I was waiting for this to dry for masking I dealt with the little bits. I polished the lenses with a Dremel and some 3M Finishing Compound. Big difference:
I also flipped the plastic cluster over and sprayed the backside with some of the "experiment" chrome, just to brighten things up back there:
I also took care of the retaining rings for the lenses:
Once the rest was ready and masked I sprayed everything that was to be chrome with gloss black. This is the part of the step that you cannot be low budget with. The black gives the chrome depth and one of the biggest issues with Alclad is when people use a cheap base. If it doesn't dry properly or thoroughly it will crack over time. Here we are in gloss black:
After
plenty of dry time (2 or 3 days as I recall), I hit it with the Bright Chrome. Another issue is users who spray too much on. There's a tipping point with this stuff where it turns from chrome into silver paint. The first coat was a transparent mist, and while spraying the second coat you can see it turn to chrome:
Alclad II is around $8/1 oz. bottle and I only used about half the bottle on this. Considering my options under the circumstances I think this was about the best way to get it done.
Next was the gauge cluster itself. I was surfing ebay one day when I found yet another dash. The plastic was hammered but the gauges themselves were nice and clean, and the speedometer had the trip meter on it. When it showed up I used the best of both clusters and put one together. The other bonus-the "new" cluster had the Performance Indicator in it which is selling on the 'bay for about what I paid for the whole cluster:
I resprayed the inside of the metal frame gloss white and while I was at it, I replaced the hi beam lens with blue gels leftover from my stage lighting days. All the rest of the colored lenses got cleaned up before they went back in there. I also broke out the flat black model paint, thinned it and painted inside the heater controls and the lights/wiper controls. Get it thin enough and capillary action fills in around the letters.
I also picked up the insert set from DMT. I went with black on the bottom instead of silver, just to make the chromed plastic pop a little more. I made the mistake of ordering the set for the Duster, which doesn't have the opening for the lighter to the right of the radio. I plan to use that as a USB charging port which is on it's way right now from the bay:
I have since replaced the offending trim piece with one that's correct for a Barracuda. And of course I had to cut that part up for the stereo opening.
Which has become the new bug-a-boo. The CD player I was going to put in this is now slated to go in the Lexus. Over the winter I found a Mini-Disc player for this car which is what I wanted to begin with. However, the front drops down to replace the disc and when it's mounted the front doesn't drop nearly enough. The plastic dash under the stereo is stopping it. The CD player was set up centered in the opening and I'll have to redo the mounts I made so it'll be as high as possible and a bit further out.
I glued the wood grain parts and the black above the steering column today. Still mulling over a way to have the rest of the black parts in place and still be able to get to the mounting screws...
Nice & clean.
