Instrument Cluster (Removal / re-chrome)

[comrade]

I have had my 63 for a wee bit over a year, just finished up the drive train and my next project is repairing the clock and brightwork for the interior. The brightwork is horribly pitted and despite my labor and elbow grease the instrument chrome, including the instrument bezels need to be re-chromed and whilst I am at it I will refurbish gauges, etc. as required.

I digress, I had no issues removing the individual bezels and in particular the clock but I stopped there. Any tips / lessons learned around removal of the whole cluster? Any experience in getting the chrome done on these pieces / cost for such?

[Cliff Rankin]

I see no one chimed in to help out. It’s been a long time
Since I have pulled the dash plate. I f I remembered correctly , take the steering wheel slide it over undo
The Speedo cable. There are some screws you have to
Undo to pull the other 2 out as gage assembly’s.
Then you can work on the plate. Let’s see some pics.
This form is about helping each other. I’ll do my best.
Feel free to pm me. Karl , i know you will read this.
Please give your thoughts.

[GeoffInCarlsbad]

HI, I have replaced the clock and the fuel/temp gauges in my '61, and replaced the bezels with some that were a little cleaner than what I had.

In removing the fuel/temp gauge, be careful not to bend or crush the needles. they are a little sensitive, and you have to just watch your fingers to not hurt anything. Just popping out the lamps, remove the speed cables and light, same for the clock, if you are going to move those.

But the chrome on the bezels is the question. It can be quite expensive to re-chrome parts. I have not done those bezels and panel, but when I did re-chrome the interior windshield pillar covers (left & right) along with the cross trim on the interior, it was quite expensive. i did this because i didn't trust that I would find replacements that fit well. It was on the order of $150 for the left and right and about $180 for the cross piece.

this is California where these kinds of processes are heavily regulated and are made expensive by all that.

You may want to shop around for a good chrome shop, and then check some of the catalogs for pricing on those parts. It may be less expensive to just buy some "new" bezels via the many vendors.

[comrade]

Thank you for the comments, always good to here some lessons learned before you dive in and create your own. I live in the Houston metro and there are several smaller platers in the area so I will remove everything and get a quote. I will pull other pieces as well and try to do it all at once. There is always an additional setup charge so best to bite the bullet on a larger volume.

It seems that there is not much documentation on this removal. I keep a blog of my progress and take photos anyway so I will document the process for others should one ask.

[Cliff Rankin]

Please share what you find out at the chrome shops
I need to eventually do some work on mine and
I am not to far from Houston.

[jrbudwig]

Hello,

Cost and quality are directly proportional to time invested.

Any finishing process is a function of the base material, e.g. poor base material finish, poor final finish vs. good base material finish, good final finish.

I have a 62 Sports Roadster M-Code that I acquired in Q3-2014 and have been involved since in rectifying the decisions of the previous owners (PO).

Prior to this project I was involved for many years in German car and various vintage motorcycle restorations which I no longer do. Now just one car to focus on.

Speaking directly to the question of the Zinc (material) Die Cast (process) Bezels, Ford employed a two stage chrome process through their supply chain for these Zinc Die Cast parts.

Copper is used as a substrate with chromium (chrome) as the finish.

When Zinc oxidizes it creates Zinc oxide (white, pewter and black in color) which is the visible pitting and blistering.

Like tooth decay it needs to be removed either using a grinding-sanding process or buffing with the additional application of copper as filler.

If you don't remove the Zinc oxide it will return sometimes quickly and sometimes in a few years - goal is to be diligent on the first go - I only want to do things once.

Buffing will always be used as a finish process prior to applying chrome.

If you have a high degree of mechanical dexterity you may offset the cost and improve quality by performing some of the tasks yourself.

I am in the process of refinishing my Instrument Housing and all three Bezels as a result of a PO’s decision.

When refinishing the Bezels the PO buffed the trim line on the outside of the Bezel that separates the Argent paint from the chrome resulting in a smooth surface with no Argent paint detail.

Thoughts Selecting a Supplier:
Have gone through a few but some years ago located a second generation family run business that specializes in vehicle and motorcycle OEM and restorations in addition to other various small decorative items.

Started by the father they are still plating for Hilborne Injector now located in Aliso Viejo, CA.

I have a first name relationship with the owner and the shop foreman.

They are about 5-10% more than others, but provide excellent customer service and stand behind their work.

Key is to ask for recommendations from others at shows and shops that use chrome suppliers.

Outside of the personal attributes that you judge look at the following,

1) Do they specialize in parts (automotive, motorcycle, aircraft, marine) that can be hand carried or do they take everything and anything (industrial or architectural).
2) Size and cleanliness of business.
3) Do they appear to be organized.
4) Ask to see something in the shop and see if they proud of their work.

With respect to the two Speedometer Bezels in Fig-1A (very bad base part) and Fig-1B (very good base part), I will be using the good base part in Fig-1B.

The cost between for the two parts are, Fig-1A ($125 – $200) and for part Fig-1B ($60).

Fig-1 Example of two different Speedometer baseline parts for refinishing.

What I have done in the past:
1) Start with a good base part – if your part is bad (e.g. Fig-1B) look for another part e.g. Fig-1B. Cost is only time.
2) Prep, clean and if needed strip any paint using a chemical stripper.
3) Obtain a quote; for stripping just the chrome for you to are going to rework some of the pitting and return for chrome or if you prefer for everything, may give up some quality.
4) If the part has any pitting, have them strip the chrome and inspect either at their shop (Jewelers Magnifying Visor and I use Dental Instruments “pick”) or take it home to further inspection and rework if needed. I have many tools to rework parts, which is a different discussion.
5) Prior to returning the parts for finish chrome, mark (sharpie) those critical features that you want to maintain “letters or trim lines” with tape (painters tape) and the direction “do not buff this surface or edge.” My personal preference is to maintain all die parting lines and features when refinishing parts.
6) When you drop off the parts point out those critical areas and discuss if they are badly pitted a method to prevent those critical features from being buffed away.
7) Pick up parts and repaint if required.

If all that you want to do is hand it off then you might want to just focus on the critical features discussing how these features can be maintained without damage during the buffing process.

Hope this is of assistance – good luck!

All the Best,

Jonathan

[comrade]

Wow, Thank you for the response, that was a learning experience. My bezels originally looked like your 1A example but I keep working on them and they have become 5 foot beauties but nothing like your finished example. Some good points regarding interface with platers. I have a tendency to just hand things over and trust that they know what they are doing. I will perform some due diligence and make sure what I expect is clear when I drop such off.

Thanks again

[jrbudwig]

Hello,

Another consideration when refinishing the Bezels and the Instrument Housing are in the disassembly and repair of the acrylic lenses.

Thought that it might be of value to share my observations and lessons learned in disassembling and repairing the acrylic Lenses from the Bezels and the acrylic Turn Indicator and Light/Wiper Lenses on the Instrument Housing.

Not wanting to remove the Instrument Housing and Bezels and have my car out of commission when I refinished the parts, I started collecting additional Housings and Bezels over the last year as replacements.

Once these replacement parts were restored, I would remove and replace with the restored parts.

I use a Wiha 3/16” x 60mm Nut Driver Model 265 for removing all of the Self-Taping Screws and Self-Threading Nuts on the Bezels and Instrument Housing.

Have collected and disassembled twelve (12) Bezels in various states of corrosion and Lens conditions and have observed that in the majority of cases the mounting Tabs (Fig-2A, Fig-2B-2) on the Lenses were either cracked or broken.

Have also observed that in the majority of cases, the Lens is cracked around the accent Pin and Reflector (Fig-2B-1) located in the center of the Lens.

Fig-2. Examples of repaired lenses. Damaged areas are circled in red. Examples have been polished using PFERD Beige Polishing Paste for plastic.

In both cases I have found very few lenses that were intact without broken Tabs or cracks.

I use the Scigrip 4 acrylic plastic cement (Fig-3) for most repairs.

Fig-3. Scigrip 4 acrylic adhesive cement with applicator.

Benefits of Scigrip 4:

1) Designed for acrylics
2) Water-like viscosity – allows for wicking into cracks
3) High bond strength of 2500 psi after 7 days

Not pictured, when material is missing I have used the Scigrip 16 acrylic plastic cement for building fillets.

With respect to the Instrument Housing and the Turn Indicator and Light/Wiper lenses, both are accessible by removing the 3/16” Self-Tapping Screws holding the Retainer Plate in place and the Self-Threading Nuts.

Having collected and disassembled three (3) Instrument Housings I have observed that there is an interference fit between the two Lens mounting pins for the Turn Indicator and Light/Wiper Lenses, preventing the Lenses from sliding off the mounting pins easily.

Understanding the interference, even with caution was still able to crack the first Wipers Lens (Fig-2C) during removal. Scigrip 4 was also used for affecting the repair.

All of the other lenses were removed without damage.

Lessons learned: after removing the two self-tapping nuts on the Retainer Plates and while facing the front of the Instrument Housing I used two Dental Picks and applied the same pressure equally on each side of the Lens as I walked the lens off of the two opposing pins.

After repairs, I have used the following to finish polish any acrylic pieces as shown in Fig-2 prior to assembly.

1) Dedicated 3” dia x 1” wide Cotton Buffing Wheel at 1,500 – 3,000 rpm
2) PFERD Beige Polishing Paste Bar for plastic
3) Microfiber towels
4) Window cleaner

Any repairs around the perimeter of the Bezel lenses are sometimes masked by the internal Fuel/Temp, Speedometer and Clock Flat Black painted Mask that is internal to the Bezels.

Hope this is of assistance.

All the Best,

Jonathan

[comrade]

Thank you again,
I feel like a rank amateur but in a good way. I had the bezels off prior and noted that the acrylic is showing it's age. I now have a solution for cleaning refurbishing such. I spent the day yesterday replacing the air, wiper and headlight bezels with new units and I continue to work, 00 Steel wool in hand, trying to clean up all of the cancer. I have gone through two packages of 8 each in the past 30 days.

Regarding the metallurgy as you noted prior, the green oxidization is evidence of the copper content. I had not put two and two together until you pointed this out.

I am kicking myself right now as I had an opportunity to purchase an additional "loaded" instrument cluster and I passed. I really think that this is my solution, find a spare, refurbish the unit and install. I had the car down for almost a year with the rebuild of the engine, tranny, etc. I am now engaging in weekend projects so the car is not disassembled for longer duration's. After all, the ultimate satisfaction is being on the road.

[Bungalocity]

Thought that it might be of value to share my observations and lessons learned in disassembling and repairing the acrylic Lenses from the Bezels and the acrylic Turn Indicator and Light/Wiper Lenses on the Instrument Housing.

I use a Wiha 3/16” x 60mm Nut Driver Model 265 for removing all of the Self-Taping Screws and Self-Threading Nuts on the Bezels and Instrument Housing.
Have collected and disassembled twelve (12) Bezels in various states of corrosion and Lens conditions and have observed that in the majority of cases the mounting Tabs (Fig-2A, Fig-2B-2) on the Lenses were either cracked or broken.

Have also observed that in the majority of cases, the Lens is cracked around the accent Pin and Reflector (Fig-2B-1) located in the center of the Lens.

Benefits of Scigrip 4:

1) Designed for acrylics
2) Water-like viscosity – allows for wicking into cracks
3) High bond strength of 2500 psi after 7 days

Not pictured, when material is missing I have used the Scigrip 16 acrylic plastic cement for building fillets.

With respect to the Instrument Housing and the Turn Indicator and Light/Wiper lenses, both are accessible by removing the 3/16” Self-Tapping Screws holding the Retainer Plate in place and the Self-Threading Nuts.

Having collected and disassembled three (3) Instrument Housings I have observed that there is an interference fit between the two Lens mounting pins for the Turn Indicator and Light/Wiper Lenses, preventing the Lenses from sliding off the mounting pins easily.

Hope this is of assistance.

All the Best,

Jonathan

WOW Jonathan just read your remarks 1 year later. You're speaking my language! I work on historic windows, both the wood aspect and stain glass stuff - Linseed putty, zinc/lead cames, sometimes Abatron WoodEpox when needed, vintage Red Devil glazing point drivers and infrared heat to strip lead paint, on and on...
I'm very fascinated by this totally new world of automotive to me coming from Wood to Metal. I thought it would be 'good practice' to take my dash down and put it back 'eventually blindfolded' - well next thing you know the OIL cellophane falls out and now I have to glue the red back onto it, then get it onto the instrument! UGH any leads on just a complete OIL-red piece I can glue in?

I am also dumbfounded why people don't Linseed the underbellies of their cars since it's a great rust-proofer for years