Reassembly - Electrical Dash Components
While the car is in the paint shop I have been working on the refurbishment of my working electrical components. My main purpose is to clean up these items esthetically while at the same time ensure good electrical connectivity at all contact points. I have previously ordered a new wiring harness and will be installing this when the car comes back from the paint shop. While completely disassembled the installation of the harness and other items should be much easier than doing this to an already assembled car.
My ignition switch/coil was working fine but needed some TLC. I scanned the old surface plate and cleaned up all issues with a photo editing software. I then printed the face plate to a label stock and installed on an old the metal face plate. I used a clear packing tape to protect the outer surface from accidental wear. See Photo below...
Moving right to left I completely disassembled the Amp/Oil Gauge assembly.
Here again the main purpose is to clean up the esthetics and to maintain good electrical continuity. I cleaned the glass and used paint stripper to remove paint from the trim plate which I polished with very fine steel wool. The surface plate I sanded and painted with Automotive Gloss Black. This will make the gauges really stand out again.
The painted surface of the oil gauge was very unstable. Trying to clean it would have removed the printed surface. What I did to stabilize the printed surface was to mask the gauge with tissue paper and spray it with Automotive Clear Coat. This worked out fine and will help protect the surface from continued deterioration. I checked the function of the gauge by applying 20 psi. of air pressure. The gauge read correctly.
I reassembled the Gauge Assembly by cleaning all contact points and replacing insulators and hardware where required. With these old 6 vdc systems good electrical connections will greatly improve on the function of all electrical components.
Will look 100% better mounted in the Dash.
The speedometer just needs the glass cleaned and the trim plate polished.