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Decals as a means to refurbish gauge faces

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TR6oldtimer

TR6oldtimer

Darth Vader
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Just passing time on a rainy day, I was reading about decals designed with graphics software, then printed on decal paper. The decal is then transferred to the surface. After drying, it is given a coat of clear acrylic.

That got me to thinking about our gauges, you know, the ones were corrosion or fading has made them less then desirable.

So the question is has any tried or heard of this technique?

https://lumberjocks.com/David/blog/325
 
Might be different on the later gauges, but the TR3 gauges used a luminous white paint for the markings. I don't see any way to duplicate that using this method.
 
Now you have me curious, Randall, as I'm about to start Gage restoration work on my car. Do you mean it's luminous as in glows in the dark...or as in very reflective?
 
I have no info on the luminous paint question but I have used decals. I bought the (laser printer compatible) decal stock from Micro-Mark and designed the basic gauge face using AutoCAD. I exported the AutoCAD image in bitmap (or TIFF... sorry can't remember which) format. That file was imported into MS Word and printed out first on paper, then when scaled properly, on the decal paper. I used white decal paper so most of the printing was in black.

It works fairly well, however, the underlying old printing will be apparent even using the white decal paper. I probably would have had better results if I had lightly sanded and repainted the gauge face first.

The speedometer in the picture link below was done with the materials and process I described above.
https://home.mindspring.com/~purlawson/pictures/gauges/Senders2.jpg
 
Senders2.jpg
 
Doug, I'm glad to hear the Autocad worked. My plan right now is to carefully photograph the crusty old gages and reproduce the design on autocad. I will then strip the gage faces to metal...and paint entirely in (luminous?) white. Then I can laser cut vinyl to mask the white for a final spray in matt black.

The old gages are pretty weathered, so it isn't easy to tell how they originally looked color wise. That's why I was curious about reflective vs luminous...
 
CJD said:
Now you have me curious, Randall, as I'm about to start Gage restoration work on my car. Do you mean it's luminous as in glows in the dark...or as in very reflective?
Click to expand...
Sorry, I used the wrong term. It's actually fluorescent paint. Doesn't actually glow in the dark, but converts some of the invisible light falling on it to visible light, making it seem brighter than ordinary white paint.

Here's a link to one vendor, with a bit more description:
https://www.hipoparts.com/products/Fluorescent-Speedo-%26-Gauge-Needle-Restoration-Paint.html
 
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