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Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those cases?

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Brosky

Brosky

Great Pumpkin
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I took apart a set of gauges to have the housings bead blasted in preparation for internal and external painting and being put on my gauges when I do the dash replacement.

This is what they look like all apart.

The oil gauge is a bit tricky to get apart without damaging the needle as is the trip odometer removal.

Now I need to decide whether to keep the green filters or go for the brighter white look.
 

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Great educational photo shoot Paul!!
You have ALSO answered a question repeated
so often concerning TR6 gauges.

<span style="color: #993300">WHY ARE MY GAUGES SO DIM? </span>

1. The gauges were designed for indirect, soft, backlighting
2. The 2w bulb lighting first passes thru a colored, plastic filter (green in your case, blue in mine.)
3. The insides of the gauges are now dirty and no longer
adequately bounce light around.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<,,

When I rebuilt mine- I removed the colored filters,
cleaned and repainted the reflective surfaces. My
gauges can be seen just fine at night with 2w bulbs.

It's kinda peaceful rebuilding gauges!!

tinster
 
I used a flat brite white reflective paint in the inside of mine while I had them apart. ISTR it was easy to find.
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

I will be painting the inside with a similar paint Peter. I've seen gauges with this done and if you remove the filters, it creates a white glow on the numbers and markings, a lot like the newer gauges of today.

I'm still not sure about the green filters. These are all in great shape, with the exception of that green band on the oil gauge, but I have a few to work with.

I also have a set of the higher wattage bulbs from Dennis Magee, so I may try those with the new paint and cleaned filters.

Here's an article from 6-Pack that got me going on this idea:

https://www.6-pack.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=33664#33664

Pictures below of the blue lens filters as on Dale's gauges.
 

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Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

RE: Mr. Rego's last image...

"Ahhhh... I'm HOME."

:laugh:

Looks just FINE from here, Paul! :thumbsup:

...heck, ya only just GLANCE at 'em anyhow! :devilgrin:
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

Only one you really need is the oil gauge.
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

Tell THAT to th' cop! :devilgrin:
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

Really ossiferr, the gauge read only 40
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

"just sign here, sir."
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

I bought some led bulbs from here https://www.ledbulbs.com/ but I haven't tried them yet. The "new" ones are supposed to be brighter than they used to be.
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

Match goes to Doc
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

I thought it went to Peter: He kept it on-topic. :devilgrin:
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

Some time that's no fun
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

OK, last image is not my car, but Chandler's from 6-Pack. That's why I referred to his thread there. I don't think that it's saying I'm home, but rather get me out of here. He's doing a full blown resto and did these while other things are waiting.

Bob, I thought about yellow and red, but I'm far too conservative to use those colors on the dash lights. I will post this to my web site right after the PDWA, Engine and some other long forgotten projects.

I just cleaned up the crappy seals on the old gauge bezels that I took apart for the buckets. I'll have some nice spare parts and I found that using Invisible Glass to soak the old caked on sealer helps to soften it up so that it can be scraped off easily.

I have the LED light bulbs, the stock 2.3 watt and the 6 Watt replacement bulbs so I'll be experimenting after the gauges are all done and in place. I really don't think that the LED's will work well. From what I've read (since I bought the LEDs) these gauges are better suited to a standard incandescent bulb.
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

:iagree:


...but I'm really, REALLY tryin' to be NICE!

It ain't workin' :smirk:
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

You...the Doc....concerned about being nice?????

You're ALWAYS nice......

Aren't you?
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

SURE I am.


...keep th' incandescents, BTW....


:wink:
 
Re: Gauge guts, ever wonder what's inside those ca

I think that I have to keep the stock style bulbs.

The heads of the LED's will not fit in the little tubes on the backs of the (4) small gauges. Just a hair too big and I think that the method of refraction used in an LED will not be good for this application.

Although, now that I think of it, I did buy the "spray" version, rather than the "beam" style.
 
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