• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Gauge restoration/housing refinishing Latest

Share this page

Brosky

Brosky

Great Pumpkin
Offline
Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

OK, so far so good. My buddy bead blasted these housings for me, so the old crap is off and new paint is on and drying. Then I'll clear coat the backs.

I decided at the last minute to get rid of the reflectors and try a few other options for coloring the back lighting.
 

Attachments

  • 11865.jpg
    11865.jpg
    47.2 KB · Views: 675
  • 11866.jpg
    11866.jpg
    27.8 KB · Views: 661
  • 11867.jpg
    11867.jpg
    30.8 KB · Views: 657
  • 11868.jpg
    11868.jpg
    30.7 KB · Views: 646
  • 11869.jpg
    11869.jpg
    38.9 KB · Views: 654
  • 11870.jpg
    11870.jpg
    40.9 KB · Views: 647
  • 11871.jpg
    11871.jpg
    26.9 KB · Views: 641
  • 11872.jpg
    11872.jpg
    31.6 KB · Views: 645
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

They look Marvelous..........
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

Brosky said:
I decided at the last minute to get rid of the reflectors.
Click to expand...

<span style="color: #CC6600">Cool idea, that!!! Where'd ya get THAT concept??

Nice Paul! Old Dale might know zip about auto mechanics but
when it comes to refurbishing Triumph gauges now........................

I must be an expert if you and I use the same blue masking tape!!!

Try the stock Lucas 2.3 watt bulbs. I kinda like the warm glow.
Cleaned gauge insides san colored plastic lenses make quite the difference.
Make for a sexy dash after dark.

best,

d </span>
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

Paul
First of all, you inspired me to repair my speedometer. The needle was jumping all over and finally broke the cable. Turns out it was totally jammed inside and just taking it apart, cleaning and carefully lubricating the main spindle was all it needed.

Now when I took the speedo apart, I found that the inside of the case was painted half baby blue (the top) and the other half white. Not quite sure why it would have two different colors, and I haven't decided how it or to repaint it. I may just wash is and leave it as is. But yours sure do look good.
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

I got the idea from some famous restoration guy in PR and confirmed it with another in CA on the 6-Pack Forum.

Now we've even got a guy in Israel doing his over. See what you started, Dale?

A little clear coat on the backs and cleaning of the over spray in the small gauge light tunnels (it screws up the ground for the lights) and we're good to go.

Oh, you can't see it in these, but I also hand painted the (4) tunnels at the bottom of the big gauges white inside for better reflection on the high beam, turn signal, oil, and ignition lights.
 

Attachments

  • 11906.jpg
    11906.jpg
    33 KB · Views: 550
  • 11907.jpg
    11907.jpg
    33.5 KB · Views: 485
  • 11908.jpg
    11908.jpg
    30 KB · Views: 483
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

They're looking nice.

Are you using a torque wrench on the screws? They can sometimes vibrate loose on ya before you put the gauges on. :lol:

.
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

Brosky said:
I got the idea from some famous restoration guy in PR and confirmed it with another in CA on the 6-Pack Forum.

Now we've even got a guy in Israel doing his over. See what you started, Dale?
Click to expand...

Now you got me thinking about doing it to my TR6 this coming winter!

BAH!
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

Looks good Paul,
I need to do mine now!
Tom
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

Stirkle- And I'm also white but I'm a Lutheran. My family
is from Canada..."if that matters to you."

Stirkle, you asked, you got my response.

Changing your subject matter back to BCF stuff:

You have any technical tips you might want to
share with us?

d
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

Dale,

Did you paint a small area on the sides of the housing where the bulbs come through as shown in my upper most picture in green to deflect a glaring light from the direct unfiltered bulbs?

One of the guys on 6-Pack painted his flat black to do just that.

The half blue and white mentioned above was probably to lend a soft blue tint to the lighting. Dale's had blue lenses and mine were originally green, but I like the look of the soft white and it makes the lettering and numbers stand out better IMHO.
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

Brosky said:
Dale,

but I like the look of the soft white and it makes the lettering and numbers stand out better IMHO.
Click to expand...

Me too Paul-

I wired my gauges into the dash in my living room and tried
various combos of lights/filters etc with a 12V motocycle battery.

I liked the 2.3w Lucas, in semi-gloss white, the best.

Your taste, try different combos.

Here's my final, installed:

Suits me just fine here on the island.

regards,

d

AmosatNight.jpg
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

angelfj said:
Tinster said:
Stirkle-
You have any technical tips you might want to
share with us?

d
Click to expand...

not likely!
Click to expand...

Yes Dale and angelfj I do in fact have something technical to share. If Paul doesn't mind I'll just be brief.

Check your shock link pivots regularly. I thought I needed T/A bushings and it turned out to be a worn shock link pivots.

I am looking forward to Paul's autopsy of that pump. I want to rebuild mine next winter. He may find something that he overlooked that will help us all.

Thanks for reminding me.


.
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]Looks good Paul,
I need to do mine now!
Tom[/QUOTE]

At least you know where to get the blasting done....
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

Hey Paul and Stirkle,
How did you rebuild your speedometer? I took mine out last night and it hasn't worked in a year. I also refurbished my hazard switch and my dash light rheostat (Paul, mine looks quite different from yours).
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

John_Mc said:
Hey Paul and Stirkle,
How did you rebuild your speedometer? I took mine out last night and it hasn't worked in a year. I also refurbished my hazard switch and my dash light rheostat (Paul, mine looks quite different from yours).
Click to expand...

I only took mine apart to clean. They were all good working gauges, just dusty inside. The speedometer looked pretty basic. You're sure it's the speedometer and not the cable? If it is the speedo that's bad, I'd think it's easier to buy a used one on Ebay and use the guts in your speedometer case if your case is in nicer condition. They changed the style in '73 so you're looking at '69-72 years style in your '71.
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

Paul, thanks for that resource. Stirkle, I assumed my speedo might be having trouble based on Yisrael's post above. My speedo was erratic and then just stopped. When I took the speedo out I finally had access to the trip reset but the trip reset seemed very stuck, so I thought maybe the odometer was sticking. But I'm sure you're probably right about the cable because I checked the cable out of the transmission and it seemed loose where it attaches.
Paul, or anyone else who has fiddled with the rheostat, do you use dialectric grease on the rheoustat, or does that run the risk of shorting out the coil, thus rendering it ineffective?
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

John_Mc said:
Paul, or anyone else who has fiddled with the rheostat, do you use dialectric grease on the rheoustat, or does that run the risk of shorting out the coil, thus rendering it ineffective?
Click to expand...
Don't use grease, but that's not the reason. Dielectric grease is actually an insulator (so no risk of shorting anything), but it can keep the slider from making contact. Plus it will smoke and stink if it gets hot.

BTW, the TR6 rheostat isn't exactly a coil, but the same comments apply to both.
 
Re: Gauge restoration/housing refinishing up-date

Thanks Randall. I was under the misconception that dielectric grease was a conductive lubricant (I've never used it). Thanks for the heads-up.
 
Back
Top