Chevy Gauge Cluster Restoration - Good-Looking Needles

10a.There are a few ways to paint the needles. One way is to cut a slit in some paper and slide it behind the needle. Then, all you have to do is spray some flat fluorescent orange paint, and remember light, even coats. One thing that can pose a problem when doing it this way is bending the delicate needles; yes, even notebook paper can bend these, if you are a little aggressive.

11.Usually, the gauge itself is in really good shape and only requires a little wipe-down, but be gentle.

12a.We prefer to use a brush to apply the paint, because it gives us a little bit more control. Spray the paint directly into the cap, then all you have to do is dip the brush and go.

13.If you load the brush with the right amount of paint, once you touch it to the needle it will produce a little blob that you can just drag down. From experience, using a brush produces the best results with the very thin spray paint.

14a.One other area that needs a little attention is the hot area of the temperature gauge. If you look really close, you can see the area needed to paint. So, just mask it off, and paint away.

15a.Now, we could just paint the needle on the speedo and call it a day, but then we would have to look at dirty odometer numbers. The only way to get to all of the numbers on the odometer is to take off the needle and face.

16.Once we had the face off, it was real easy to wipe down the numbers. But, be careful, because we dropped ours while cleaning it and it basically exploded. Luckily, nothing broke and it just came apart, so we reassembled it-and yes, it just happened to go back to all zeros.

17.This piece separates the gauges from the plastic face and also hides all the ugly stuff on the bottom of the gauge needles. Again, a good wipe-down was all it needed, but if yours is bad, just scuff it and spray it with semi-gloss black.

18.Now it's time to get the little scratches out of the plastic lens. Start with a pre-clean in the sink; this will keep you from making more scratches while you are trying to polish it.

19a.With a soft cloth and some plastic polish, we used Mother's Plastic Polish and began polishing. As you can see, once we pulled the tape, there was a big difference after polishing it. Most of the scratches came out and all of the haze is gone. This will let all of your other work shine through.

20.Now for the reassembly. Set the new housing on a soft surface to prevent scratching the chrome finish. The lens is the first piece to drop in.

21.The lens is followed by the black separator piece.

22.Now for the gauges. Make sure to install the turn-signal tubes. If you leave these off, every time you turn on the signal, the whole dash will blink and that would be just stupid.

23a.With those in, lay the new housing on, followed by all of the gauges themselves.

24.After you have the gauges in place, you can install the new circuit board.

25.Tighten all of the screws to finish the job, and make sure you don't over-tighten the areas that hold down the circuit board and tear it. Now, put it in the truck and enjoy your new good-looking gauge cluster.

26.If you don't want that fully restored look for your truck, Early Classic also offers this bolt-in cluster, stuffed with Auto Meter ultra-light gauges.