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I am sometimes a stickler for the little things. If I can do it, all the better. If I can do it cheap, even better yet.
You almost never see the Squarebirds with the correct chrome/gold on the instrument clusters. The large bezel (the glove box door and radio bezel also) are suppose to have all of the chrome painted over with aluminum except for the borders and turn indicator surrounds. This is not too hard to do, just a lot of masking off of the parts to remain chrome. I know the all crome look is nice, but when you see it original, it really stands out. It brings out the chrome of the instrument bezels nicely in particular if the gold on the faces are redone. The look is sort of an Eames mid-century modern look of an expensive clock. Anyway...
For the Gold, I located a piece of specular (mirror looking) gold mylar or vinyl lettering material from a banner company (computer made graphics, lettering type of company)for free. I cut a small square of the Gold material, a little larger than the size of the two small faces and one a little larger than the larger center speedo face. I taped each on a sanding disc installed in my handheld electric drill. As I spun the drill/sanding disc and the gold vinyl on the disc, I held a red scruf pad against the Gold material from the center to the outside so as to give the Gold vinyl the Spun Look (concentric circles)that the original had. Enough to see and reflect the light, but not too much as to take away all of the mirror finish thereby making it dull.
Then I removed the Gold vinyl and used the obvious center (from the spinning) to mark the cicle size I needed with a compass. I then marked the center circle (for the instument needles, pivot). Then I marked the "Crosshairs" with a black ball point pen. I cut the OD and then cut the cirle into 4 pie sections of 90 degrees each. Last, I cut the inside radius.
I now had 12 little pieces of spun gold pressure sensitive vinyl ready to be applied to the dull and faded gold on the instrument faces. While I removed the small gages, I had already removed the steering wheel (easy) to have access for my aluminum painting, so I left the speedo in place. I removed the protective backing from the Gold vinyl and carfully applied the quarter sections with the aid of tweezers. I was very carfull not to contact the needles on the instruments or midplace the pieces (they might be hard to remove). I pressed each piece down and then reassembled everything. It may not be as good as the factory did, but it looks pretty good compared to the way it did look. Good enough, that no one would be able to tell the difference.
I will try to post some photos (I left them a little dark so as to see the Gold and aluminum better). Alexander might be able to post them here. I don't mean to keep bothering him, but some folks might like to try this. You can't beet the cost.
You almost never see the Squarebirds with the correct chrome/gold on the instrument clusters. The large bezel (the glove box door and radio bezel also) are suppose to have all of the chrome painted over with aluminum except for the borders and turn indicator surrounds. This is not too hard to do, just a lot of masking off of the parts to remain chrome. I know the all crome look is nice, but when you see it original, it really stands out. It brings out the chrome of the instrument bezels nicely in particular if the gold on the faces are redone. The look is sort of an Eames mid-century modern look of an expensive clock. Anyway...
For the Gold, I located a piece of specular (mirror looking) gold mylar or vinyl lettering material from a banner company (computer made graphics, lettering type of company)for free. I cut a small square of the Gold material, a little larger than the size of the two small faces and one a little larger than the larger center speedo face. I taped each on a sanding disc installed in my handheld electric drill. As I spun the drill/sanding disc and the gold vinyl on the disc, I held a red scruf pad against the Gold material from the center to the outside so as to give the Gold vinyl the Spun Look (concentric circles)that the original had. Enough to see and reflect the light, but not too much as to take away all of the mirror finish thereby making it dull.
Then I removed the Gold vinyl and used the obvious center (from the spinning) to mark the cicle size I needed with a compass. I then marked the center circle (for the instument needles, pivot). Then I marked the "Crosshairs" with a black ball point pen. I cut the OD and then cut the cirle into 4 pie sections of 90 degrees each. Last, I cut the inside radius.
I now had 12 little pieces of spun gold pressure sensitive vinyl ready to be applied to the dull and faded gold on the instrument faces. While I removed the small gages, I had already removed the steering wheel (easy) to have access for my aluminum painting, so I left the speedo in place. I removed the protective backing from the Gold vinyl and carfully applied the quarter sections with the aid of tweezers. I was very carfull not to contact the needles on the instruments or midplace the pieces (they might be hard to remove). I pressed each piece down and then reassembled everything. It may not be as good as the factory did, but it looks pretty good compared to the way it did look. Good enough, that no one would be able to tell the difference.
I will try to post some photos (I left them a little dark so as to see the Gold and aluminum better). Alexander might be able to post them here. I don't mean to keep bothering him, but some folks might like to try this. You can't beet the cost.
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