OldVetteguy84

Has anyone done this himself? I did glovebox and it came out pretty good. I see lensesare available. Do the bezels come out, or are they part of the panel? All my gauges work. As always, thanks! Tim

Nowhere Man

If you don’t have the tool to calibrate the speedo You really only done half the work

Avispa

Cleaning up the cluster housing is a reasonable DIY project. All the gauges can be removed in one step by removing screws that hold a gauge mounting plate in the back of the housing. All the lenses are held in by a retainer plate that's accessible once the gauges are out. With careful masking, the housing front can be sprayed. Satin black spray can paint may work, others may have a better choice. Once the cluster is open, you can also replace lenses for the hi beam/brake/lights warning lamps and the turn signal indicators.

I'm personally not up to silk screening the gsuge faces, but there are commercial restorers to do that. You might get by hand repainting the gauge needles.

66427-450

The first one I did was about 50 years ago when I was 18 years old, it was a 64 FI convertible that had spent its life in Florida to that point, and while there was no pitting or permanent damage to the cluster, It was very faded, obviously the car is spent a lot of time out in the sun with the top down. I dropped the steering column, removed the cluster, disassemble it, cleaned everything up, painted the needles and tach yellow/red areas, stripped and repainted the silver and black cluster face, and reassembled it…… no problems whatsoever. Later I sold the car and it ended up with a guy that did a frame-off NCRS restoration, he had contacted me re the car, show me pictures, etc., and I asked him what he did regarding the cluster?, and he said it looked perfect we didn’t touch it, I just smiled to myself and thought not bad for an 18-year-old kid. So in conclusion, yeah, you can “cosmetically” restore it yourself (gauge “repairs” are another matter) although it helps if you’re patient, a bit of an artist, and very detail oriented.

64L76

Avispa described it pretty well but..... to get the cluster out you need to remove the steering column. Once you have the steering column and instrument cluster out might as well remove the pedal bracket assembly and restore / refurbish it, same with the emergency brake handle mechanism (if you are dealing with a 63 - 65) and ditto on the hood release..... did I mention you now have good access to the fire wall insulation and that black pressed cardboard insulation cover..... this will be your best opportunity to remove the old stuff that is disintegrating into dust every time you touch it - and good luck with those black rubber plug fasteners that hold the new black cardboard insulation cover in place. Other than all that.... it is a piece of cake...... that is why we own and love these cars. Enjoy.

OldVetteguy84

Cool! Thanks guys, this is exactly what I wanted to hear. Also good info about those other lenses that I never would have thought of.

JOliver

Never hurts to try... although I have seen some Bubba work over the years and I have done I'd few myself
Be glad to help if you get into and need some guidance
Jason
vetteinstruments@aol.com