Went shopping this morning...
OK - who's first?
Going in alphabetical order, I start with the clock. I give the steel wool a try, to see if the paint will come off easily...
...but it'll take a lot of effort to get all the black off both bezels using this method, so I pour a little Nitromors into the cap...
...and, using a cotton bud, spread it over both instrument bezels. In no time at all, I get results...
The paint residue can now be removed with kitchen towel.. I package all the stuff that has touched the paint stripper into a plastic bag and take it down to the dustbin. It's worth bearing in mind that Nitromors & the residue stays active - DAMHIK...
The bezels are now both clear of paint. I give them both a good rub down with steel wool...
...to make sure the primer has a good surfce to key onto...
...before washing everything off with meths...
I then start masking up...
I've bought this Frog tape as it is meant to minimise any bleed through at the edge - important when I'm trying to get a precise bit of masking done...
I tape over the dial faces, pushing the tape hard into the edge of the bezel using the blunt end of a craft knife...
...and then carefully run a craft knife (with a new blade) along the edge of the glass.
I re-did this a couple of times before I was happy that I was getting a decent line...
...then pressed the tape back into the edges...
I make sure everything else is masked off before taking the gauges to my custom built spray booth (a cardboard box on top of my wheelie-bin)...
Working out how to align them was tricky. I decide I'll have to give them three coats from three different directions to cover properly...
I start off with a couple of coats of Rustoleum primer, which is very quick drying...
...before starting the top coat - Rustoleum Satin Black (Homebase didn't stock Hammerite, which would have been my first choice, but this stuff seems to be behaving in a similar manner).
I give them the planned three coats, with about 20-30 minutes in between coats...
...then bring them in to cure. After an hour I remove the tape from the back of the gauges...
Then, using a craft knife to lift the edge of the tape, and a pair of tweezers to pull it off, remove the masking from the face...
The voltmeter has quite an amount of bleed through on the edge. Bugger. I decide to leave it to harden for a few days and then scrape the paint off with a craft knife. The clock is just about perfect. I drop them into my (new) dashboard to see what they'll look like fitted...
That'll do...
I pull the instruments part way out and leave them in the panel - it'll be a perfect place for them to cure.
Come to think of it, I should have used my old panel to hold them whilst I was spraying - it would have made life a lot simpler...
Many thanks to Wirespokes on ADVrider and MikeP here for their advice on how to tackle this job...
Mike
