Rallye Instrument Cluster and Dash Bezel Restoration

[The Rebel]

Awesome job! It's like painting models but on a much larger scale.

 

[Lionized]

Awesome job! It's like painting models but on a much larger scale.

Exactly!

 

[Lionized]

I only have the hockey stick to re-do the chrome on using the Molotow pen. Needed to retouch the black in some areas but that's to be expected.
Overall very happy with the results and would recommend this pen to anyone planning to redo their bezels .

 

[BeeKool]

Good thread.
I need to rebuild my cluster.
I'm definitely going to replace my clock w a tic toc tac. Considering replacing the Ammeter w a voltmeter.

 

[funknut]

Bumping this thread rather than starting another one on dash restoration. I'm mid-way through restoring my dash as well and had a heck of a time getting the old paint off until I found a RC car site that talked about removing paint from ABS plastic. Their recommendations were to use oven cleaner (the original stuff with sodium hydroxide) or DOT4 brake fluid(!). The reasoning is that ABS can tolerate a high pH but not acidic solutions or solvents.

I had some ZEP Purple Degreaser that's sodium hydroxide and mixed up some, roughly 4:1 with water and soaked both of the large dash pieces in a large tub outside. Wear gloves, this stuff is nasty. It took some time but the paint started to separate. Soaking/scrubbing several times over the day to keep knocking paint chunks off worked well. I used an old green scotch brite and a brass bristle detailing brush. After about 4 soak/scrub cycles I threw it into the top rack of the dishwasher and put it on the normal cycle. Our dishwasher is one of the newer ones that doesn't get crazy hot like the old school ones did. Almost all of the big chunks of paint were off by that point and one more trip to the soak and scrub and it is what you see in the 2nd pic here. There are still a few sections that will flake off or could be wiped off with a cloth but it's 99.5% back to bare plastic.

Mine was black plastic with chrome paint underneath and the black topcoat.

Before:

After:

 

[Lionized]

Bumping this thread rather than starting another one on dash restoration. I'm mid-way through restoring my dash as well and had a heck of a time getting the old paint off until I found a RC car site that talked about removing paint from ABS plastic. Their recommendations were to use oven cleaner (the original stuff with sodium hydroxide) or DOT4 brake fluid(!). The reasoning is that ABS can tolerate a high pH but not acidic solutions or solvents.

I had some ZEP Purple Degreaser that's sodium hydroxide and mixed up some, roughly 4:1 with water and soaked both of the large dash pieces in a large tub outside. Wear gloves, this stuff is nasty. It took some time but the paint started to separate. Soaking/scrubbing several times over the day to keep knocking paint chunks off worked well. I used an old green scotch brite and a brass bristle detailing brush. After about 4 soak/scrub cycles I threw it into the top rack of the dishwasher and put it on the normal cycle. Our dishwasher is one of the newer ones that doesn't get crazy hot like the old school ones did. Almost all of the big chunks of paint were off by that point and one more trip to the soak and scrub and it is what you see in the 2nd pic here. There are still a few sections that will flake off or could be wiped off with a cloth but it's 99.5% back to bare plastic.

Mine was black plastic with chrome paint underneath and the black topcoat.

Before:
View attachment 755400

After:
View attachment 755401

Fantastic information for anyone looking to tackle this job themselves!

I would imagine your end results will look as good as new. Mine are a "good" driver quality.

 

[Mike Szadaj]

Looks really good. I have done more than a half dozen 1966-1970 bezels. I take a different route than you did. I first paint the entire bezel black. There is only one paint that is the same as what Chrysler used - SEM Landau Black. I was told SEM is the only authorized seller. This paint is an EXACT match to the original color. Not easy to find and not cheap, but worth the effort and cost. I then use Molotow Liquid Chrome paint pens - they come in different tip widths - to free hand paint all the chrome areas. I then use a chisel tip white paint pen to do the lettering. I have never seen a chrome paint with the reflectivity of the Molotow products. Every "chrome paint" I ever bought (which was many) always ended up being just silver paint. Look up Molotow Liquid Chrome on YouTube. I have also repaired bezels with the cracked off lower right hand corner, but that requires that you have an unbroken bezel to make a mold from. Here is one I fixed the corner on and repainted. I also made the switch delete plate.

 

[Mike Szadaj]

I forgot one pic. Also the Molotow Liquid Chrome paint pens can be refilled. If you buy the refill, you can spray it using a touch up spray brush. SEM Landau Black can also be purchased as quarts and gallons and then sprayed.

 

[Lionized]

I forgot one pic. Also the Molotow Liquid Chrome paint pens can be refilled. If you buy the refill, you can spray it using a touch up spray brush. SEM Landau Black can also be purchased as quarts and gallons and then sprayed.
View attachment 755449

I did end up re-doing my chrome with a Molotow pen. Wish I'd known about them earlier. Very happy with the results.

 

[Mike Szadaj]

My clock will be replaced with an OEM Tick Tock Tach. I have already replaced the circuit board to work with electronic ignition and tested the clock, which appears to be working. It wasn't supposed to be operational but hey, I'll take it!

I bought one of the quartz movement replacement kits. Not hard to do, and it actually keeps time, unlike the originals. The original movements used "points" that although different from the points in a distributor wore out just the same (only after a much longer time period). Also I thought the second hand would be "jerky" like almost all of todays quartz battery clocks, but much to my surprise, and delight, the second hand moves smoothly.

 

[Photon440]

Thanks for the info, funknut. I've had similar good results using brake fluid, but hadn't thought of the dishwasher treatment. I scrubbed with sudsy water and a plastic bristle brush after the brake fluid soak. The paint came off quite well, and it wasn't all original paint either - I had resprayed the panel with more black back in the early 80s.

 

[funknut]

Fantastic information for anyone looking to tackle this job themselves!

I would imagine your end results will look as good as new. Mine are a "good" driver quality.

Thanks, yours looks great, probably better than mine ever will. It's hard to tell in the pic, but the previous owner of my car must've had the dash in and out quite a few times as the bezel has a bunch of dings and gouges. My only reason for stripping it down completely is to try and do some plastic repairs and I didn't want the paint to be an issue. That, and I was bored waiting for other parts to arrive. Hopefully by the time I get it all painted up it will look pretty decent.

Thanks for letting me crash your thread. Lots of great info here already.

 

[funknut]

I forgot one pic. Also the Molotow Liquid Chrome paint pens can be refilled. If you buy the refill, you can spray it using a touch up spray brush. SEM Landau Black can also be purchased as quarts and gallons and then sprayed.
View attachment 755449

Great info! I looked into the SEM products and ordered their adhesion promoter, Landau Black and their Silver to see if that would be "close enough" to chrome. I've have been experimenting spraying out some tests on my kids' decommissioned LEGO pieces (also ABS) and will update with results.

The great news is the SEM stuff sticks REALLY well. Their adhesion promoter is, I believe, mostly acetone so it softens the surface for the Landau black to melt into the plastic. Hopefully that means it's pretty durable and doesn't need a top coat. I'll get some pics together and add them here.

The less great news is the SEM silver is really just silver without much sheen, so not chrome, which I didn't really expect, but was hoping to get lucky.

My daughter does a bunch of arts and crafts and has a handful of different chrome finishes that I'm going to mess with to see what plays well with the SEM.

 

[Mike Szadaj]

The Landau Black paint can be used for other things also. This color has the perfect balance between gloss and flat for most interior parts. They call it flexible paint and claim it can be used on seats and door panels. I had the whole dash out including the metal frame, and I painted it with this paint. If you paint the frame gloss, you risk the problem of sunlight blinding you. If you paint it flat it looks wrong and ugly. This color gives the right balance between them (IMHO). I don't know about you guys, but I don't like things that shouldn't be shiny (like radiator hoses or fan shrouds). I find them quite distracting when painted with gloss paint.

 

[Mike Szadaj]

It's hard to tell in the pic, but the previous owner of my car must've had the dash in and out quite a few times as the bezel has a bunch of dings and gouges.

I know you are referring to the bezel, but this reminded me of another tip. If anyone has scratches on their instrument cluster lens, a great product is called Novus. The maker calls it a plastic polish. It comes in 3 strengths. It requires a lot of elbow grease, but does smooth out scratches. It too is hard to find, but I followed the suggestion I got on the Antique Radio Forum, and found it being sold at a motorcycle shop. I guess it is used to clear up helmet face shields and windshields made of acrylic. I used the number 3 Heavy Scratch Remover on a lens that had deep scratches, and while the end result was not perfect, the before and after look of the lens was remarkable. On light scratches, the result is to make the lens look like it was never scratched.

 

[Lionized]

I know you are referring to the bezel, but this reminded me of another tip. If anyone has scratches on their instrument cluster lens, a great product is called Novus. The maker calls it a plastic polish. It comes in 3 strengths. It requires a lot of elbow grease, but does smooth out scratches. It too is hard to find, but I followed the suggestion I got on the Antique Radio Forum, and found it being sold at a motorcycle shop. I guess it is used to clear up helmet face shields and windshields made of acrylic. I used the number 3 Heavy Scratch Remover on a lens that had deep scratches, and while the end result was not perfect, the before and after look of the lens was remarkable. On light scratches, the result is to make the lens look like it was never scratched.

For those interested, I used Meguiar's PlastX to polish the lens of my cluster. Worked awesome...and I realized, after all of this time, I neglected to mention it in this thread.

I also use it on my DD to polish the headlight lenses. No need for those specialty kits.

 

[dadsbee]

The only thing I've used on Lexan and Acrylic aircraft windows for over 25 years... 210 Plus for scratches using my rough multi directional fingers as an applicator and the 210 cleaner and polish with a microfiber cloth to buff.

 

[Lionized]

The only thing I've used on Lexan and Acrylic aircraft windows for over 25 years... 210 Plus for scratches using my rough multi directional fingers as an applicator and the 210 cleaner and polish with a microfiber cloth to buff.View attachment 755883 View attachment 755884 View attachment 755885

Very cool!

 

[dadsbee]

I also used my power buffer with Rouge for all the switches. Rouge on the yellow wheel, nothing on the white flapper to buff.

 

[Mike Szadaj]

Here is an example of what these products can do. There were pretty good scratches on this lens. Here are before and after pics.