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Time to bust out the arts and crafts supplies and buckle up for adventure as I talk you through an irksome peeve I've decided to address this weekend!
As I'm sure you can all appreciate: my glorious SR5 instrument cluster needles have been dulled by three decades of uv exposure. I decided to address this by repainting the needles myself. I used my dad's 94 base 4x2 needle as a color guide for the color I should use, while I know it's not exactly the same, I do like how it turned out. After spending a few mins at the Michaels hobby store I found my acrylic paint and thin synthetic brush and proceeded with the kraftwerk.
1. Take out the 4 screws holding the outer plastic cover from the dash, and clutch cancel button/cruise harnesses if equipped 2. Remove the 4 screws holding the cluster underneath 3. Remove the 3 wiring harness clips and speedometer cable from the back of the cluster 4. Remove the two metal retaining clips from the top of the assembly by removing the screws from the back and CAREFULLY detach the clear faceplate from the white backing plate of the cluster 5. I put down some paper towel underneath all the gauges with some painter tape and taped the tach/speed needles upright to get a better angle with the brush.
6. Your hand is going to shake more than you realize (or maybe I'm still recovering from 10 years of drinking) so be careful in applying the paint to the TOP ONLY of the needle.
This is where I messed up: I painted all sides of the needle and when I went to look at my gauges in the dark, the paint was too thick to allow enough light through to allow me to see what was indicated lol. Just paint the tops.
7. let dry and reassemble.
Total time to complete: ≈45 mins. I also lubed my speedometer cable because it was shaking/making a racket.
Some photos of the process: Way more paint than necessary, but this is the smallest amount I could get. Michael's $11 acrylic Starting point All painted, being gentle with tape/needles Looking good! Whoops! Don't paint the sides of the needle, just the tops. I'm also going to try some 2W LED bulbs from Amazon to see if that gives it a little more clarity.
I should add that I did this yesterday, so today I went back at the needle sides with some rubbing alcohol and q tips to get the paint off the sides as best I could. The result of the new effort is the very first pic in the thread.
That's part of the reason I went with acrylic: it's a lot easier to get off and fast drying as well. Let me know if you have any questions!
I got an orange of about that color at the dollar store.
Came with its own brush.
Said it was nail polish..................
Yeah. Don't over look nail polish, nail polish remover (acetone), and lip stick for various detailing. I used gold and silver nail polish to repaint my B pillar emblems and polish remover to clean them. I used lipstick to mark where to drill holes for door pockets. Excellent job OP! I love the attention to detail. I've been irked at my gauge cluster thinking the needles were faded red. Turns out they are supposed to be orange.
I got an orange of about that color at the dollar store.
Came with its own brush.
Said it was nail polish..................
I was thinking about it, and now that I have the LEDs in place they've illuminated the brush strokes I had from my work with the acrylic paint. I thought maybe the nail polish would be a little too corrosive on the 33 year old plastic needle? But I may eventually redo it with nail polish because I think that would do a better job of eliminating the brush strokes. "We're experiencing levels of perfectionism that shouldn't be possible" lmao 😂
Nov 13, 2021 | 06:41 PM
