Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

Technical => Body/Appearance/Interior => Topic started by: Cougars 2 go on June 28, 2008, 09:41:04 PM

Title: Your guages might be faded and you don't realize it
Post by: Cougars 2 go on June 28, 2008, 09:41:04 PM
You may not even realize it but your guages may be a little faded or maybe just lost their satin depth.  A few hours spent on your guage cluster makes a huge difference.  It takes some patience but the final result is well worth it.  I used low-gloss Armorall to return these guages and bezel to a rich satin black.  While you are at it, you can bench test your bulbs and clean each one for even bright lighting.

Be careful and minimize rubbing the white lettering on the buttstuffog bezel and the green "unleaded fuel only" lettering on the digital bezels...unless you want to rub the color off.  You can let the Armorall sort of 'pool' around the white 'oil' 'temp' , etc on the buttstuffog bezel and just use a Q-tip to blot the excess up from the white letters.  The green letters - just take a Q-tip wet with Armorall and just lightly blot the letters so they don't smear...unless you want to get rid of them altogether.
Title: Your guages might be faded and you don't realize it
Post by: Carpimp1987 on June 29, 2008, 02:24:34 AM
Those look awesome nice work not to discreidt you work but i am going to get some white face gauges covers to go over mine would that be a easy fix to the probelm?
Title: Your guages might be faded and you don't realize it
Post by: booksix on June 29, 2008, 03:09:07 AM
HOLY !  That's amazing.  nice work!
Title: Your guages might be faded and you don't realize it
Post by: vinnietbird on June 29, 2008, 06:46:36 AM
I like the idea,but,I wonder how long the treatment to the gauges will last.I like the "new" appearance a lot,but don't want to have to take the gauge cluster out every time I clean the interior.Let me know how long the gauges stay looking great....which they do,good work.
Title: Your guages might be faded and you don't realize it
Post by: Cougars 2 go on June 29, 2008, 10:50:14 PM
Quote from: Carpimp1987;225118
Those look awesome nice work not to discreidt you work but i am going to get some white face gauges covers to go over mine would that be a easy fix to the probelm?


That has nothing to do with this thread.

Quote from: vinnietbird;225126
I like the idea,but,I wonder how long the treatment to the gauges will last.I like the "new" appearance a lot,but don't want to have to take the gauge cluster out every time I clean the interior.Let me know how long the gauges stay looking great....which they do,good work.


I did the base cluster in my '85 a year ago and it still looks good.  I did only one buttstuffog guage in another car several years ago and it is still richer than the others.
Title: Your guages might be faded and you don't realize it
Post by: vinnietbird on June 29, 2008, 11:08:31 PM
Well then,I may just try it out.
Title: Your guages might be faded and you don't realize it
Post by: Blackout on July 01, 2008, 01:36:04 PM
Are you concerned about using armourall?  I am concerned about this, after I had the legendary armourall on my dash for years, and I watched it start to crack.  After I switched to Areospace Protectant ( can't remember which brand) it stopped the cracking completely.

Do you think there may be long term issues with armour-all on the guage faces?
Title: Your guages might be faded and you don't realize it
Post by: Cougars 2 go on July 01, 2008, 11:07:17 PM
Quote from: Birdman;225438
Are you concerned about using armourall?  I am concerned about this, after I had the legendary armourall on my dash for years, and I watched it start to crack.  After I switched to Areospace Protectant ( can't remember which brand) it stopped the cracking completely.

Do you think there may be long term issues with armour-all on the guage faces?


Uh, if I was concerned, I wouldn't have used it.
Title: Your guages might be faded and you don't realize it
Post by: vinnietbird on July 01, 2008, 11:10:49 PM
As far as Armourall goes,With or without it,our dashes crack.I think the fact that they are all over 20 years old has more of an effect on cracks than the dash treatment itself.I don't think it'll cause our gauges to crack.LOL.
Title: Your guages might be faded and you don't realize it
Post by: Carpimp1987 on July 02, 2008, 02:25:07 AM
Sorry about that looks good and i don't know much about the buttstuffog gauges since i have had 2 cars with digital dash untill my cougar i just got and its still at the shop and i never pay much attention to it.