Info needed: Ford Instrument Cluster- Correct Gold Colour

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Mike,

Ace = Rust-Oleum: That is great information! Thank you.

Will get the Rust-Oleum Pure Gold at Bunnings. If my panel comes up half as good as yours I will be happy.

A very fancy gate I can imagine!

Many thanks again. A bit circuitous route but a good answer in the end.

Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

Good Day,

Revisited this recently. I wanted to get as close a colour match before reassembling the cluster. I also looked at other thirties Ford car instrument clusters as I would imagine Ford would not have changed the gold colour in the pre war years.

Looked at about a dozen gold colours, automotive and hardware brands. Narrowed it down to these three. Many automotive golds were too reddish in colour or too light a shade of gold.

As half-predicted the Rust-Oleum looks the closest allowing for aging of the original gold paint. Dupli-Color Goldrush is a bit too yellow. White Knight is an Australian branch of the U.S. PPG company and is is too bright.

The test sample sadly is the fascia I spent a few hours refinishing; primed, spray puttied and wet sanded a few times. The strip brass patches I soldered behind the fascia to fill the holes, as thin as they were, were too thick to allow the bezel to properly seal. Kindly Euan McDonald supplied me with a good restorable one, free of extra holes.

Plan to spray that with Rust-Oleum next nice day- whenever that occurs this winter.

Bet I'm not the first person to spend hours restoring something only to find their efforts were for nought.

Hope this is of some interest.

[David Herbert]

Jacques,
Could you very slowly grind the surplus thickness off your patches with a small grinder. It should be possible to do it without overheating the repair or doing secondary damage. It seems such a shame to waste the work that you have already done.

David

[Jacques Reed]

Hi David,

Yes, I had considered that but there would be very little steel for the filler to adhere to. It would only be the thin edge of the steel at the hole.

I have noticed the instrument panel is subject to a fair bit of vibration which could result in the filler falling out if not backed up. My reason in the first place for putting the brass shim behind the hole.

As shown in the photo I've had three instrument panels that all have cracked at the same location from what I can only assume was vibration with resulting fatigue failure.

All is not lost. I will put that fascia up on my shed wall to remind me to check the fit of things before modifications. As someone once said "You learn more from your failures than you do from your successes."

[Jacques Reed]

Good Day,

With a few rainy days at hand, I thought I would tidy up another thing lying around the back room.

I tried to paint red stripes with a paint pen, but I was unable to get consistent 1/16" wide stripes spaced 1/4" apart even with using a guide.

I thought of another workaround, and having made decals before, made up some red stripes on laser decal paper using my colour laser printer. I was able to keep the artwork to very tight tolerances by that method.

I practiced on my sample fascia first (the one I wasted hours on before) and was satisfied I could do a reasonable job.

The results are shown. The paint pen jig which in the end I did not use came in handy, nonetheless. I printed the line spacing full size, laminated it previously so paint or decal liquids would not damage it, and positioned it precisely under the fascia as a guide for the decal placement.

The decals were put on as normal with decal setting solution to pull down the decal tightly onto the surface below. No edges show and this gives the appearance of it being inked or painted on as per original.

Next warm day a coat of satin clear acrylic to seal them in and it is all finished.

Hope this is of some interest.

Added before photo. Many thanks again Euan. I eventually get a "round tuit"!

Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

I started to work on remounting the fascia to the instrument cluster.

Couple of interesting points came up. The previous owner who broke off the tabs on the cluster case to remove the bezel, luckily for me, broke off the top tabs. There is a lot more room for screws and nuts to clear the gauges at the top of the cluster than at the bottom. Something to remember if removing the bezel.

This allowed me to use screws through the tab holes and just a small groove filed in the bezel was needed for clearance for the screw.

Some old computer screws that I had salvaged just fit the bill. The heads are not too thick to hold the cluster too far off the instrument panel and their small size kept modifications to the bezel to the minimum. The long nut came in handy in the tight location to fit to the screw.

Now to work on the gasket between the glass and the bezel. I am guessing based on the old remnant that it was a moulded rubber seal conforming to the shape of the bezel. A uniform strip of rubber would not have the backing at the sides to make a tight seal. Cannot find any suppliers of an original style one so a bit of packing will be required at the sides to bring it up to a uniform level for a strip of rubber.

Using the old, hacked fascia to test fit everything. No use risk scratching the restored one until final assembly.

[Ganmain Tony]

Good to see you're chipping away at it Jacques.
I concur with that break at the dash panel. Most Ford 13 Cabs I've seen have cracking in that corner.
Those little tabs are usually broken which is frustrating. You can get away with them not being there due to the way the fascia is assembled.
Your work on correct gold colour and red stripes is a credit to you, as well as taking the time to document it.
I made silly error when I put my cluster back in by not putting some sort of rubber around the bezel. As a result, the glass cracked
I found a round profile rubber 'rope' from Clark rubber. Worked perfectly on the second attempt. Went into the bezel channel perfectly with enough protruding to provide a seal and some cushioning for the glass.