Painting instrument bezel

[benden]

Does anyone have any pictures ofa painted instrument bezel? I have a new lens and have cleaned the guages up. I have thought about doing satin black or I suppose I could use argent silver. Just trying to dress it up. Thanks.

[michael69]

I used argent silver and gloss black. Was going to paint the FORD letters black,but I have a f600 cluster I am going to swap in so I never did.

[benden]

Michael, looks great. it looks like it would take some effort to mask off the black areas. You did a great job.

[michael69]

Yea I painted all the black first and let dry for a day, then taped it up and sprayed the silver. It wasn't that bad. Just covered all the black and used a razor blade to trim of excess tape,took about 30 minutes.

[abe]

Yea I painted all the black first and let dry for a day, then taped it up and sprayed the silver. It wasn't that bad. Just covered all the black and used a razor blade to trim of excess tape,took about 30 minutes.

Did you remove the instrument panel to paint it or do it in place?

[michael69]

Removed it and took it apart,so I had just the bare plastic bezel to work with.

[benden]

Any tips on primer or taping. Looks great..

[michael69]

I didn't use any primer. I just scuffed it up real good with scotch brite.Wiped down with lacquer thinner,sprayed the black.Let it dry for a day and taped the black.Just used new razor blades to trim the excess tape.Then wiped down again with thinner what was not taped and sprayed the silver.

[benden]

Boom!! Done. Thanks.

[michael69]

Oh yea, pull tape off while the silver is still wet. That way it won't leave a raised edge that will peel paint off. If you what till it's dry it may peel paint off on the edges.

[Stickbow]

Probably should search first, but....where did you find new lenses/"glass" for the panel? I spent an hour plus polishing mine last night to get rid of 44 years of yellowing and pitting, but it still isn't what I want.

I did what michael69 suggested you do to clean and mask (great minds and all). I used satin black - not sure if he did or not.

[jrreed1634]

Here is a picture of mine in all black.



You can get the lens from LMC for $20. Probably Macs, NPD and Dennis Carpenter for about the same.

[michael69]

on the lens. Also you can get them off eBay,and here is what I am going to replace the original one with. Pictures of the f600 bezel after I cleaned and painted it.

[Stickbow]

Thanks jrreed1634. I actually asked before looking, since I messed with polishing 'til 1am last night, then posted that when I first jumped on Fordification looking for something else.

Will post a pic when I get it done - always forget to do "before" pictures.

[stephen44]

nice jobs ! - what aftermarket gauges do you all use in the f600 ones ?