who restores instrument panels?

[garlok]

I have a 63 Fury, the instrument panel is kind of nasty...not going for a super-restored deal (it's a four-door), has anybody sent their dash pieces somewhere for make nice again, not too pricy?

 

[bob myers]

Do a search for G Car....they did my 62 dart instrument cluster and it now looks like new. About$300, but as stated looks fantastic.

 

[Meep-Meep]

I'm thinking you mean the vacuum metallizing on the bezel and not the gauge faces themselves? Good luck. I know of one place in Vancouver that does nice work but they just went out of business. The price will depend on how good your cores are. A lot of hand work is required to bring this old stuff back into good shape and that isn't cheap. I've heard prices quoted as high as $600.00 and even at that price it's hard to make a living at it because of the time involved to get it right. It's not like they are making $100.00 / hr.

You might check PG Classics to see if he has repos. I got the 68/69 Road Runner bezels from him and they were nice but on the other hand I heard the 69 Dart repos are not that great, which is not good news because I have a 69 Dart.

You might try fixing them up yourself using the chrome paint in the rattle can. It won't be spot on but bound to look better than what you have now - plus you said you weren't going for the 100 point show car. I did the chrome paint trick on my 71 Ranchero hideaway grille as a quickie and it looks pretty darn good as a 10 footer. Think about it.

 

[khryslerkid]

moparsteve636 Rechromes plastic dash parts. Look him up on here. He does nice work.

 

[hemistix66]

I'll be using moparsteve636.Always treated me right.Before I joined here had another guy locally here doing it,it wasn't super show stuff but very nice.He retired to FL.My new toys desevre show quality so I'll step up and pay for it.

 

[Slantsixdan]

You might check PG Classics to see if he has repos.

…or y'might not. Me, I will not waste my money with PG Classics again. Their stuff is marketed out of Canada, but it's all Chinese-made garbage. It looks great when you receive it, but it quickly degrades and the head of the operation, "Peter Gee", basically shrugs his shoulders and says "tuff luck, not my problem" if you can even get him on the phone—see here. Given that their stuff is priced way up high, that's not cost-effective.

 

[Meep-Meep]

Well that really sucks about your mirror. I knew PG means made in China, and like you said, it can be bad or good depending on the factory and how the part is speced. All I know is my dash bezels look really good but I had issues with the rocker switches.

 

[lyndondb]

Instrument restoration

D & M RESTORATION 57B CREEKSIDE CT, GREENVILLE SC 29615 TEL 800 722 0854.

These folks restored my 1969 entire dash and instruments. They are a class act. Stand behind their work and what they tell you.

Lyndondb

I have a 63 Fury, the instrument panel is kind of nasty...not going for a super-restored deal (it's a four-door), has anybody sent their dash pieces somewhere for make nice again, not too pricy?

 

[hemistix66]

Thnaks for PG info I was looking @ 66 Satellite lenses.

 

[uk-maxie]

We used auto instruments for our 63 Polara's cluster a couple of years ago. Being overseas it was pretty important that they did a good job, cos we couldnt just take it back if we werent satisfied.
Well, they did a good job, quality-wise, but unfortunately they didnt chrome the parts that we wanted chromed, and paint the parts we wanted painted :icon_rolleyes:

Trouble was, we found a good-ish used cluster on ebay, and had it sent direct to auto instruments for them to work their magic on, rather than remove ours and send it across the pond.
It transpired that our original had certain areas chromed, whereas the one we had sent to them, had those areas painted. And auto instruments said that the 63 dodge clusters they had seen and worked on were like the used one we had sent to them, so they just restored it the way they thought it should be.

But to their credit, when I said "very nice, but our original has more chrome plate than the one you've just sent, and that's how we wanted it" (or words that that effect!) they said "ok no problem, just send it back and we'll re-work it for no charge".
Yes I had to pay the shipping, but was happy to do that if they were cool with reworking it with absolutely no if's or but's.

And the reworked item was great quality too.

Cant remember the exact costs, but all the work is itemised on their site http://www.autoinstruments.com/

This is the one we had sent to them (before rework :icon_winkle

 

[uk-maxie]

And this is how it came back. Great quality, but as i say, not the same finish as i was expecting due to there being 2 different finshes apparently :icon_rolleyes:

 

[uk-maxie]

And here's our original, still in the car. I looked at as many pics of other 63 clusters as I could find on the 'net and there did seem to be a mixture of painted & chromed examples, but mostly chromed like this one. The area I'm referring to is the 'ribbed' bit just below the speedo

 

[uk-maxie]

and finally... here's how it came back after autoinst reworked it for us f.o.c.

Very impressed with the service & quality :yes:

 

[Slantsixdan]

Ooops…I hate to have to say it, but the error was yours and not theirs.

The reason why the ribbed area on your bezel appeared specular ("shiny") rather than diffuse ("matte") is because the frosted clear topcoat flaked away over time, leaving the bare vacuum-metallised aluminium exposed and making you think it was supposed to look that way. The matted-chrome finish on horizontally-ribbed plastic design was widely applied on '63-'64 Chrysler products; one sees it also on the '63-'64 Dart, the '64 Valiant, and others.

Originally the whole bezel was metallised, then frosted and clear topcoats (and blackout paint, in some cases) were selectively applied. The unfrosted clear topcoat was used very selectively and only on small areas that couldn't create a dangerously distracting sun reflection into the drivers' eyes. This was a matter of Chrysler's corporate instrument cluster design philosophy, described in some detail in two 1962 SAE papers, one of which you can buy directly from SAE here. The other might be out of print; I'm not finding it in an SAE search but will likely come across it in my own collection sooner or later. I have heard more than once, from those who were close enough to be getting accurate info at the time, that one of the major drivers of this bit of philosophy was the 1960-61 Valiant instrument cluster bezel, which had a specular (non-matte) metallised aluminium "chrome" finish over its entire textured surface. This caused a fair bit of squawking due to brutal sun reflections; the '62 Valiant cluster bezel was almost entirely blacked out, and the '62 Lancer bezel had most of its chrome area matted.

So…props to Auto Instruments for reworking your bezel at no cost, and your bezel certainly looks nice, but I believe you have insisted on it being "restored" to an incorrect finish.

 

[uk-maxie]

Thanks for the info Dan :icon_confused:

Oh well, we still have the original cluster if we decide it needs to be changed again :icon_hang:

As for reflections tho, I havent noticed any bad reflections coming from the instrument cluster - the main culprit in the car is the approx 1.5" wide chrome trim that runs along the base of the windscreen on the inside. We might not get as many sunny days over here as where our maxie was 'born', but every time the sun's out, you need your sunnys on just for that!

 

[dodge41969]

Try Redline gauge works,(661)259-8891 ask for Shannon.

I used to work there we used to do Jay Leno's and Chip Foose's stuff, Overhaulin' etc.

I did a '63 Plymouth cluster in an article for "MuscleCar review" in 2006 when I worked there. you could probably find it online.