I'm starting this thread to keep track of progress of reconditioning my digital gauge cluster. I picked up a spare one last weekend at the junkyard, and decided to practice on that one first. I completely disassembled the entire cluster, and cleaned each piece. All plastic pieces were washed with soap and water, all card edge and switch contacts were cleaned with a wire brush, and all screens were polished to remove dirt and gunk. Here are a few pictures from doing the spare cluster, I will post a detailed how-to when I do the one in my car. I also plan on replacing all of the bulbs in the cluster with LEDs. I also plan to try and straigten out the sagging plastic with a heat gun, the one in my car is doing the exact same thing. I had to be super careful when pulling the cluster apart, the screens are glass LCDs, and the 20 year old plastic is brittle. As you can see, there are quite a lot of parts in there.

 

I made some progress straightening out the sagging plastic. I'm guessing this happens due to heat from the lcd sreens and bulbs behind them, which is another reason I want to replace the bulbs with LEDs. After trying a few methods, I think a heat gun will work the best to finish this. I used a yardstick cut in half, and some spring clamps to hold the warped plastic flat, while heating the warped area with a lighter. It's a little low-tech, but I don't have a heat gun yet. I heated the plastic from the backside, just in case I blistered it a little. I still need to finish straightening out the warp in the bottom piece, you can see how I had it clamped in the pictures. I have a little more work to do on the top, it's still sagging a little farther back from the front edge.



Also, I've found that heat works well to restore the finish on the front pieces, it seems to burn off the plastic oxidation. I saw a trick for restoring faded exterior plastic, and decided to try it with the lighter. This video shows what I'm talking about:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zXN4WImSaqE

 

You might want to use a solvent like rubbing alcohol on the board and switch contacts. A wire brush will damage the gold or tin plating on them and lead to corrosion problems down the road if it is scratched down to the base metal. Use a swab like a Q-Tip or nylon brush to remove the dirt.

Good luck.

 

Im so watching this thread... I have digital gauges on my Trans Am and most of the idiot lights are not working and two "computer" screens are not working correctly. I already have a new set of Information tech screen ready to be installed but my mileage screen is not at its best. When i take out the digital gauges, I wanna do em all at once and be done with it.

 

Interesting thread as the GTA I purchased has a digital dash and it was a replaced digital dash from the original one that was in the car. Are there any updates to this thread? Did you get the LED's working Ward? I still have the original Dash in my GTA. I'm thinking of going to Analog though.

 

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