How to restore the plastic lens and bezel on a 89 fbody firebird formula.

It seems all the one piece plastic gauge covers are cracking in the same place. Here's how to replace it and have it look crystal clear...
and renew the look of the plastic.

Remove the bezel. Remove the clear lens underneath.

Put the bezel in the tub. Scrub it down with "Basin tub and tile cleaner"
Do this twice and rinse well. Air dry it or do it with a heat gun. Careful with the heat gun, you don't want to deform the bezel.

Wipe it down well with 90% alcohol. You'll see faded whitish looking plastic in areas. This is fine. Gets rid of any old armor all.

Get some rustoleum paint for plastic, black gloss.. or Krylon Fusion. Same color. Lightly hit the front of the bezel all over once. Don't put too much or the grid lines on the front will look caked. Don't use a nearly empty can. The paint will start pooling in droplets and make it look like crap. Let it dry overnight.

Go to the Hardware store where the dowels are.. get 1 1/4" dowel. 3 or 4 ft long. High temp hot glue them along the edges like in this pict:

The dowels will sit below the round lip of the openings. This is perfect. You don't want them to push the glass up.

Also, at the HW store. Buy some Acrylic plastic sheets 6X12. There's a precut size that's perfect and costs about $3 each at lowes.

Score cut them to cover the openings and lay over the wood.

Use silicone caulk on the outer sides of the wood posts, away from the openings. When you press the acrylic down, you don't want it to squish out onto the glass.

Level out the bezel with shims on the floor or a table.

Peel the film from the side of which you are fixing to glue down. Gently place the glass and set something to weight it down on the side that still has film... jar of coins, can of soup etc. The film will keep it from getting scratched until you are ready to install.

When done properly, the plastic will be flush against the openings and not interfere with reinstallation. It will look like this from the drivers view.



The old clear plastic bezel will have to be removed.

Finally, the control stem that pokes through the glass.. position the bezel. Mark that spot with a sharpie and drill it out.. a little bigger for error..

Careful not to scratch the lens.

Reinstall and your done.

-Floyd Yancey

 

nice writeup! Good looking end result

 

That is a good idea.

 

Use some adhesion promoter before you paint it. I like SEM Landau black. But as long the paint is made for plastic it should work. That looks good.