71 Guages You Love Looking At

[GotaT]

I've been meaning to post this pic up for some time now, but have never had the cam in my hands at the right time.. A few months ago I took out Each of my 71 targa's S trim guages, Pulled them apart by slowly prying on the backs of each of the rings all the way around and finally getting them off. I cleaned the glass, and refurbed any parts that werent working, ie odomotor/ speedometor. When assembling I decided to go with a different paint scheme on all of the rings. I also painted the Needles again with flourescent paint.

I spent many hours doing them all but I think that the work was definitely worth it now that its complete. When I get in the car I cant help but check them out everytime!

Before:

[Sapporo Guy]

ok, the suspense is killing me ...

"Before:" ????

probably decided to grab a beer ?!?!

[GotaT]

Before

[GotaT]

AFTER :

[oregonmon]

I have to say that looks ...... AWESOME!!!

[nyne11]

Nice job!

[axl911]

Love it. Do you have a hi-res pic I can use as my background?

[SCWDP911]

Wow! Kudos to you on that one. I have seen the "aluminum" trim rings before and always thought I liked the look. But I like yours better with the black inner ring. That really dowes look awesome. Did you do anything to the gage faces at all. I thought about pulling mine apart sometime and maybe waxing the faces (lightly as I do not know how "tough" that paint is on the numbers, etc) while I was in there.

Speaking of early gages, this is one area I wish Porsche had left alone. I love those silver centercap pieces on the early gages. There was a guy who made and sold those for the Miata crowd. I haev thought a few times about contacting to see if he would be interested in making some for my 83's gages.

One more question, exactly which paints did you use for your project here?

Very nice job!

[GotaT]

Thanks for all your posts! It took Many hours to complete but one by one I got them done. I was lucky in that my guages just "pull" out from the front whereas others have to be unbolted from the back. Once I got them out one at a time I turned them on their face and Slowly and Carefully pryed the outer Ring from the Housing off. This takes A long time to do it right. The outer ring will "Stretch" a little as you do this, Be careful not to tear it and keep in mind that you Will need to Secure it back to the housing later.

Once all apart I cleaned the Glass, Scuffed the 3 Rings and used "aluminum" and "Gloss black" paint after Priming them. While letting these dry I used Flourescent paint on the Needles. I used special care when touching the Face of the guages with the numbers and cleaned it with a Qtip and alcohol. It came out great. Youve got to be very careful when pulling out the Colored areas of the guages IE Alt light as it is VERY brittle. Luckily I had another one to use.

I was also able to fix my Odometor and Tripometor. After carefully studying it I took it apart and Fixed the Shafts that were no longer mated to the Gear.

All in all they probably absorbed 10-15hrs of time but WELL worth it I think! They look Much better at Night and I plan to get New bulbs to Really complete the Job.

[Paulporsche]

Look nice! Of course now your stering wheel seems to need some of your TLC.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Damn you! You just put another item on my "to-do" list.

In all seriousness, that's awesome. I'm totally sold on the idea. Great work!

[viper1]

Wow! What a difference! What's the address so I can send mine to ya! LOL! Excellent job!

[viper1]

BTW Does the ring the hold the glass on spin off or pry off? Thanks!

[Sapporo Guy]

Nice job!

[Super_Dave_D]

the before and after pics remind me of those weight loss pics. The first one old, low light, far away, cell phone pic (gut out) and the new pics are up close, good lighting, DSLR pics (gut in) Looks cool!!

[viper1]

Found your sentence describing how to do it! It's Monday haha! Thanks for the help!

[GotaT]

Thanks again for all your Reviews.. If you have any questions you're welcome to contact me.

Thanks again!