Gauge Face Painting '48-'53 (at least...same gauge)

[Randy_Lahey]

I'm looking to redo the faces of my gauges (fuel, temp & ammeter) on my 1948 62-Series.  The gauge faces are black with white raised letters and/or readings.  Does anyone have any recommendations for how to repaint/color the raised white letters?  I can of course spray paint the black portion but I don't see how I could possibly mask off the letters/readings.

On the temp gauge, there is a bubble in the face.  It looks like the wire coil behind it must have burned up or at least overheated.  This gauge I'll probably replace with a used one as I broke the speedometer needle shaft disassembling the cluster and will unfortunately probably have to buy a whole cluster for parts.  For the other gauges, I'd like to repaint the faces.

Can anyone help on this?

Thanks,

David

[Bentley]

David,

The best option is to take the gauges to a gauge restoration shop. If you don't have the budget for that, there is a technique I have used that might work for you, if you're handy with a paintbrush.

First, clean the surface well. Try to get the white letters as clean and white as you can without scraping off the paint. Then take a small artist's paintbrush, like a #2 round, and paint the white letters and lines with petroleum jelly. Then mask the rest of the gauge, and spray paint the background black. When the black paint dries, slowly remove the petroleum jelly by peeling and cleaning it off. After removing the petroleum jelly, just leave the white letters alone (don't try to paint them). That should improve the contrast and make the gauge look better.

You might want to practice on the temp gauge with the bubble first. I used this technique on the Cadillac script on my dash and it worked well. You can ready about it on my blog here: http://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org/index.php?topic=141963.40
Scroll down towards bottom of page.

Let us know how it works.

[Randy_Lahey]

That's a good idea. I read somewhere else that you can spray the paint on a flat card stock piece. Once the paint is mostly dry you set the piece on the paint then pull it up. It should only paint the raised letters this way. I may try your trick on my front speaker grill. It has large indented slots on the front that at painted black while everything else is chrome.

I'll post back this weekend when I've given both methods a shot.

Thanks,

David

[Bentley]

I like the spray-paint-on-card-stock idea for the white. Or maybe gently push a white ink stamp pad on the raised letters. Not sure how well the ink would hold up over time, however.

Looking forward to seeing the results.