We tore apart our dash today and I want to bead blast and paint this panel that has bulbs and green lenses. The green lenses are riveted on. Do people typically drill out the rivets and replace with screws?
I assume that the purpose of this panel is to give the instruments a green glow???
Thanks
SEM trim black is good stuff I use it all time. That's my plan for my light bar as well.
If it's not that rusty, I would leave the lenses in place and just hand sand it....
When you put it back in the dash, use bright led bulbs instead of regular incandescent ones. They are dirt cheap, plug and play, and far brighter. Very nice upgrade for pennies.
Just finished my light bar today.I hand sanded it like Alan said then I cleaned it with lacquer thinner and masked off the lenses and light sockets and painted it with sems trim black.Turn out great.Does someone have the # for the LED bulbs for the light bar?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/372652525852
Same bulb but I got mine from a different seller. Hard to beat 50 cents each delivered to you door.
Thank You.
I restored 3 of them turned out real nice. Thanks, Al
Quote from: GoMangoBoys on March 21, 2020, 09:31:46 PM
Do people typically drill out the rivets and replace with screws?
After drilling out the rivets I've replaced them with the same type of semi-tubular ones. You'll also need a rivet clincher if you're going that route. With the lenses off, it's a good opportunity to repaint the inside of the bulb housings.
Nice job
Quote from: 70 Challenger Lover on May 10, 2020, 11:44:04 AM
When you put it back in the dash, use bright led bulbs instead of regular incandescent ones. They are dirt cheap, plug and play, and far brighter. Very nice upgrade for pennies.
I'll second the LED bulbs, I went from very dim dash light that were not enough, to finally getting to use the dimmer to reduce the brightness to what I'm comfortable with.
I masked off the lens with tape and then media blasted the metal in my home cabinet and then painted with SEM black landau. Then used LED bulbs.
:bigthumb: I used smoke colored Plexiglas from some electronic equipment with LEDs.
Quote from: Skid Row on May 13, 2020, 06:22:07 AM
:bigthumb: I used smoke colored Plexiglas from some electronic equipment with LEDs.
That's pretty cool. On my current project, I'm deviating from original in a few areas. I wouldn't mind doing something like that to give the gauges a different look at night.
What size rivets did you use to reattach the lens? Are the rivets aluminum? Did you use a white hi-temp paint for the bulb housings, or just a regular white paint that could be used with low heat LED bulbs?
Quote from: Gary AAR on May 13, 2020, 07:08:49 AM
What size rivets did you use to reattach the lens? Are the rivets aluminum? Did you use a white hi-temp paint for the bulb housings, or just a regular white paint that could be used with low heat LED bulbs?
If this question is aimed at my post here's the answers.
I measured the rivets (lost original invoice) and they seem to be: 1/8 x 3/16 and steel (magnetic).
I just used gloss white hobby paint (have LEDs).
I found an issue with the white LED's that were linked above. The original lens are blue and with the old incandescent (yellow) bulbs mean a green glow. The white LED's through the blue lens makes your gauges glow blue and look a little cheesy IMO!
I have some yellow and green LED's to try next and see what works better.
Quote from: dylo on May 31, 2020, 02:15:25 AM
I found an issue with the white LED's that were linked above. The original lens are blue and with the old incandescent (yellow) bulbs mean a green glow. The white LED's through the blue lens makes your gauges glow blue and look a little cheesy IMO!
I have some yellow and green LED's to try next and see what works better.
I use the color of the LED to match the lens cover that's in front of the bulb. Got green LEDs in my rallye dash.
Put the green LEDs in and it looks great.