June 15th - Didn't sand at all

Today was another amazing day! I took the gauge cluster w/o the gauges and sand blasted them with a very fine sand. I sprayed them to protect from rust, and I sprayed them the same as I found them. The back side of the piece that holds all the gauges together was painted black in some areas and white in others. So i'm recreating that since I can only assume that it was done like that on purpose. I'm guessing the blacked out section are the gauges you pay attention to the most so they are more easily read with black on the back.

I also took the gauge faces and speedo faces to a graphics design store called Signs By Tomorrow and they are going to recreate original looking faces by using vinyl sticky stuff. As soon as I get a proof design from the store, i'll post it up so all can see. We're going with an off-white for the background of the faces, dark brown for the lines and lettering and tan and red for the rectangle area. I calculated an estimation of my time and labor for these gauges and all the pricing for the chroming and vinyl. Comparatively speaking, having me work on these gauges is way cheaper then the guy we were going to send out to. He was charging over $800 for ONE gauge cluster restored, whereas with my time and labor and outsourcing (the vinyls) each cluster is about $160! Thats one heck of a deal!

The Willy's steering wheel got painted as well!

I'm glad that project is coming closer to an end. I don't even remember what the steering wheels looked liked originally. But they look superb now!

Front glass for the gauge cluster. The back is etched so I took some sign lettering paint and painstakingly painted in the lines for the practice one. Then I wised up and found that I can scrap all of the excess off with a razor blade and It still looks fantastic. So for all three I just dropped the paint on with a toothpick.