cluster painting question
 

I painted the needles a old W123 clock and speedo that didn't work and it came out looking great. So next weekend i'll pull out my cluster and paint the tach,speedo, fuel/oil/temp.

When I paint the speedo will it damage the speedo to tape the needle up so it isn't touching the stop pin while I paint it? Thanks

BTW, Krylon orange OSHA paint matches perfect. I'll post some pics next weekend.

just remove the needle by the spoon method

No.

X2 been there, done that.

^^what do you mean? You broke the speedo???

You should be fine. It will not hurt it.

Good to know about the Krylon paint.

Dude, I started bending my spoon trying this...and not in the Matrix way...the needle was on there good, so I left it. And I was afraid of breaking whatever is resisting that pull...and my spoons.

You really don't need to remove any of the needles although the minute hand on the clock is easier to remove than to paint around. I used a paper towel folded over. The natural tendacy of the paper to open up was plenty to hold the needle. It also provided masking for the gage face to stop any splatter or slips with the brush. I moved the paper so the needle was on an unpainted area right after painting to make sure the paper didn't stick to the needle when drying. It worked great.

No worries just be careful when you do so....http://benzguy.piczo.com/Addalittlecolortotheoldinstrumentpanel?cr=7&linkvar=000044
Good luck:D
Big Dan

I didn't and got some paint on the pin that caused the needle to stick to the pin. Had to hit the dash to get the speedo to work. After about a month, I took it out and cleaned the pin and added a drop of oil to the pin. Thanks to advice from this forum.

I taped them and didn't break them is what I meant. I think I used a 00 modeler's brush, but not sure. Could have been a 0.