Sweet beautiful plastic (gauge bezel)

[dzahm 10]

Wow- the ups guy brought my new deluxe bezel from Kentucky Mustang :thumbup: The chrome is awesome- I realized that I have never seen what the gauge chrome looked like when it was new.By the time I was old enough to see inside of a mustang the chrome had since I have repaired my standard gauges with the bare metal foil with some success- but DAMNNNNNN. I will try to assemble and install tomorrow and will post up pics.

[BuckeyeDemon 211]

i bought one a few weeks ago. i still need to get my clock cluster rechromed/metalized. i'll need to try and match the black.

 

there was a lot of black overspray on the chrome. i used thinner and a paper towel to remove the overspray. i pretty much had to go over all of the chrome.

 

here is an example of taking a swipe at one location.

 

 

mine didn't have the silver/argent on it either. i had to mask and spray that as well.

 

[miketyler 15]

I wish they had those panels available for the 70 models. I got mine rechromed and have to apply the black and the argent.

Edited December 10, 2011 by miketyler

[BuckeyeDemon 211]

mike,

 

where did you get yours chromed at? i contacted auto instruments last week and they said they were going to call me back, but didn't.

[miketyler 15]

MrG's in Ft Worth. His website is http://www.mrgusa.com

[Flanders 46]

this thread needs more pics!

[fastwayfirebird400 14]

I have mine at Auto Instruments http://www.autoinstruments.com/index.html now as well. It actually sat there about two weeks before they called me back for my CC #. I hope to have it back withing the next month.

[miketyler 15]

I wonder why they repopped the 69 instrument panel and not the 70? Were there more 69's made? That said, I wonder why they didnt repop the clock panel as it would have had nearly the combined production numbers. Looking at it compared to the instrument cluster seems like it would have been cheaper to tool up for.

 

Here's my clock panel in progress. I had to cut the painters tape down to 1/16" wide and then apply like pinstriping. There is a respected local guy here that charges $500 for chroming and detailing both panels. Chroming will run you about $200 for both panels. A little can be saved with the repop panel as its puchased outright, no exchange necesssary.

 

I have two complete woodgrain overlay panels. The one that has more color has some light scratches that I am still trying to figure out how to address.

Edited December 12, 2011 by miketyler

[miketyler 15]

I need to repaint the needles on my gauges. Do the indicator needles pull off of the Ford instruments? They pull off pretty easily on Mopar Cuda/Challenger instruments. Did either of you guys attempt to restripe the redline on your speedo?

Edited December 11, 2011 by miketyler

[miketyler 15]

I restored the tach reflector panel, rolled back the odometer to what my old speedo was reading, detailed it along with the needles and redline.

 

Is there a quick way to test the a factory tach before I put it all back in the car?

[LindenBruce 27]

Yeah, AutoInstruments did mine as well. They came out great. But it took them for ever. Some of it wasn't their fault though. One of my A/C vent balls just would not take chrome. Some type of contaminent they said. Bruce

[jmlay 80]

There are several places that chrome plastic.:

 

http://www.tonysautoclassics.com/index.htm

 

http://www.cvvacuumplaters.com/

 

http://www.boss302.com/smf/index.php?topic=52309.0

[miketyler 15]

CV has been out of business for a while now. They are referring people to Instrument Specialties

Edited December 13, 2011 by miketyler

[LiLMike 42]

I would be leery of Tony's Auto Classics. I called his brother Ray, who does plating also. Ray was leaving the country for 6 months and refered me to his brother Tony. I called Tony and explained what I wanted. I asked about his prices and he said that all the prices listed on his website were wrong. He didn't say he went up, just that they were wrong. He told me to e-mail him about our conversation, what I had and what I wanted and he would get back to me with a quote. I sent the email right then and NEVER heard from him again. It has been over a month now. I'm not so sure I want to send my parts to someone like that in hopes of getting them back. He still hasn't changed his pricing. It just makes me wonder.

[cobra460jet 10]

Im real curious as to how good the re-pop instrument panel fits in our cars and the overall quality. The last oem panel I won on e-bay arrived with the column corner broken. Could you please post on here letting us know...

[dzahm 10]

No pics yet...repop panel fit well, lower mounting screws didn't line up but if I gently torqued on the panel just a bit it filt well. Really the only thing about the repop was the area around the gauge is supposed to be argent but the repop is chrome. So after "fixing" several other bezels I just didn't feel like masking it off and painting so I left it chrome. I actually like it and probably won't change it. The black was already done on the repop. Of course it didn't have the ford numbers on the back either. You know they really should make these out of grey or silver plastic so when the chrome goes it doesn't look so bad. I wonder how long before they repop the clock bezel.

[miketyler 15]

I dont know but there sure would be a market for them. Were there more deluxe interior 69 Mustangs built than 70 model?

[miketyler 15]

I would be leery of Tony's Auto Classics. I called his brother Ray, who does plating also.

 

And as for Ray Azcue, he supposedly did some serious quality concours-level work. Over a year ago he quoted me $500 to do both my panels, chrome and detail.

 

That was a lot of money to me and I went and bought the MrG chrome panels thinking I would detail myself. Later when projects started piling up decided I would approach him to quote detail-only on my MrG panels. Well, he doesn't like MrG and after some lengthy coercion he agreed to detail my panels for about $300. I was reluctant to commit at the time and am now glad I did after several people weighed in on their experience with Ray.

 

http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/mod-custom-forum/630347-1970-mach1-finally-done-2.html

[stangs-R-me 120]

I dont know but there sure would be a market for them. Were there more deluxe interior 69 Mustangs built than 70 model?

 

1969 vs. 1970 Woodgrain Dash:

 

1969:

72,458 Mach 1

22,182 Grande'

857 Boss 429

3,150 Shelby

---------------

98,647 definite total

 

plus:

2,550 Deluxe Sportsroof (est., see note below)

1,669 Deluxe Convertible (est., see note below)

----------------

102,866 estimated grand total

out of 299,824 total 1969 production (34.3%)

 

vs.

 

1970:

40,970 Mach 1

13,581 Grande'

499 Boss 429

5,965 Luxury Sportsroof (all but Boss 429)

5,408 Luxury Hardtop

1,474 Luxury Conv

-----------------

67,897 total

out of 190,727 total 1970 production (35.6%)

 

 

NOTE: Some but not all 1969 (Deluxe) Interior Decor Group equipped Sportsroofs (5,958; incl. the 857 Boss 429) & Convertibles (3,339) had the wood grain dash if ordered with the "Deluxe Interior Decor Group" option. My estimates are based on "HALF" of these cars having woodgrain dashes, which is probably conservative.

 

They also built 5,714 Interior Decor Group Hardtops but for some silly reason you could not order the "Deluxe" Woodgrain Dash version ... probably because of the Grande' ... you could however get it "dealer installed". The dual level interior decor group was dropped in 1970 ... probably realized it looked goofy having the black dash with the deluxe door panels.

 

 

So to answer your question, there were around 50% more 1969's than 1970's equipped with the woodgrain dash.

 

Doug

[jwscarab 20]

I did write Dynacorn about the clock bezel and they are "working on it". No timeline tho. They also now sell a woodgrain panel for the gauges thats not woodgrain, just plain metal so you can paint it.

[miketyler 15]

Who is out there thats recovering the woodgrain panels now? I read somewhere that someone is doing it. I have two sets of woodgrain clock and instrument panels and none match.

Edited December 17, 2011 by miketyler

[Dangstang 14]

I agree the Bezel looks preety good although the fit is not as good as I thought it might be .The woodgrain rings do not center as good as my original.Havnt had a chance to try to tweek yet so final decision has not been decided.As well is not the black inside the rings supposed to be a different shade that what i call gloss black? Lastly my woodgrain has a chip any suggestions for a fix?

Edited January 13, 2012 by Dangstang

[CG in TX 16]

The Tachman (tachman.com) repairs and restores the woodgrain inserts. I used him for some other work and was happy with the job. I do not know what he charges.

[miketyler 15]

Yes, determined Tachman was the one that does it. He's the only one I know of that does and according to his website charges $400 for it. A little more than I want to pay. Plenty of decent usable originals out there much cheaper than that although you may have to look for a while.

 

That panel still looks pretty good from the pics. I had my original 70 metallized and I detailed it myself. I used a satin finish black. I would bet you could get a little epoxy or some other type of filler matrial and paint to make it much less noticeable.

[miketyler 15]

Pic of mine done