This may take me a while to finish but I wanted to explain how to fix or repair your broken gauge bezel. The plastic on these things is very brittle and sometimes it will crumble even by just touching it. We're going to fix that though. Also this is a very time consuming and expensive process if you don't have a lot of the materials or tools laying around already. It's also a lot of work, especially if you're sanding it all by hand. With that said I think its worth it in the end. I was able to find a perfect dash and a Mirage GS cluster so I wasn't about to toss on a busted bezel.
Please note that I am relocating my hazard switch, well actually the plan is to grab one from another car and figure out somewhere else to mount it and wire it up but more on that later. My car is a base model so the hazard switch is the only real working switch that I have on the bezel, the rest are just dummy switches. I'm just going to smooth out my bezel and delete the switches for a cleaner look, if you choose to keep yours that is fine too.
Items needed: cluster bezel
, plastic epoxy, body filler and hardener (the cheapo stuff is fine for this project), plastic spreader, laquer thinner, fiberglass cloth, fiberglass resin and hardener, 80 grit and 180 grit sandpaper, gloves, old plastic cup and cheap 1" paint brush, scissors, something to repair missing pieces with (I'll explain this later), high build primer and satin black paint
Optional but highly recommended
A (dual action) sander, small angle grinder for sanding smaller areas and of course an air compressor if they are air tools.
I got some two part plastic epoxy from Lowes for about $6, this stuff is awesome and works great but it stinks
. Work outside or near an open window and cut the fan on to circulate some fresh air.
Now take the pieces that you do have and use the epoxy to hold them together. You basically squeeze out equal parts and mix it with a popsicle stick. Only mix up what you need at the time, once it cures, its trash. Don't worry if a little oozes out of the repaired area, we'll fix that later. If you are gluing multiple pieces, glue one or two at a time and let it cure as this stuff takes a few minutes to set.
Now if your bezel is like mine was, you are missing some pieces. I had to get creative and I used a thin piece of cardboard and some small screen wire to fill in the open spaces. Just look around the house or the shop and I'm sure you can come up with something. I cut the wire and bent it to the shape that I needed and then I used the plastic epoxy to hold it in place. Here you can see in this pic from the back.
Also I took my original switches and very carefully pulled the covers off. I did this because I wasn't going to use them and they have the basic shape of the bezel. I took the epoxy again and glued them in just slightly lower than where they would originally sit. I did this to leave room for fiberglass and body filler to smooth them in.
Once the bezel is all glued together and the holes are filled with something you can get ready to fiberglass it to make it stronger. I just bought an inexpensive kit from Lowes or Wal-Mart, Auto Parts stores carry it too. It consist of the resin, an activator and the mesh cloth. Get an old can or cut down a large plastic cup like I did. Then get a small 1" cheap paint brush and trim the bristles down to about 1" long with scissors. This will make the bristles more sturdy and you can force the resin into the mesh better. Also be sure to wipe down the bezel with alcohol or something to get rid of the years of armor all. Cut some small pieces of cloth to the needed sizes and mix up a small batch of resin. Brush on a little and then lay down the cloth and brush more on top of it. You need to do this one layer at a time and let it cure. Wear some gloves and again work outside or near a window.
After it cures repeat this process and remember you only want to put the fiberglass over the missing pieces to build that area up and make it stronger. Plus this will give us something to put the body filler on. Be sure to keep the repaired areas a little lower than the rest of the bezel.
Now take out the DA and some 80 grit paper and go over the repaired areas
AFTER they have cured. You may want to wear long sleeves or gloves for this as it can irritate your skin, for some reason it doesn't bother me so I didn't. You can see that I also sanded the surrounding areas for a smooth transition.
Once the area is sanded you can apply a light coat of body filler. Spoon some out after stirring it with a wooden paint stick, add in a little hardener according to the instructions and mix it well with a plastic spreader. Work fast here as it starts to set fairly quickly, if you run out of time just clean the spreader off and mix up some more. The stuff is cheap and you have more than enough. Try to spread it on in the basic shape that is needed for the contour of the part.
Let this cure for a half hour or so and start sanding it with the DA and 80 grit paper. After that is done if there are still low spots mix up a little more filler and fill those in. Wait for it to cure and sand again.
This is it for now, I will update this later as I make more progress.
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