Learn from your mistakes

Over the past couple of nights I have been unable to get to the workshop, so I decided to clean up some of the parts that I have removed from the car instead.

I thought that a nice place to start would be the Smiths gauges. So with wire wool in hand I began to clean up the chrome and glass that was covered in black dashboard paint and general grime. I started with the fuel gauge and it was coming up very nicely. However there was a lot of dirt and dust on the inside of the glass and on the face. So I took the chrome surround off and cleaned the glass to almost new.

I then made my first real mistake of this project and decided the best way to clean the face of the gauge was to use a damp cotton bud.

I didn't realise that the 'artwork' was printed on with water soluble paint, which as you can see now means the car will never run out of petrol!

I have since found out that it is possible to send the gauge to a specialist to have it restored. Both www.speedoheads.co.uk and www.speedycables.com offer these services as well as complete refurbishment.

So with my new found knowledge of how to carefully clean my gauges I finished off the other two without further incident.

I even tested the water temperature gauge by boiling some water, putting the thermostat in and watching the dial swing round was a brilliant feeling.

I had some time spare so cleaned up the ignition barrel as well.