Gauge needle replacement

[KirsL]

So hope everyone's labor day weekend is going well. I finally had some time to work on my rig and I've been working on getting my Vintage air a/c together. Well in doing that I ended up pulling the dash bezel and pad off. I saw how dirty the gages were and figured I might as well clean them (very dangerous words that phrase). Well I took the plastic cover off and using a damp rag started wiping the dirt off. Which there was a lot of. Well I barely touch the needle on the temp gauge and the needle snaps off . So that leads me to my question. I know I can get a new guage but they don't have numbers on them. Mine is the diesel one that goes to 240. I haven't had much luck yet finding somewhere that sells either new needles or new with the numbers on it. So hoping someone here has had better luck then me. I would prefer to have a stock one with the numbers as I plan to keep the stock gauges for the time being.

Taking it all apart I'm now painting the inside of the cluster bright silver to make it brighter. Damn snowball effect

Thanks in advance.

 

[Stomis]

Ive read the old trick to safely removing the needle is to use a fork. Yes like the one you eat with. As to where to get a replacement, you got me there. Boneyard?

 

[KirsL]

Interesting trick, I will have to try it. Yea I'm coming short on where. I could try the boneyard but knowing my luck any I do find will end up breaking.

 

[76k5blazerr]

Use a toothpick painted orange as a needle.

 

[Fordum]

I imagine the hub part is still on the shaft, so I'm thinking super glue and a red painted tooth pick........

Or maybe you could build or adapt something like these.

http://www.klockit.com/depts/ClockHands/dept-5.html

Painted florescent red or orange, one of the serpentine or Fleur-de-lys types would took wild.
You would have to glue them to the remainder of the hub, but one of the second hands might actually fit.
The minute and hour hands use a big hub, but the second hand is a small shaft pretty close to a gauge shaft.

 

[Fordum]

Dang it, I was typing toothpick while he was posting. I might have even gotten in ahead of him if I had not gone to the clock site.......

 

[KirsL]

Yes the hub part of the needle is still on shaft. The clock website certainly has lots of interesting options if you wanted to change the look of all the gauges.

I think I'll try the toothpick idea. Only thing I should have to get is some superglue otherwise I have everything else on hand.

I'll let you guys know how it works out.

 

[76k5blazerr]

I would use epoxy, stronger and better hold than super glue

 

[KirsL]

So I fixed the needle by gluing on a piece of a toothpick. Should actually work pretty well. I also cleaned and painted the plastic housing a bright melatlic. Which should vastly improve how bright the gauges are.

Now, to just figure out how to get the pictures I took with my phone on to here.

 

[76k5blazerr]

That was a pretty good ole idea I had with the toothpick.

 

[chevyfumes]

To post a pic, go to "go advanced" and at the top there's a paperclip, click on that. It will allow you to load a pic, then click it again after you load it and it will put the pic in the response box.

 

[campfire]

Use a toothpick painted orange as a needle.

I imagine the hub part is still on the shaft, so I'm thinking super glue and a red painted tooth pick........

So I fixed the needle by gluing on a piece of a toothpick. Should actually work pretty well.

That was a pretty good ole idea I had with the toothpick.

I would have suggested that had I found the thread in time. This is what I did with my truck. I was going to pull the needle off of a junkyard gauge, but the hub shattered into lots of pieces when I tried. I didn't use a fork, but I did place needle-nose pliers underneath the hub and gently lift. I can't imagine a fork being much different.

My take-away was that old gauge needles get brittle.

I also cleaned and painted the plastic housing a bright melatlic. Which should vastly improve how bright the gauges are.

Lemme know how this turns out. I'm one of the few guys on here who didn't think it made noticeable improvement. I'm wondering if I did something different, to wind up with mediocre results.

 

[KirsL]

Here's a picture of the guage with the toothpick. It's not painted yet.
I think the photo should work.

The paint on the inside of the cluster should help. Can't hurt, I'm putting all new bulbs in too.

 

[KirsL]

Here's the cluster painted.

 

[Stomis]

I cant believe you're working on your truck BTW.

 

[KirsL]

I cant believe you're working on your truck BTW.

Yea, sadly my truck goes through times where I work on it a lot or not at all. Its taken me 2 months to fix a windshield leak and get the a/c working. Then I add this little issue by mistake . Course finally being a home owner eats up a lot of your spare time and time but it's worth it.