Working on my gauges currently. Cleaning the number wheels for the odometer I'm using dish soap+water and a q-tip to scrub. Cleans up the white of the numbers and the black background quite well. The black background is not perfect and shiny in all spots though. Any way to brighten that up? Some number wheels have a few scratches (how does that happen?), but I have two speedometers to use and will pull the best number wheels from each to reassemble. For the tenth of a mile (white background, black number) I'm not having much luck brightening up the yellowed background. It's better, but far from ideal. What have you guys done to clean these up?
For the needles, what paint should I use? What white? What color tip? I have model masters international orange for the lettering on the switches, is that correct for the needle tips or is it another color? I also have flourescent red-orange model masters which would probably be suitable but I'd like as close a match to factory as possible. The redline and red mark on the speedometer look kind of a darker red/orange color. Too dark on the needle may be hard to read.
Also for the green/turquise color inside the inner gauge cover, I didn't see any rattle can close to that off the shelf at Advance when I was there the other day. Is there a good match for that you guys are using? My understanding is that is what makes the gauge lighting a greenish color. Outside of the ring is a bright white, I'll just use whatever gloss white for that, but want to get a close match for inside to keep gauges the correct color.
Any source for the rubber ring around the glass or suitable substitute? I can reuse mine but the first one I've pulled apart is a bit dry/cracked.
Maybe I'm over thinking this since I never noticed how bad my gauges were other than the faded faces, but it's such a focal point of the bike my OCD is kicking in. A few months before it's warm so I'm not in a huge rush if it takes time to make these nice.
