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I'm looking to restore the instrument cluster panel and lower dash panel on my '64 F100.
Few questions:
- Are these parts steel? (They draw a magnet, so that's what I'm thinking, but wasn't sure.)
- Are the bright areas chrome?
- If I have these stripped and re-chromed, how do I get paint to stick to the chrome?
- Anyone know the grey paint color code?
- Anyone offer the 'Custom Cab' stencil and/or a replacement decal?
That chrome appears to be in pretty good shape. You might see how it polishes out with a mild chrome polish, or flitz. Then you just have to deal with repainting the recess areas. Ford made a silver paint known as "Argent", used on a lot of their silver finishes. It may be the same color here. If so, ford parts/restoration vendors usually carry it. If you can't find it an aluminum-colored paint matches pretty closely. Whenever I paint a chromed surface, I always mask and lightly sandblast to help the paint adhere. I'm thinking that, if you don't have to rechrome the part, you could probably skip this step.
My bezel was plastic in my '65. I would have liked to have one like you have there! The plastic one I have is so brittle, that if you look at it wrong, anothe chunk breaks off. I also don't have the lower piece, even tho mine is supposedly a Custom Cab.
Anyway, I'm making a bezel from steel. I found some "chrome" vinyl as well as some "machine turned" vinyl on Amazon that I'm gonna try out. The chrome vinyl might be a solution for the underside of the visor on that panel if it is not polishable. It looks like it is tho.
If it's stainless and not plated, you could sand it starting with 400 grit to get the nicks and scratches out, then go with finer and finer wet or dry sandpaper till you get to 2000 grit, then use metal polish.
If it is plated, use light chrome cleaner and maybe mask off then paint the center section.
My bezel was plastic in my '65. I would have liked to have one like you have there! The plastic one I have is so brittle, that if you look at it wrong, anothe chunk breaks off.
If yours is a Custom Cab, plastic is correct, I believe. All the usual suspects sell these, though Covid related stuff is making stuff a bit harder to locate, but here is the re-popped one from one vendor. They occasionally come up as NOS on eBay for not much more money than re-popped.
Not a very good picture but I just cleaned it up the hole bezel with some polish, rinsed, and then sprayed some rattle can semi-poly on top to keep from tarnishing. Mine was in much rougher shape that yours is. I just used black vinyl to trim out the two side circles. Was too much silver w/o the black. I really like the look of the gauge set but i'm too damn old to see anything other than speed while driving.
I did some internet digging. It appears the main cluster panel is chrome plated steel, while that lower 'Custom Cab' panel is polished stainless steel. This according to NumberDummy and Garbz from a forum thread years back.
I'm guessing that lower piece is made with the same stainless as the windshield trim. Not the highest grade of stainless as it is magnetic, but apparently a high-enough grade to not rust.
I painted mine to match my dash and took a scotch brite to the chrome and gave it a brushed look. Chrome was not in great shape so I decided on the brushed look. It hides a lot!
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