How I Fixed My Bezel

[LSUMurse]

I am sure there are many of you that could do a better job than I have done, but I am pretty pleased with the results, so far. This also will not appeal to the purists, but may to the people like me that are just wanting a nice daily driver.

So, the gauge cluster I bought had a piece missing out of the left side top corner.

I decided rather than spending $50 on a repop bezel, I would try my hand at repairing it.

I bought some Loctite General Purpose Repair Putty. It is a tube of malleable putty that you squeeze together until a uniform color and then you have 5 minutes to form it into whatever it is you want.

First I sanded and cleaned the area I wanted to put the putty. Then I drilled a few holes to give the putty a little extra grab. When I applied it onto the corner area, I made sure to build it up a little higher than I would need to be able to cut and sand it into the shape I wanted when dry. I also made sure to squeeze it all the way through the holes.

The pictures (Going left to right and row by row):

1. The damage
2. The holes I drilled
3 & 4. How much I built it up
5. Dried (The directions say 45 minutes, but I gave it two hours)

[LSUMurse]

Once it dried, I was able to use a razor blade to cut it down close to the shape I wanted and then finished it off with some sandpaper. I initially used 220 grit to bring down to shape and smooth, then I used some 1000 grit to hopefully make it smooth enough to paint and not show a bunch of lines.

The putty dries to almost a hard sheetrock sort of texture. It is hard enough and feels durable enough for this application, but maybe not all. It was easy to shape when wet and easy to cut down and sand into the shape I was looking for.

I think it turned out pretty good so far. I guess I will really know once I go to paint it and "chrome" shows all my little imperfections.

The finished product:

[Mr Chevorlet]

I think it looks good so far and should work fine.

[Lattimer]

Nice work!

[LSUMurse]

Thanks.