gauge face restoration needed

[alsfarms]

What is a good reference for instrument face restoration?

Al

[gossjh]

I had a local screen printer  do some that matched the rest perfectly. He had no antique vehicle expertise, but took it in his stride. It was just a small basement side business. 

[alsfarms]

Thanks,  That experience must have been rewarding for you!

Al

[$um Fun]

Do you have the artwork or does it need to be done?

[alsfarms]

I have the gauge but no extra artwork.  I think on this earlier Warner clock, the face is etched, plated then the highlights painted black.

Al

[Steve Hammatt]

Al,

You may want to check out Mark Clawson at Clawson Classic Instrumentation 

You can do a search for his website, phone number is 360-299-8636 and his

address is 2402 30th ST, Anacortes WA 98221.  Good luck!

Steve

[Terry Harper]

Alan,

you are correct. Its etched then painted then all the excess paint carefully sanded away to leave just the paint

in the etched letters, numbers, etc. Then a plating solution is applied to silver the face.

 

Trying to strip, and repaint an old face is a very delicate operation since the etching is very shallow and its easy to lose the relief.

I figured this out when I dabbled in moto meter faces. Every now and again someone would want me to restore a face plate

for them - most of the time the etched areas were just too shallow from the original sanding or the plate had slight damage that

caused more material to be removed from one spot than another. Usually in those cases I simply made a whole new plate

for them which may be your most viable alternative.

 

Its a fun DYI project if you have access to CAD or graphic software. You can even setup artwork for both sides so the etching 

process cuts the shape and all openings and holes.