Instrument cluster

[Paul Johnson]

Hi All and Happy New Year.

I have taken some “isolation” time to strip out the instrument cluster on my Series 2 Fulvia as there was a few bulbs out and a crack in the dashboard I wanted to glue.

Now out I want to replace the plastic covers over the speedo and rev counter which are very faded and yellowed - I gather these are available from Omicron?

Does anyone know if the indicator, lights and handbrake warning sticker is also changeable? And if so, how does the old one come out? It appears to be a thin strip of plastic, but fits tightly in the metal housing/shroud which is not detachable and it is not seemingly accessible from the rear.
I’m sure others have walked this road before me, so tips would be appreciated as I wish to do no damage.
Many thanks.
Paul

[lancialulu]

There are at least 3 variants of panel. A few photos would help understand your query. Yes I believe Omicron do (or did) a new acrylic "glass" to replace.

[Paul Johnson]

Learning all the time......

[D5177_55A]

Omicron do the Veglia type of replacement lenses:

http://www.omicron.uk.com/fulvia/2014/fulvia-minor-instrument-lens/

When I replaced mine (Fulvia 3) I had to drill out the 5 rivets and use M2 setscrews to secure them.

[Paul Johnson]

Thanks DS177.
I will place an order, but will leave the minor cluster lens alone as it seems O.k.

Has anyone extracted the warning light lens? Does it just bend out once you get a sharp pick or something similar under it?
Thks

[Richard Fridd]

The warning lenses in my spare clusters which I have recently stripped, seem only to be held in place by the ally surround beneath the transparent cover.

[Jaydub]

Hi Paul
Might be worth polishing the instrument cover with T-Cut as it works on plastic Headlamps.

[D5177_55A]

I was the one who commissioned the warning strip and 3 dial glasses back in 2013 and wrote a short/long description on Lancisti of how I took my S3 White Dial Veglia unit to pieces to get at the discoloured perspex. It’s since been partially archived, with none of the shots available to view (and some of the text has de-formatted):

http://lancisti.net/wbb/index.php?thread/7249-plastic-instrument-cover-on-dashboard/&postID=53067&highlight=warning%2Blight%2Bstrip#post53067

I was hoping to sell them, but no one bought any, until Omicron bought the batch off me about 9 months later – I broke even, so all good!

It’s doable, but you’ll need all the bits and, double check with Omicron if those I had made actually fit a S2 Black Dial Veglia

Stephen

[Paul Johnson]

Stephen and All
Thank you. Very helpful.

[frankxhv773t]

No disrespect to Jaydub but I'd recommend Brasso or Duraglit over T-cut which I consider a bit coarse for plastic instrument lenses. I think plastic headlights tend to be rather harder plastic.

[lancialulu]

I have used Maguires PlastX with great results before.

[Jaydub]

Fair comment Frank! They are more likely to be tougher because of stone protection etc.

[D5177_55A]

Before I decided to go down the route of replacing both instrument glasses, I tried some stuff called Polywatch. It’s for polishing scratches out of acrylic watch faces, but as I found out, the glasses weren’t just coated with dirt, they’d been affected chemically with grime, oil fumes and probably UV damage. I think I also polished off some of the screen printed symbols on the reverse of the glasses as well! So replacement seemed to be the best option.

[eog]

Over the years I have always had good results in cleaning the grime on opaque rear soft top windows using T cut followed by application of car polish, amazing results.
Additional plus is the polish disperses the rain water off the screen

[frankxhv773t]

Screen printed symbols do pose rather a problem to cutting and polishing. I'm used to replacing early beta instrument glazing which is just plain clear plastic. It also means you can get away with cutting a replacement out of a sheet of Perspex.