Search the Community

Hello all, as I got here lot's of great tips I maybe have one for you. When I bought my Dodge, the speedometer and clock were really destroyed. The printed surface was deteriorated and also the printed letter of the clock and speedometr face dropped off. When I decide to restore it I tried several ways like screen printing, or find somebody who does this professional but it would all be too complicated or to expancive. As a result I will show the way I did it maybe it helps somebody. At first, I took the old clock face and layed it on the scanner of PC. After scanning I reconstructet the letters in Adobe Illustrator to create vector grafics. I made two layers, one for the white print and one for the black. I gave both files to a printing shop to plot too masking films. Better make two or three of each, you will use them propably. At first pull of release paper and stick foil to the glass. I let the glass cut in a local shop. Markings on the foil help to find the exact position Now pull off transfer foil and paint the letters and stripes. After a few tests I use color for scale models. It adheres better as glass paint, but don't ask me why. Because of the flat surface paint doesn't stick very good to glass, you have to pull of the masking film before color ist completely dry. Sometimes, if the color was too dry or it doesn't stick well to the glass, the edges of some letters are not straight. If you have a second masking film cut out the letters and stick it to the exact position to repaint the edges. If the first color is done, you have to make the black outline. That is even harder because the line is smaller then one Millimeter (sorry for the metric system :-) I found out, that you can't use the complete masking foil to stick over the white because of two reasons. 1. If you pull of the release paper, the masking foil seems to stretch a little bit. It's not much but it's enough that the tin lines won't fit 2. The masking film will rip of the thin white lines. To avoid that I took small pieces of masking film and normal paper and stick it over the thin white lines. Then I took the whole glass and glued it against a window with masking tape. This helps you to position the masking foil for the numbers because when the numbers are still on the transfer foil you really cant't look though it and it's difficult to find the right place. If you're finished, it lookes like that: Now I took black enamel paint for the outlines. Check from the other side if the lines look good and pull off masking foil quick befor color gets too dry. The finished clock face looks pretty nice. On the first look, you can't differ from the original. When I had a closer look to my old one, it wasn't sooooo exact either. Hope this will help others who have the same problem. The background I also made on Illustrator. I printed the pattern on a foil and the golden foil is aluminium foil to make christmas stars from a hobby shop. I layed it on a ripped plastic surface that I found on an old plastic casing and pressed the foil on the plastic with a rubber roll. Then I took glue and sticked it to the foil with the pattern. This really is just a compromise, because the ribbed structure ist not so fine as original and also not so exact, but it's doing it's job. Also the car istn't perfect the clock might ot be perfect too. Here in Germany we have to show Kilometers on speedometer. Normaly you have to glue stickers on the screen. When I was rebuliding the speedometer face I changed the letters into Kilometers :-) I did this to my 42 Dodge an still have the files. If anyone ist interested I could send them the EPS-Files. Hope this helps Kai