Project 3P, Part 11: Can You Recondition Hazy Gauges Using Headlight Lens Restorer ... ? (Fiat 128 3P Restoration)

The short answer is no!  However, in fairness to Turtle - whose products I've always found to be very, very good - they never claimed that you could.  The product is called Headlight Lens Restorer, not 46 Year Old Fiat 128 Gauge De-Hazer, which might have been a clue.

In my defence, contemporary headlight lenses are usually made of polycarbonate - a plastic - and the gauges are mounted behind what's likely to be perspex, which also belongs to the broader plastics family.  Couple this with the not unreasonable theory that the degradation often seen on headlight lenses and similar transparent items is due largely to the ravages of ultraviolet light and it doesn't seem too far fetched that the one product - headlight restorer, in this case - might be able to kill the two birds, as it were.

Anyway, I've now debunked that bit of wishful thinking.  I happily admit that I was wrong.  30 minutes' of slavishly following the directions failed to so much as slightly mitigate the cloudiness of even the smallest of the gauge lenses within P3P's instrument cluster. It was, however, worth a try!  I also learned how to remove and dismantle the whole assembly, as follows:  

The cluster is secured to the dash by two screws, the holes for which are shown at the extreme left- and right-sides of the photo above.  Once they're undone, all that's required is to lift the cluster from below, tilting it upwards, and to disconnect two wiring blocks and undo the collar around the speedo cable.  (It might also be worth somehow securing the collar in place, unless you want to go hunting for the bleepin’ thing when it inevitably slides down the cable and into the cavity below the dashboard!)  

Above and below:  speedo cable at 9 o'clock; one wiring block at 12 o'clock; and the second at 4 o'clock.  The screw holes are also visible in the top corners of the left and right bat wings. 

The flip-side.

All the gauges were more heavily hazed towards their lower sections, adding weight to the damage by UV theory.

The off- and near-side gauge fascias were the easiest to remove; it was simply a matter of gently prising them free of the main cluster with with a flat-bladed  screwdriver and the special 46 year old Fiat 128 gauge removal tool on my Swiss Army knife.  However, extracting the lenses from the fascias was more difficult.

To free the lenses, I used a scalpel to separate the fascias from their backing pieces by carefully cutting off the head of one of the three factory-melted plastic tabs that held the two components together.  I chose the head of the tab shown at the six o'clock position on the image above, allowing the fascia to pivot away from the backing, making the lens accessible and easily removable.  The photo below shows a tab head in more detail.  

Having failed dismally to render the gauges legible again, I'll try to secure a clearer set from The Cache but, if not, will cast the net wider and see what I can find.  I may even see if I can't at least have the small, flat lenses of the water temperature and fuel gauges remade but I'm less confident that it's going to be simple to do the same for the larger instruments - those of the speedo and tacho - because they feature a horizontal curve across their faces.  This is a bit of a conundrum and why I haven't yet even tried to separate these bigger lenses from the rest of the cluster.

Hazy A-F but free of the gauge.

The treated lens is shown on the left of the image above.  As you can see, there's no discernible improvement between it and the untreated one on the right.  The perspex is either UV damaged all the way through or it's somehow not amenable to Turtle's product.  

As an interesting aside, it looks like the cluster's been out for repair before.  Although I can't see what might've been fixed or replaced, it appears that whoever did the job was proud of their handiwork, having signed the top of the unit (please see the image below).  It's hard to discern what the autograph actually says.  However, I'm tending towards S Gowie or something along those lines.  

It's a fair bet that the signature's author was an employee of Davies Brothers - Launceston's only Fiat dealership - or maybe a local auto-electrician or specialist instrument technician.  If anybody's got any leads as to who this person might be, please, please let me know via the comments section at the end of this post.  It'd be fascinating to learn his or her identity! 

Screwdriver and the Swiss Army special 46 year old Fiat 128 gauge removal tool.

Did you enjoy this post?  If so, why not check out Parts 1 to 10 of Project 3P?  Even better, how about browsing the rest of the uppermiddlepetrolhead site?  There are loads and loads of classic, sports and performance car photos and articles, most set against a backdrop of fabulous Tasmanian scenery!

U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

All iPhone images.