I took my gauge cluster apart to paint the needles on each of the gauges. Got it put back together and went for a drive. Now my speedometer doesn't work, AGAIN, but the odometer is still counting miles. How embarrassing and unbelievably frustrating after recently finding a way to make the speedometer work. Why, why, why??

 

The painted needles are sticky. Now the speedo needle is stuck to it's 0-post.

Been there, done that.

 

Boy I sure hope so, David. I didn't think about that. They didn't seem that tacky just before assembling it all again but probably just enough to grab hold of the 0-post. I'm getting pretty good at taking this dash apart. However, I don't feel like doing it again today so it'll wait until tomorrow.

Thanks, David!

 

I ended up daubing some Vaseline to the 0-post.

 

So what makes it stay at 0mph when you painted it a year ago and it worked fine until just recently?

 

Who, me?


In my case, when painted the needles, I let it dry 24hrs or so. Reassembled the thing and it worked great.
Come back the next morning, and the needle was stuck. Had to drive it up to highway speeds before it got loose eventually. I've no doubt the summer's heat aggravated things.

With in a weeks time, all was OK and no more problems.

 

Mine did the same after painting them.

 

The wife painted all the needles on the son's truck.

She used flourescent orange from a spray-can that I sprayed a puddle of in a cup so she could brush it on; --- it was what we had --- .

We left the needles right on the gauges and had no sticking issues that I am aware of.


It is amazing how much this little bit of painting improved the looks and usefulness of the instrument-panel.


I need to do likewise to my truck.

 

Paint, although to the touch may be dry, will take several weeks for the curing process... unless some type of accelerant is used. Body shops use a hardener in their paints, so they can buff them out and be done with the job. Most ... if not all other commercially available paints don't have this as they would harden in the container and render it useless.

 

I was always under the impression that the "hardeners" also made the paint cure harder, shinier, and more durable, than non-hardened paint.

Have I always thought wrong and plain old paint allowed to slow-cure will become just as hard and durable once the curing process is finished ??

 

I can't tell you yes or no on this.

What I can tell you is that I've used plenty of enamel paints. You can touch them in about 7 hours. You can handle them / sand them in 12-24, dependent on humidity and curing conditions. I can also tell you that in 5 days, you can still score the paint down to the primer using a dull tool or a really sharp fingernail.


After several weeks, the possibility of this lessens, but it takes time for it to completely harden. I also use a thinner to make the paint flow a little better... but not much as it gets too thin if you add too much.


This could be "my" experience, based upon the types of paints I've used. If there's something better out there, I'd be willing to experiment.