Dismantling The Speedo, Removing The Glass To Restore The Dial Face

Dismantling The Speedo, Removing The Glass To Restore The Dial Face

Although the speedo is in good working order I have decided that as part of the cosmetic restoration of the dials I will have to refresh the faded dial face.

To do this I need to remove the glass and the problem with that is that they were never meant to be removed. 

The speedo and tacho were meant to be sealed for life and basically tamper proof so you have to be creative as there is obviously no official procedure for doing this.

If you check out my video you will see it is fairly simple to do this and any one should be able to give this a go.

Restoring Faded And Scratched Black Plastic Motorcycle And Car Trim

Restoring Faded And Scratched Black Plastic Motorcycle And Car Trim

The next job to tackle in the 750 was the black plastic surround on the instrument cluster.

Now I don't know the history on this bike so I have no idea how the plastics ended up in such a state.

They were faded with light grey patches which is to be expected due to the age and obvious general neglect of the bike but the thing I cannot work out is the scratches to the plastic on the instrument cluster.

They had deep scratches and scuffing all the way around, and this is what I cant understand, even on the back which is pretty much completely hidden when on the bike yet more prominent parts attached to them were unmarked.

It looks as if they had been removed at some point and kicked around the car park for a while and then put back on!

Anyway this video shows how I tackled the job of repairing as much of the damage as I could and generally making them look a bit better than they did.

As you can see it turned out OK in the end and although not perfect the damage is barely noticeable apart from the slight change in texture where I sanded the cuts and scratches out and the fading has pretty much completely disappeared.

So watch the video and make your own mind up

How To Polish Chrome Plastic, Polish Chrome Plated Plastic Trim

How To Polish Chrome Plastic, Polish Chrome Plated Plastic Trim

Trying To Clean And Polish The Chromed Plastic Trim.

The speedo and tacho covers on the 750 are in a terrible state. They do work but cosmetically they are completely oxidized and rusted to the point of being un salvageable.

Really I should buy some replacements but I wanted to see if it was possible to save them.

This video shows my attempts to clean and polish the chromed plastic parts and I think the results were surprisingly good considering the condition they were in to start with.

Not a bad result

How To Polish Chrome Plastic, Polish Chrome Plated Plastic Trim

Restoring The Instrument Cluster, Speedometer and Tachometer #1

Restoring the instruments Part 1

The instrument cluster on the Zephyr are in a very poor state.

They do work but cosmetically they are pretty ugly with rust on the chromed metal parts and pitting on the chromed plastic covers. The dials themselves although unmarked are faded and need refreshing.

The easiest option would be to replace them as they are not particularly expensive and used ones are freely available but that is not the point of this rebuild.

So the challenges are

1. Rust on the chromed metal parts
2. Pitting of the chromed plastic parts
3. Fading of the dial faces
4. Fading of the plastic warning light cluster

And I am sure there will be some more things to tackle as I get deeper into the job and I want to try and do all this without spending any money but still get an acceptable result.

Here is a quick video of me dismantling the instrument cluster ready to begin the restoration.

As you can see that to be able to do something with these without spending any money on expensive specialist products is going to be quite a challenge and I am going to have to go back to some of the unusual products and techniques that I have not used in many many years.

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