Refurbishing Boost - Oil - Battery gauges

[KenS]

Due to the black background of the Boost gauge cracking/crazing with age, its time to fit new dial faces to all 3 gauges.
Two questions:
1/ I have purchased a set of 3 new faces from Heiler Tachodesign, they are in their default colour scheme for the M100 of orange on black background. These do not look as vibrant as the originals, wondering if specifying their red on black would be a better match, has anyone been down this route and found the best colour match?
2/ Is the best method of removing the dial bezels just to slowly bend out the rear crimping with a spike or very small screwdriver, or has anyone been sucessful with a less stressful way of getting them off such as dremel the crimped edge off or slicing through the white body adjacent to the crimped bezel edge?

dial2.jpg

[dapinky]

I replaced mine with Metal Monkey faces, so can't comment on the colours of the German ones (which are all that is available at the moment)....

.... however, I can say that when I changed mine it was a slow and patient task to use a small screwdriver (jewelers type) to gently open the crimped flange round the gauge, I was aware that the plastic body can easily crack, split or chip if I did it with too much gusto, as well as potentially break the glass.

Once it is loose, it can be manually 'twisted' away, and then revers procedure for replacement..... I bent the metal a bit, but not tight, then put a bead of butyl rubber round the joint to hold it together and keep moisture out.... You may or may not need/want to do it that way, but it worked for me.

[Hector2021]

From the fairly frequent posts asking about the dial face replacements it does seem to be the boost gauge that suffers the most. I replaced mine about 2 years ago with a replacement from the same source as yours and I have to admit that the orange isn't quite as vivid as the others. I can live with it though since it's not that far off. The only way to get into the gauges is as mentioned and very cautiously prise the crimped edge of the black retaining ring. Take your time and you'll be fine. There are a lot of write ups on the forum on how to do it. I posted mine on here somewhere.

[KenS]

Thanks guys for the guidance. I'll stick with the orange on black faces, hopefully since I am doing all 3 they will look OK and I will follow your lead by slowly lifting the crimped edge. I'll post a photo when its all back together but probably a couple of weeks off since I need to order a new binacle PCB (original looks a bit black and flaky at the edge) and fit a replacement rev counter (original has been intermittant for quite a while).

[KenS]

Quick update to try to show the colour of the orange Heiler Tachodesign dial faces, daytime they look a bit faded, at night they look OK, maybe the red version would be a better match to the originals.

P2.jpg

P1.jpg

[chrism]

Yep now you mention it, KenS, I had a long look at my own dash...the speedo bits in front of the driver are definitely red and the middle bits are a lighter orange-y shade.

I haven't really noticed this mis-match before - but it's definitely there if you focus on it. I tried to take pics but there's too much reflection from the glass...

I'm fairly sure my '90 SE hasn't had any gauge replacements; could this be an original feature of the dashboard build, I wonder?

[dapinky]

When I fitted the Metal Monkey gauges to my car many years ago, I also noticed that there was a small difference between the colours (I only replaced the small 3, not the main cluster). It wasn't really that noticeable, but I evened it up by using red LED bulbs in the small gauges, and soft white ones in the main cluster..... Depending how close your colours are you may get away with using a 5000 bulb in one, and a 6000 in the other...... if it's worth the effort.