A follow-up on early vs. late TR6 gauge lighting:
As you may recall I did a visual evaluation of an early and a late model
TR6 oil pressure gauge(s) with the intent of finding out why the later
gauges are more readable at night. One difference that popped up
immediately was that the later gauge has slots around the perimeter of the
dial face to let the light from behind illuminate the face and needle.
I added two slots on the bottom of the dial face on the early gauge to
allow for more of the light from the bulb to illuminate the dial face and
needle in the hopes of duplicating what was done on the later guages.
Alas, to no avail. I did not notice any improvement in the viewability at
night compared to the other gauges on the dash. Perhaps painting the
inside of the gauge case with a highly reflective paint (bear in mind that
the inside was already painted - white on the top half and blue on the
bottom half) would help.
One thing that did help is spaying the dial face with clear lacquer which
glossed up the dial that was turning matt from years of exposure to
sunlight. This helped readability by a minor but significant amount.
The biggest thing that helped night time viewing was fitting up halogen
light bulbs. These are available from Jeff Zorn at The Little British Car
Company (and other outlets, I'm sure). They are awfully dear, however and
I only bought four (for the little gauges) adn have so far fitted two. The
two gauges with the halogen bulbs (the top two gauges which are reachable
from the ashtray opening) are quite noticeably more legible.
Bottom line: Don't bother modifying the gauge face but do gloss up the dial
with a quick coat of lacquer and fit the halogen bulbs and the gauges will
be marginally acceptable.
Cheers, all
Dave Massey
71 TR6
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