</lurk>
All,
My TR4 has a metal facia, the center guages of which are (were) illuminated
by two bulbs mounted behind the panel; light from the bulbs illuminated the
guages, or used to. In the process of trying to clean the plastic which
covered the illumination slits, I've tried all manner of stuff, most of
which either scratched the plastic pretty badly (steel wool), or was pretty
much ineffectual.
Last night, while being the dutiful husband cleaning the ceramic cooktop
using Cerama Bryte (with products spelled like that, is it any wonder our
kids can't spell??), I tried it on the plastic. Bingo! The stuff did a
great job of removing decades of crud and left the plastic thingies (what
*are* they called, anyway?) clean and unscratched.
BTW, I'm in the process of fitting a wood facia over the metal. Of course,
how to deal with guage illumination has been an on-going R&D effort. I
have a solution: hi intensity red LEDs. They work like a champ. When time
permits I'll post the pix I've taken to a Web site. Not the best pix, but
you'll get the idea if you're interested in using the LEDs. The facia will
have a potentiometer fitted where the rheostat lived, so the LEDs will be
dimmable from almost no light to need sunglasses. My Saturn has orange
panel illumination which I find very pleasing to the eye at night as it
doesn't effect night vision. That's the effect I want for the TR.
Now back to lurk mode.
<lurk>
Jim
--
J.C. Hassall
mailto:jhassall@blacksburg.net
64 TR4 under restoration, 90% finished, 90% to go
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