cleaning up the cluster

I haven't spent much time on 68 lately, but when opportunities have arisen I've been chipping away at some of the smaller projects I started back before the latest garage move. The instrument cluster worked fine (in 2009...) but I wanted to smarten it up a bit. I know most people replace the stock gauges with something more modern, but I decided to keep mine stock, while doing some subtle customization.

Started by dismantling the cover. The fluorescent paint on the speedo was sun-faded, so I started by taping-off this area and applying some of the special paint I bought from NPD (with a Q-tip, natch).

I very delicately "clocked" the speedo back to zero, hopefully without breaking it (!)

The worn "camera case" bezel was dismantled and re-painted with the same black Sign Painters 1-shot lettering enamel that I used on the heater control panel.

The gauge trim rings were painted with the ford maroon paint that has been used throughout the interior (this was done forever ago....)

I tried to polish up the original lenses, but I couldn't make any impact on the now-crusty plastic. I ended up buying a scott-drake repro set through my buddies at Mostly Mustangs.

Installed the appropriate segment of the replacement wiring harness. 

Very happy with the finished look: