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Thread: Replacement for warning light lens in oil gauge?

  1. #1
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    Replacement for warning light lens in oil gauge?

    The oil pressure temp gauge from my 1969 is missing the lenses from the warning lights, or they cracked and disappeared. Anyone know of a replacement short of buying an entire new used gauge? The rubber is there, just no plastic, so when the gauge is assembled it just has holes to the bulbs.
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  2. #2
    Why not try the gauge rebuilders, they would be likely to have replacements.
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  3. #3
    Senior Member dirk07's Avatar
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    The red lenses are part of the disc part

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by edmayo View Post
    Why not try the gauge rebuilders, they would be likely to have replacements.
    Good idea, IÂ’ll call a few next week.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by dirk07 View Post
    The red lenses are part of the disc part
    That may be true for some but definitely not this one. There were remnants in there and I could tell it was a slightly domed translucent plastic that had a ring fitting into a detent in the rubber tubes leading back to the bulbs. The plastic that was there was probably supposed to be red but looked brown on the surface, I assume due to age, sun, or whatever. The gauge is in good shape overall so not sure I need to send the entire thing in and also don’t really want to wait if possible.

  6. #6
    I just went through this last summer with my gauge in my 1971T. My lenses were still there but they were cracked in many pieces. After calling ALL of the Speedo repair shops, they would not sell me just the replacement lenses and wanted to do a full restro of the gauge with a 6-month lead time. One of the firms said that they make their own lenses in house but cannot get the proper German plastic sheet for the job.

    So, I made my own from some red plastic sheet. I made two die’s from some 3/8” thick aluminum plate with a hole in the center of each in two different diameters. Larger hole the same diameter as the outside diameter of the lens and the other one with a hole the diameter of the the larger hole minus two thicknesses of the plastic sheet I was using. I then made a round rod to just fit into the smaller hole in the aluminum plate to act as the press to form the plastic.

    Then I sandwiched a piece of red plastic between the two aluminum plates and lightly clamp them together. Then with a heat gun, heat until you can easily push the round rod through the top hole to form a “cap” out of the red plastic sheet.

    It will take some trial and error, but mine came out just right.

    I did not try to duplicate the flange (or the brim on a hat feature) of the original, as when assembled you cannot tell.

    Good luck!

    God luck.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by CheckBookChuck View Post
    I just went through this last summer with my gauge in my 1971T. My lenses were still there but they were cracked in many pieces. After calling ALL of the Speedo repair shops, they would not sell me just the replacement lenses and wanted to do a full restro of the gauge with a 6-month lead time. One of the firms said that they make their own lenses in house but cannot get the proper German plastic sheet for the job.

    So, I made my own from some red plastic sheet. I made two die’s from some 3/8” thick aluminum plate with a hole in the center of each in two different diameters. Larger hole the same diameter as the outside diameter of the lens and the other one with a hole the diameter of the the larger hole minus two thicknesses of the plastic sheet I was using. I then made a round rod to just fit into the smaller hole in the aluminum plate to act as the press to form the plastic.

    Then I sandwiched a piece of red plastic between the two aluminum plates and lightly clamp them together. Then with a heat gun, heat until you can easily push the round rod through the top hole to form a “cap” out of the red plastic sheet.

    It will take some trial and error, but mine came out just right.

    I did not try to duplicate the flange (or the brim on a hat feature) of the original, as when assembled you cannot tell.

    Good luck!

    God luck.
    Excellent work, I will try to replicate it!

  8. #8
    Here are some photos of the final product.

    One with no lights illuminated, one with the lights lit up.

    The red color is not perfect, but is way better than what was there after 51 years.

    Other photo is of the tooling I made from some aluminum spacers I had laying around.
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    Last edited by CheckBookChuck; 08-22-2022 at 07:06 AM.

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