Hi Team. This is the dash from an old Takeuchi TB015. As you can see, the manufacturers decided to make the paint on the warning lights water soluble. I'm looking for ideas on how to restore it. Maybe some transparent decals? Does anyone know of anything available off the shelf? It doesn't have to be showroom, just functional.
How about using a label maker to make stick on labels and offset them to the left of the lights? You might have to wash off the Water Temp label and offset that a little further to the left of the gauge, to make the light labels fit though.
Kind of late but a fine tip white paint marker. Crafts stores have them.
3D print a stencil of the icons and use that with the white pen.
In the end I went with the white paint marker. The finest tip I could get hold of was 0.7mm. From a distance it actually doesn't look too bad but up close through the magnifier it felt like painting a boat with a 4" brush. Each symbol is about 8mm across. I tried making the straight lines with a ruler but the paint bled underneath. Had to do it all freehand. I touched up some of the black with boot polish and furniture wax. The light in the photo makes it look worse than it does. It will be OK for what it needs to be. Thanks for all for the input everyone.
Nice job.
Yeah. Let's not get too carried away...
Looks good from here in Central NY!
The best solutions are often the simplest.
I would say you're probably viewing it from the optimum distance.
You just increased the value of that machine with your fine art work.
And in a final stupid postscript to the whole stupid story, I went and put it on the car seat and sat on it...........
Crazy glue should fix it. Putting baking soda on the glue will make it stronger and dry faster. There's some video's on you tube.
Already done my friend.
Did you use crazy glue?
Not that particular brand but generic CA glue
Crazy glue is generic but easy to remember.
The new artwork is not signed, so no one is going to know it is a genuine Cmark in fifty years time when Cmark art will be worth $10 million.
Have the pics. on here for documentation.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that has problems like that.
Looks good, apart from the little split! "I tried making the straight lines with a ruler but the paint bled underneath." I used to do technical drawings and ink them in, used to put a few strips of masking tape under the ruler just back from the edge, would stop the ink bleeding under the edge. Had to change the tape occasionally as it would pick up the pencil lead and go grey, making the white paper look dirty if didn't change now and again. My useful tip of the day, in case you get more into dash restoration
Thanks for the tip John. I would have tried it. Another fun fact. Ever noticed the slight beveled edge on many rulers? It's there for just this purpose. Flat side down for pencil, flip it over for ink. In this case the tiny dimensions meant the only practical tool was a machinist's 6" steel pocket rule with no bevel.
Yes! If there's a bevel, flip it on it's back! Mine was flat