Panel Meter Rehabilitation and Restoration

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TimG

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Looking for tips and "do's and don'ts" for restoring a couple of reclaimed meters.
Particularly interesting in polishing or otherwise clearing up small damage to a clear Lexan case on a vintage Hoyt 685VU. Coincidentally it matches a new one I had made recently, and I got new bezels for both and vertical AND horizontal "A Scales" for both from Hoyt.
So its gonna be a cool stereo something...

Vintage Hoyt does't exactly zero but I haven't wired it up yet. Gleaning a little from the internets.

I have JLM buffers for the project.

Thanks!
Tim
 
Hard to know exactly what it is you're after but Meguiar's PlastX is pretty great for stuff?. Works good by hand but, higher speeds yields much better results.

Some stuff called novus plastic polish is talked about highly and I've always wanted to try that but haven't had a chance.
 
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Here are The Girls. You can see who is This Year’s Model.
I actually ordered it VERTICAL!
Getting new panels to try out.
343BB678-37C2-4016-9D5B-F973F369DA65.jpeg
 

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If motor/mechanism/pointer is damaged, ask your local watch repair man
Never tried that, but I have had good results with sticky tape strips and compressed air for cleaning out the magnetic gap. This is for meters that stick at some point(s) in the movement. Also replacing the germanium diodes in meters with internal rectifiers has saved a few.
 
Hey look at this one! I should have checked the measurements. That’s a 3 unit case at least! Maybe a huge Lomo preamp?!?

Close up the damage is as bad as I feared.

I guess I’ll make a digital scan of the card and print it on translucent stock so the limit light shines?
 

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Never tried that, but I have had good results with sticky tape strips and compressed air for cleaning out the magnetic gap. This is for meters that stick at some point(s) in the movement. Also replacing the germanium diodes in meters with internal rectifiers has saved a few.
Here are The Girls. You can see who is This Year’s Model.
I actually ordered it VERTICAL!
Getting new panels to try out.
View attachment 87506
My friends at Hoyt Meter came through with vertical scales and another bezel kit!
 

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Lid comes off like a Casserole!

opened up, looks good, plastic face needs polishing? Watch Polish? Looks soft. It was cracked where the bracket mount was overtightened.

Of course I doinked the blade in the brief time it was exposed.

panel card replacement looks like it should be easy for someone with clean steady hands.
 

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For polishing the plastic, you might want to try the Novus plastic polishing compounds. I've used them a lot in a museum context to rehab clear acrylic display cases. I imagine they'd work for this meter.

Novus comes in three "grits": #3 Is mildly abrasive, #2 is the final polish, and #1 is the cleaner. For light scratches, you can sometimes get away with just using #2. For heavier ones, you use #3, then move to #2. #1 is a cleaner and isn't really necessary. 2 and 3 wash off with water.

If the scratches are even heavier, you can wet sand with some fine sandpaper, around 1500, then move to the Novus.
 

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