Z1-R Clock Stripdown

[slimey]

Couple more pics of the fully separated speedo showing the seals, with glass, covers and ring

[slimey]

With the speedo and tacho pulled down to their major assemblies you can see the green internal colour of the upper covers - this and the green plastic translucent dial give the luminous effect of the numbers. I've got new decals for the tacho and speedo but probably will only redo the "red-line" section of the tacho to minimise damage to the dials. (The speedo dial is fine.)

[slimey]

Sorry this is such a long-winded affair but I hope to pass on as much knowledge of this as possible to fellow members - there's no readily available info about this sort of job I don't mind being the guinea pig as long as I don't stuffit up!
So, major jobs are to strip the covers and repaint in gloss black, clean the glasses and redo the tacho red-line. Don't intend to buggerise around with the green internal colour as it's ok. Then rebuild the assemblies and crimp the ring back on - probably use cupla pairs of smooth-jaw pliers to do this. Will keep you informed.

[Gosling1]

looks good so far mate I have seen more than a few other attempts at this and without exception they have all ended in tears......that tool you made up to remove the clamping ring in 1 piece is a corker.

[h.b.bear]

Looking great Slimey Don't worry about draggin the story out I am finding it very intereting and dare say a few others are aswell, never to old to learn new stuff

[slimey]

Hit the outer inst covers last night with some "Rust Kill" (Phosphoric acid) to neutralise the rust and rubbed back one cover with some w/d 800 grit - took a while but didn't have any 400 grit at home! Hope to have the covers ready for painting this weekend - probly use some rattle guns to apply etch prime, then some gloss black over the top. Will post some more pics of progress for you then. In the meantime, I'll have a go at applying a fresh transfer over the "redline" section of the tacho- the numbers are ok and I'm loath to remove/bugger up the whole faceplate if I don't have to! The speedo face is ok so just a cleanup of the glass and it'll be ready to go back together with its freshly painted outer cover and polished (non- distorted) clamp ring. The ammeter and fuel gauge are yet to be disassembled - both are in pretty poor shape but they shouldn't be too difficult to pull apart - the clamp rings are also hidden from view and my special tool should make short work of them! These 2 instruments do not have luminous dials and from memory they are quite hard to see at night, so I might paint the needles in luminous green to make them a bit more readily visible. Pic of the poor old fuel gauge FYI!

[Six Addict]

who knew dials were so fucking complicated

[slimey]

I spun the speedo and tacho up using a drill (in reverse) to drive the cable - while I have no idea how accurate the instruments are, they are at least fully functional. Maybe should think about checking them against another one or getting the calibration checked - gotta figure a way to do this. Would be a bit silly to do all this to then have to pull'em apart again I guess!

[slimey]

Some more progress to report - rubbed back and sprayed the instrument covers which are now hanging up "curing" - just used etch primer and top coat acrylic in rattle guns - came out ok. Initially I was just going to replace the "redline" area on the tacho but it finished up a complete decal replacement. I had thought that the new decals needed to be soaked off their backing (per model aircraft style) but nope! Luckily I was working with a "spare" decal - it was one for a Z1000 that was sent in error. After stuffing this first attempt up I realised that the decal has a paper backing which peels off to reveal the glued underside of the vinyl decal. So, after reading the instructions (again) I started preparing the dial for a completely new decal. The first task is to remove the needle, this is a tight push fit on the spindle. I used 2 teaspoons with the rounded "cup" resting on each of the screws holding the dial, and while holding the spoon handles, carefully (and evenly) applied downwards pressure - make sure that each spoon is right under the needle boss and not on the needle itself! The needle eventually popped off - make sure you're doing this in an area where you'll be able to find the needle's landing place! (I did mine on the dining room table). Next undo the 2 small screws - be careful not to bodge the centres of the screws as this will greet you every time you go for a ride and remind you of how good you were with the screwdriver. The dial lifted off, although there was a bit of resistance from the white rubber tubing which locates the red light "stop lamp" and " hazard" bezels against the dial - need to redo this on re-assembly. Next is to remove ALL the information from the dial - white numbers and lettering and black and white background - bit unnerving as I wasn't too sure how far to go with the wet/dry (I used 800 grit then 1200 to finish off) but with the Z1-R dials you need to get down to the green plastic with nothing else - per instructions! After peeling back the backing paper I positioned the new decal on the now green dial (lightly misted to allow for positioning of the decal), I had carefully marked the outer edge of the dial where the zero and max rpm marks were on the old dial, and there's the two holes for the screws so there were several reference points to help align it. I carefully applied the decal and smoothed out any air bubbles (moving them from centre outwards) - it's now drying (allow 24hrs) and will be assembling it later this week. Then it'll be the speedo's turn, I’m quite encouraged by what I’ve been able to achieve so far and when you see the pic of the old and new dials you’ll understand why I’m doing them both now. Will take some more pics of this one too, now that I have a better idea of what to expect! In the meantime, a few more pics of the process to assist I’ll put ‘em on a couple at a time.

Firstly - Covers - a pic of before and after stripping/sanding and before painting. (discolouration is due to the "rustkill" process - surfaces are smooth and this won't show after painting.)

[slimey]

A pic of the rubbed back dial with needle and internals of the tacho

[slimey]

Pic of the new decal and dial, before fitment

[slimey]

Pic of decal fitted to tacho

[slimey]

And a pic of the speedo before refurbish and tacho after.

[slimey]

Still have to cut out the holes in the dial for the 'hazard" and "stop lamp" bezels - probably use a very sharp scalpel. Also need to reglue the bezels to the white rubber holders against the underside of the dial. Then it's "just" a matter of putting on the needle, fitting the seals to the covers and clamping the lot with our old mate - Mr Ring. More pics to come of these steps in the process and the speedo rebuild.

[Gosling1]

nice job - pics look great