FRporscheman

Some people asked me to show how I take the black crimped rings off of the early gauges (and put them back on), so here it is. You need to remove the bezel ring in order to access the innards of any early gauge, or even if you simply want to add white gauge faces or flat glass lenses.

With the gauge out... I use a medium sized screwdriver with a thin and narrowish tip. I slip it under the edge of the back of the ring. I twist the screwdriver to begin bending the ring outward. Then I just work it all the way around so the ring is bent outward about 80% of the way around, at this point the ring will come off, so no need to bend the rest of it. Then to put it back on I use a stubby screwdriver to push the bent part back in. It will look slightly crumpled on the back side but nobody ever sees it at all so it's OK.


What you start with:


Stick your screwdriver under the bezel ring:


Twist the screwdriver to begin uncrimping the bezel ring:


After you twist, turn the screwdriver back, and scoot it to the side and twist again, to curl up even more of the ring:


Keep going around the gauge. You should end up with something resembling this:


Remember, you don't need to go all the way around (waste of time), I did this much and the bezel came off:



For reinstallation, slip the bezel back on, and use a stubby screwdriver to incrementally crimp the bezel back on. Be sure to push in a 90* angle to the metal at all times, to ensure it gets rolled on tightly.




If you do it right it will look like this:


If you get sloppy or lazy and just decide to push the bezel on in one straight push (instead of rolling it over) you will have a gap like this:


I hope that makes sense. Sorry for some blurry pics - my digital camera is sub-par.