I've been plagued with a bouncing speedometer needle since I bought the car and a new cable and speedo gear later, am still having the same problem. I finally got around to pulling out the cluster and sending it in to be fixed last week. While I'm waiting to get that back from the repair shop I figured I'd try to fix up my broken instrument bezel.
Both of the bottom mounting brackets were cracked and broken and the upper left mounting bracket on the dash side was broken and missing completely. This caused the previous owner to apply a laughable amount of strip caulk and other mystery adhesive to try and keep the sucker in place. None of that worked very well of course and resulted in an instrument bezel that rattled and moved back and forth, being mostly held in place by the only metal bracket on the right side.
I was able to fix these issues by crafting new brackets using ABS plastic, a heat gun, and some super glue and am really pleased with how well it came out. I figured I'd share some pics in case it helps anyone who wants to try and fix their old cracked bezel.
Lower right before:
Lower left before:
Left side dash (I forgot to take a true before pic so this is after cleaning up the broken bits):
After removing the old broken brackets and prepping the surface for the new ABS bracket:
I cut the ABS strips to fit tightly inside the reinforced plastic channel inside the bezel and then just sanded both sides, cleaned them, applied super glue gel, and clamped them together to adhere. I made the bends in the ABS with the heat gun and edge of the table before removing the old bracket completely (so I knew the proper angle to bend) and drilled the mounting holes after test fitting to the bezel.
You could probably do both of these steps after gluing to the bezel but at the time I wasn't sure how solidly it would adhere and was worried about putting undue stress on it with the drilling/bending. The super glue bond is REALLY strong though and I think you could drill/bend the new brackets after gluing them to the bezel which could be a bit easier than doing it beforehand.
Right side done. It's solid as a rock!
Left side:
I was a bit less messy with the super glue on the 2nd one:
Finished product:
I tested the fit in the car and to my amazement, everything lined up perfectly! I've apparently reached my picture limit and will post a reply showing the dash-side fix.
Both of the bottom mounting brackets were cracked and broken and the upper left mounting bracket on the dash side was broken and missing completely. This caused the previous owner to apply a laughable amount of strip caulk and other mystery adhesive to try and keep the sucker in place. None of that worked very well of course and resulted in an instrument bezel that rattled and moved back and forth, being mostly held in place by the only metal bracket on the right side.
I was able to fix these issues by crafting new brackets using ABS plastic, a heat gun, and some super glue and am really pleased with how well it came out. I figured I'd share some pics in case it helps anyone who wants to try and fix their old cracked bezel.
Lower right before:
Lower left before:
Left side dash (I forgot to take a true before pic so this is after cleaning up the broken bits):
After removing the old broken brackets and prepping the surface for the new ABS bracket:
I cut the ABS strips to fit tightly inside the reinforced plastic channel inside the bezel and then just sanded both sides, cleaned them, applied super glue gel, and clamped them together to adhere. I made the bends in the ABS with the heat gun and edge of the table before removing the old bracket completely (so I knew the proper angle to bend) and drilled the mounting holes after test fitting to the bezel.
You could probably do both of these steps after gluing to the bezel but at the time I wasn't sure how solidly it would adhere and was worried about putting undue stress on it with the drilling/bending. The super glue bond is REALLY strong though and I think you could drill/bend the new brackets after gluing them to the bezel which could be a bit easier than doing it beforehand.
Right side done. It's solid as a rock!
Left side:
I was a bit less messy with the super glue on the 2nd one:
Finished product:
I tested the fit in the car and to my amazement, everything lined up perfectly! I've apparently reached my picture limit and will post a reply showing the dash-side fix.
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