I am wondering if anyone could tell me how to get teh gauge cluster apart to paint the area around the gauges. I've replaced the cluster and in the process i tried to seperate it but there is soem kind of glue holding th clear plastic on, i'm not sure if i should just try and cut it, or is there an easier way?
Thanks in advance

 

yopu can remove the clear plastic. it is held on by 8 or so screws.

 

i've removed the clear plastic, but the piece that i want to paint is still attatched to it, apparantly by glue. I cnan assume that because i've seem a few guys here with that thing painted, that there's a way to get it off without breaking it though

 

do you want to remove the black bezzel? you know you can remove the gauges by wiggleing off the needle(be very careful) and unscrewing the gauge faces. then you can paint it, just cover up the lights for the CEL, EBreak. yadda

 

I'm confused. I want to paint the black plastic piece that is around the gauges and lights. It is behing the clear plastic housing and when you remove the plastic housing, it's attatched to it with glue

 

the clear plastic thing is not attached with glue. it is held on with screws. i managed to get into mine and remove the tach.



you have to also remove the metal brackets, and make sure you remove all the screws, some of them cant be seen while the cluster is in the car

 

I have now removed ALL of the screws except the ones holding that small plastic piece on top, but that is seperate from the plastic face. what i'm left with is whats in the pic. still attatched, and i can not see and more screws to remove. Now, this one in my pic is NOT the one that i'm planning to use, this one has no tach, and the one that i will use does have a tach, but i haven't taken that one out of my car yet, could there be a difference?

 

this is the front

 

the cluster mechanisms themselves are easily modified, however, the gauge trim/bezel.. the black piece of plastic in the picture above that is covered in plastic.. it's impossible to seperate.. literally, a utility knife is required to get the clear plastic and the gauge bezel apart. i've been told this many times, and i've actually looked to figure this **** out.. the only way to get the plastic off is to either bake the housing slightly to weaken the adheasive with a heat gun on low heat (which is suspect at best as i can't imagine being able to get away with throwing that **** in front of a heat gun without warping the plastic in some form or fashion).. either that or cut the plastic out.
peace

 

you will need to remove those 3 screws the cluster is pressurefitted together. you remove those 3, remove the seperate plastic piece on top then pull/rotate off the plastic housing.