Getting Trim rings off early gauges

[JackM]

Got a '66(?) SPL311-04267. Flat dash. I cannot figure out how to get the trim rings off of the gauges to send them to the chrome shop. I have a sneaking hunch that they are threaded. There was a green-blue stuff around the seam where the body and ring meet, almost like a locktite stuff. I tried tapping one off, tried to hold the body in the vice and use padded channel-locks to turn, and got nowhere. All are soaking with liquid wrench now.
Thanks

[Nissanman]

I think you'll find that the dress rings are crimped on
The edge will have to be lifted all around the perimeter to free it from the flange on the end of the instrument case.

[JackM]

Hmmmmmmmmm

[JackM]

duh, um okay, got that. Thanks

[dbrick]

I did it on the 66, wasn't fun. Gauge needle was "unhooked" from the mechinism. I was careful to not split the sides, went back together OK. Wear gloves, nasty sharp edges where the ring splits.

[windy311]

I stuffed my tacho and broke the glass and cut the ring .but now i have spare parts for a tacho.

[caraddict]

I've done my share of these and they are definitely a pain. The real fun begins when you get them back from the platers and try to crimp them back on without cracking the new chrome. Still haven't figured out how they did it when they were new but whatever process they used seems to be way more forgiving than any new chrome you can find today. We have even gone so far as to make the tooling which crimps them back together just like the factory but we still can't seem to figure out how they got chrome to bend without cracking? Just one more reason I'm happy to own a "chromeless" 67.5

Jon

[jfunkdelicious]

Hey Gang - so in reading old discussions about removing gauges and trim rings... I can't seem to find any clear information that says whether or not I need to remove the entire dash to change the gauges out. So in summary, my questions for the group are:

1. Do you need to take out the entire dash to replace the gauges? I have a 67.5 Flat Dash.
2. If so, in order to take out the dash, so I have to remove the dash cap as well?
3. And if I have to remove the dash cap, does that mean I have to remove the windshield?

Thanks in advance - I searched high and low and couldn't find any 'clear' answers to these questions.

-Jesse

[sports imports]

Instruments can come out while dash and windshield are still in the car. unhook the battery, reach in, after unhooking all cables (speedo and tach), wires, then undo the two wing nuts on each instrument. Once nuts are off, there is a bracket bridging the two studs the nuts were on that needs to be removed. Instrument comes out to the back of the car.

Ross
sports imports

[jfunkdelicious]

Well that's a lot easier than the direction I was going! Many thanks Ross!

[sports imports]

That gets the instrument out of the dash. To get the chrome ring off is another story!

Ross