De-stinking Penelope

[Guest]

Tip of a flat wooden toothpick with white enamel model paint...place under a good stand supported magnify glass and dab the letters.

Chuck,
Did that work well for you? Sounds like alot of meticulous work. I think I'm gonna try just mating something with paint on it against the letters. Don't know how it will work out yet though, but I think with the right paint it might do well, otherwise I'd try your way and any paint the overflows the edges I could trim off with a razor blade. Be my luck to get some paint that washes off, like what was used as OEM. Don't see too many gauge clusters out there with white on the lettering.

[chuck hahn]

It was and idea off the top of my head..i do know that whatever you do try it on something scrap that has the raised letters on it first. Lots of variables may come into effect such as the viscosity of the paint..too thin and it runs off the letters..too thick and its clumpy. The substrate your using to press against is gonna be a thing to experiment with also. Dale has a jewelers loop that he can probably get some good results with just a super thin brush??

[chuck hahn]

Oh...restoring the letterings on the switch boxes and emblems are all meticulous too..noone said theres an easy swipe and wipe and your done...LMAO.

[brslk]

Just an idea here. I have never tried it but perhaps a spray on mold release agent and then lightly sand the raised letter and paint. Then rinse off the water soluble mold release agent. (you can buy the release agent from fiber-glass suppliers)

Bruce.

[chuck hahn]

Thats a possibility..but remember these letters arent that tall off the base plastic. One tiny misjudgement in pressure when sanding and you may not have any viable lettering left to paint.

[Guest]

Chuck,
You're right experimenting prior is the key. I was thinking of going to Michael's Craft store and getting one of those blank linoleum stamps.
I think that might work, now it's down to the paint. Testor's?

[Flyboy]

Bruce is on the same track as I am, spray the middle of the cover white, to cover the letters, I recon about 3 or 4 coats, then spray the black over, try and keep the amount of black over the letters to a minimum, GENTLY sand with 1000grit over the letters until the white just comes through....nice crisp white lettering.
Chuck, I hear you about sanding away the letters, but I recon a piece of 1000 grit crazy glued to a suitably cut down ice cream stick, under a magnifying glass, used with care should do it.

[chuck hahn]

Heres some pics of the 1000C switches I rehabbed...

[Flyboy]

With a steady hand like that you should have been a surgeon Mr. Hahn.

[Guest]

With a steady hand like that you should have been a surgeon Mr. Hahn.

But he is already Stan! A GS surgeon

[Guest]

Heres some pics of the 1000C switches I rehabbed...

Chuck,
Those came out really nice, looks factory or better!

[chuck hahn]

GS SURGEON...Now that there is funny.I dont care who you are, thats funny.

[Guest]

For those of you who don't want to fool around with these gauges, cleaning, painting, polishing, here's the perfect answer, providing you have deep pockets, a N.O.S. set of GS1000 speedo/tach gauges, delivery card shows date as Nov 01, 1979. Wow!
Notice how crisp those white letters are, now to figure out how to duplicate that on mine somehow.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Suzuki-NOS-GS1000-1978-and-1979-Speedometer-Assembly-34100-49072-NB-/390384475796?hash=item5ae4ba5e94&item=390384475796&pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr

[Flyboy]

Damn pity those ain't for a G,

[brslk]

For those of you who don't want to fool around with these gauges, cleaning, painting, polishing, here's the perfect answer, providing you have deep pockets, a N.O.S. set of GS1000 speedo/tach gauges, delivery card shows date as Nov 01, 1979. Wow!
Notice how crisp those white letters are, now to figure out how to duplicate that on mine somehow.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Suzuki-NOS-G...sories&vxp=mtr

That is very pretty but I didn't pay that much for my bike.

It got me to thinking though.
I'm sure that with enough work, one could almost build a bike to new with NOS parts for about $25,000 and be able to sell the bike for about $2500...

I think I will fix and restore rather than replace.

It is still nice to look at NOS parts like that though.

It's like porn. I like to look at the women and I like to look at the bike parts.
I can't afford to own either of them.

Bruce.