Gauge lenses stained at yard - now maybe clear again

[ZZ13]

During the post haulout cleanup by the yard the decided to basically pressure wash the bridge, helm and everything. I ended up with 7 of nine gauges looking like this. That white stuff is dried onto the inside of the gauge. Got all ready to order new ones then figured I’d try stuff. Couple drops of 70 percent isopropyl alcohol in through the back light hole. Shook it around until it worked it’s way to the glass. Kept shaking and swirling and it dissolved all the deposits. Now to see if it still works after the alcohol wash down. If so, then only 6 more gauges left to do. The cleared gauge is the fuel gauge bottom right in the first picture.

 

[bbwhitejr]

What a pain! Like you don’t have enough to do without someone making more work for you.

Bennett

 

[ZZ13]

I have no idea what that precipitated stuff is. Calcium or salt or something in the air or water. A buddy had the exact thing happen a few years ago. He bought new gauges from FP.

 

[ZZ13]

Two more done (oil pressure gauges). Four to go. Next up port fuel and synch gauge.

Takes a little while for all the alcohol to evaporate off the inside of the lense.

 

[keokie]

More damage to boats is caused by improper use of pressure washers...

 

[ZZ13]

One final post in this. If you decide to try this, the alcohol definitely damages the clear plastic if you let it sit there a while. 3 of the 5 gauges turned out great. Not perfect but can’t tell anything happened. One looks good enough but has some very slight hazing. The other one is streaky and hazy enough that I need to replace it. I suspect there is a better cleaner to drip in there that doesn’t affect the plastic lens. I didn’t take time to research it.

 

[ZZ13]

I ended up replacing the engine temp gauges because the inside of the lens got messed up by excessive use of the alcohol. Saw an old thread where Masterfab cleaned his by cutting of the lens with a dremmel and then epoxied just it back together. So I figure I’d experiment with that. Inside of lens was pretty chemically etched or something from the alcohol, but I found my Presta Supercut gelcoat compound polished it right up clear as new. Couldn’t polish the outer edges because the black bezel restricted finger access, but that doesn’t really matter because that area isn’t viewable anyway. Last picture shows the polished lens. Now to try to epoxy it on.

 

[Bill Curtis]

Been using Brasso for 50 years to polish out lenses and other stuff like scratched watch faces

 

[ZZ13]

So after doing the dissembly experiment, much easier to dish out the $50-$60 for a new gauge.