Bored so working on gages

Hi guys winter is already getting boring so I thought I would pull out all my spare gages and work on them. I know some of you guys get into the gages and I am looking for a few good gages covers to replace some that are unusable. I know Clay works on them. 
Probably should be in wanted but may get better results here. I have a pretty good method to take off the rings but always looking to improve so go ahead and post some of your methods. Might help a few members here. I will document mine and post them later.

Yep, me too... Just started snowing again, pretty sick of it even thought it held off till the first couple of days in December where we got 3 feet in 2 days!

I have only taken apart one gauge about 10 years ago and never did get it back together. Had a KZ650B2 with a speedo that had cracked glass straight across, un crimped it with a paint can tool and a small curved screwdriver bit tool.





Pretty easy to take apart but not so easy to get back together without looking "Pro" Kind of halted on it and figured a crimping die would be better than the "hammering" method

Moved on when I was given some extra gauges with a bike I bought in bins.

I did buy face decals from Andre at Reproduction Decals (Diablo) and a set of those German SS crimp rings to put it back together. Just sitting there in a box waiting for me to restart. I did measure the stuff up and make some CAD models for a multi stage crimping die set which I have not finished.







Don't have a ETA on when I will get back on it. Have plenty of half decent useable gauge sets that are not horrible to put on builds. A friend had some 650 gauges done by that Resto guy, pricey but nice!
Way too steep for my pay grade so will need to pull the trigger some day on the dies as I do plan on restoring a low number KZ650C1 I have.

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationYes I have used the paint can tool in the past, works pretty good. I have been thinking of a crimp tool also but have had good luck slowly tapping the edge over with a drift and then final with a special plier I made. Can hardly tell from stock crimp. I will need to buy a few rings as a few have some very big dents. The ones that are good can be straightened between two bearings and smooth the edges a bit with a sanding bit on a Dremmel. If you get around to making the crimp tool I would like to see it. You can buy complete faces and other parts from  www.cb750faces.com/en/ . or From Marcel at Retro on ebay 

The more parts you can salvage the better as replacements get expensive. I have had a lot of gages done by Bob at Z Resto but since I have all these laying around I figured what the heck.

Yes Crazy, those top cans are rare birds in proper form. Usually dinged or some semblance of damage. About 20yrs ago i visited a sheet metal production shop, they were willing to stamp-out a run of 500 for me. Building the fixture is the expensive part. At that time i was too busy with other things and never finished thru. That Resto fella must of done the same thing but completed the task. I've thought about reaching out to him to just buy in bulk the upper cans but...can imagine he wouldn't like to sell to a person doing the same thing?? As far as other aspects in rebuilding, could put to paper an opus of experiences. Lots more to them then just cosmetic!!  

Z Resto gives you new gage covers when he does them and you can buy them from CB750faces but $90 a set plus shipping get expensive not to mention new faces. The one cover I had that I thought was unusable has turned out pretty well. These covers are pretty thin and very workable. I was able to use my metal working skills with a bit of skim coat to correct the issue. I would like to learn a bit more about these gages other than making them look pretty so I will be exploring the internal a bit also
 

Almost ready for paint

 

Call me! Whenever you get a chance.. 816-365-8687 Clay

When your working on these things you need a lot of music
 

I made a jig to hold the gage out of 4 inch PVC and cut slots and used a clamp to compress it the the gage while I removed the ring
 

I made this tool from a 10mm wrench. I cut a small grove and formed one side to a sharp point to grab the ring. Works very well. It takes me about 10 min to remove a ring. I start with the tool and then use a screw driver to open it up a bit more
 
 

Once I get the ring off I straighten it a bit using two bearings and the posts on a clutch holding tool. Then I grind off the sharp edges a bit and continue to straighten the ring to reuse. I polish it before I reinstall. The rings turn out very well for reuse. Of course new ones can be purchased for $20.
 
   

 

 

After researching the oil and method to fill I decided to jump down the rabbit hole. Have to give a shout out to Clay (asphalt900) who gave  me a lot of great info.After filling and repairing the dings in the outer cover I got them painted using gloss black
 

I ended up using a 25 gage needle and drilled a hole just large enough for it. I used the 100,000 grade silicon oil Clay suggested 

 

I will try to download a video of the results. Before and after
vimeo.com/1045847223?share=copy#t=0
vimeo.com/1045848073?share=copy#t=0



 

Super Happy someone finally took the initiative to do this!! Great Job CRAZY! Here's another tip for those replacement faces. You Have to do this or the plastic has a high probability of cracking.    

  I 3D printed some dies today and pulled apart,  bead blasted, powder coated and reassembled a KZ650 speedo... just to see if it was do-able.
came out pretty nice..... 85/100 i think.
I took lots of pictures of the entire process start to finish if anyone is interested.  I re-used the crimp ring... just for fun.
 If anyone is interested in the dies, let me know.
Kawasakik1e                

Kawasakik1e , I was just reading your post this morning and A lot of great ideas. Im working on the next step of crimping the ring back on. I have had good luck with a 3/8 drift but want something a bit faster and easier. I would like to be able to keep the face upright during crimping rather than inverted as you do have the possibility of the oil oozing out a bit. Hope to post something soon.

My partner who is a nurse also found a 21 gage needle, so I will try that as the 25 gage is very hard to push the oil through and the 18 gage is just a tad larger that needed. 

kzrider.com/forum/6-paint-a-bodywork/621...-speed-tach-assembly

I made a complete step-by-step posting detailing how I did my speedometer using a set of 3D printed dies.
Hope this helps someone.... 😃