Speedo Lens Replacement

I have a 1985 Ski Nautique. I was working to tidy up the cosmetics and would like to tackle the speedos. First off, I'm not sure what brand they are. Below is a picture (sorry I ripped the picture off.... mine are just like this, but I'm at work).



The question is about the lens. It almost looks like there is black ring that is painted around the perimeter of the lens between the bezel and the numbers.. Like the picture above, the black paint is cracking and coming off. Does anyone know if you can get new lens or can I cut a ring of thin black plastic to sandwich under the lens?

Thanks!
Chuck

Cool.. that should be relatively easy. Since they are glass, they will strip easy and then I can get a vinyl place to make me a sticker to go in the middle for masking.

Chuck

Thanks! I was wondering what kind of paint would stick to glass.

So I ended up using the side of a wooden paint stirring stick to knock the bezels off. I held the speedos and the stick on the edge of the bezel and had my wife tap it with a hammer. After going around a few times, they came off.

The needles were looking pretty shabby. All the orange paint had basically faded away. I popped the needles off and lightly sanded the surface with 400 grit paper. I tried to just remove the old paint and leave the white base layer from the old coating. After that, I painted them with two coats of a fluorescent red-orange model paint.



The original speedos had a black ring painted on the glass to cover the gap between the dial and housing. Instead of repainting the glass I decided to make a thin plastic ring to sandwich between the lens and the housing gasket. I found some textured 0.020" polycarbonate film and had the rings laser cut. I then spray painted the flat side with matte black spray paint.



Here is how the rings look placed inside the housing. The textured side will be against the glass to avoid damaging the painted surface. it also should prevent the rings from wetting to the back of the lens surface.



I'm going to let all the paint dry overnight before putting them back together. Should look pretty good.

Chuck

Chuck,
Nice! I like the plastic ring idea. It looks great and I hope it works out.