The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay high beam indicator

Restoring my AD (52) instrument cluster and the high beam color filter was badly warped and brittle, so of course, I broke it. Never having driven this truck, what is the filter color (looked red) and has anyone fabricated a new filter? If so, what material did you use?

Hey DavidF,
I have used the red lense repair tape that you can buy at any auto supply store.
Good luck!
Mike

Another option is to buy a red led bulb to replace the clear incandescent bulb.

I brushed some red paint from a rattle can onto my high beam bulb. Could also use red fingernail polish. I couldn't find a red bulb for the indicator.

I used green paint on the signal light indicator lamp at the bottom of the speedometer. Ran a wire to the bulb from the flasher on my 1950's aftermarket turn signal. Took me two hours to pull and insert the lamp socket for the turn signals - and I have small hands!

Don't put it on too thick. Neither bulb gets used a lot, so the paint should last.

I'm not sure how the one in the AD trucks is made, but I made my own filters for both the high beam and turns signals with items from the local hobby store. For the turn signals, which is basically a tube with a frosted plastic filter, I used a peice of sheet plastic (.010") cut to size, the epoxied to the original tubes. The plastic was them painted with Tamiya Clear Blue paint, recoated as necessary to get the right shade (I know, they're supposed to be green, I wanted a kustom look). For the high beam, which was essentially a plastic rod that's necked down to be retained in the housing and rounded on the ends to act as lens, I replicated it with a peice of blue acrylic rod, aluminum tube, and a cabochon decorative bead. The rod was cut to length, with the tube epoxied to it in the same position as the original peice, then the cabochon as epoxied to the end, once the "mirror" backing was removed. The acrylic rod is used primarily as a light pipe, so it worked perfectly for making the lens, though I did have to add a bit of clear blue paint to the ends to darken the color a bit.
Side note, on the turn signals, I used painted clear sheet plastic. For a closer to original look, .010 or .005 white sheet could be used, as it is thin enough to let light through, but will give the fronsted look. It would still require painting with a clear paint. Another option would be to use colored acetate sheet, also redily available at the hobby shops in several colors.

Hobby shop here I come. Thanks to all for the tips/suggestions.

Now if I could only figure out if Woody still sells the transfer labels for the instrument cluster. Link in his photo gallery is dead.

Here is the web site
http://www.archertransfers.com/

In this pic you can see the product number
...pic...

AR33001

Yep, stock/product number comes up empty. I fear Woody is out of stock or quit selling them. I have an email into Woody with an inquiry.

Update: Receive email from Woody. He rebuilt the Archer website and forgot to list the transfer product number. He said he will try to get it corrected soon. So, if you need the transfers, contact Archer directly as they still sell product AR33001

So, I finally had time to visit hobby store. Found blue sheet plastic, but was worried about the lamp melting the plastic and distortion due to heat (very thin plastic). Finally settled on dark blue stained glass (3/16" thick or so). I will cut and grind the glass into a circle that fits the lamp bucket in the speedo. I went with blue instead of red to mimic modern hign beam indicator color. I will notify later on how it turned out.

Got it done:
glass filter
speedo completed

Nice work.