Technical Dust on inside of gauge

I have a gauge that I think might be rare. It is a 2 1/8 inch gauge and looks a lot like a Stuart Warner gauge, but on the face it says AC Delco. I’m thinking that this gauge was an after the sale add on from your local friendly GM dealer maybe 50s or 60s. The problem I’m having is that somehow dust got on the inside of the gauge and has blurred it somewhat. Does any of you guys know of a hack or a method to get that dust out of there? I have tried putting a shop vac up to the back of the gauge, but have had no success in getting the dirt out. It is unpractical to try to take the gauge apart as it looks like the body and the ring that holds the gl*** are press fitted together, and if I tried to take that apart, I would end up ruining the gauge. Open to any suggestions and thanks in advance.
Ted

 

welcome to the HAMB

If you can post a few pictures...but yeah, it's difficult to clean inside something you can't take apart.

 

This post has information that may help.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/stewart-warner-temp-gauge-fix.812542/#post-9015956

For what it is worth, I had a SW fuel gauge (Stude Hawk dash), I dis***embled the gauge much like the above guy did and found that the teeny tiny wires had dis***embled. I sent it to Williamson and he fixed it. https://williamsons.com/

 

Hello,
The only way to get that dust out, without taking it apart is the vacuum. One cannot just put the pointy end of the vacuum attachment on the gl*** or edges. It may be fairly pinpoint for normal between the seat cracks on a sofa or bucket seats, but for this procedure, there is a better way. No, I did not do this on a old car gauge, but on a gauge for an air compressor that somehow got dust inside of the white background gauge. The technique I learned for my digital camera was used for the air compressor gauge and it worked fine.

By the way, do not use any air compressors as they have moisture inside and it comes out in the fine spray. For tires and beach floaties air fill ups, it it fine. but, not for sealed items like a gauge.

Jnaki

So, here is what I did for a digital camera that had specks on the lens and it was not on the face of the lens. It was inside... inside of a sealed camera? What gives? There is no more opening a 35mm film camera to exchange a film cannister like the old days, so, how in the world did dust get inside of the lens?

The 10+ years of usage in all sorts of places like beach days with the standard windy days, parks for flying kites and other places like soccer games all came with some sort of swirling winds from any direction.

I found out the specks in the digital photo saves on the computer files all had the same pattern on the images. They were not random, but firmly placed on each digital image. A good photo program on the laptop computer will erase those blemishes or air motes. But be careful when you do the removal digitally.

I put a vacuum hose on the outside surface of he exposed lens. the telephoto lens was exposed and lengthened. Now, I place the end of the round hose to the end of the lens and wrapped this stuff called:

Rescue Tape around the outside of the lens and vacuum end. normal black tape might work, but it does not seal like the Rescue Tape.
One layer should seal the vacuum end to the lens, without damaging the camera lens. Several wraps becomes over kill. One will do it easily, if it is sealed.
Now, turn on the vacuum and count to three. There was enough suction to pull the dust motes from inside of the lens and now, the old lens and camera are still on the digital photo shooting access.

The Rescue Tape comes off easily and no damage to the lens or vacuum tip. Yes, it is an old digital camera + lens. As the lens was used extended, mid range and normal, the lens moves in and out. So, the dinky space allowed any type of dust to get on the sliding areas and get moved inside of the digital camera.
Extended lens
The 14 year old digital camera is always at the ready... An since I do not used it daily in windy conditions, it stays relatively the same, clean lens and no dust motes. But, I do check for dust on my digital photos.

 

Could you post a picture of it, Ted?

 

Would it be possible to drill a small hole in the side of the gauge case, insert a Q-tip (or pipe cleaner) dipped in Windex and gently clean off the dust? Of course, you seal the hole with aluminum tape when done.

 

Just another idea, could one flush the inside with a fluid not hurting the internals, and witch are easy evaporating?
Thinking of isopropylalcohol.
Then dry with a clean media like nitrogen, or canned dry air?

 

I was also going to mention canned air such as the computer dusters.

 

I have dis***embled and cleaned a few SW gauges with crimped bezels that had dust in them. I cut a counter bore into a piece of hardwood the fits the bezel snug. putting the gauge face down in the counterbore take a scratch awl and work around the crimp till the edges come up enough to take the bezel off. it takes time, don't try to get on the first p*** keep working around it slowly. I ground a curve into face of chisel to match the curve of the bezel then worked the edge or the bezel back down with hand pressure. It's time consuming , might be worth sending it off to someone that does gauge restoration.