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Man I hate it when that happens. I've had similar experiences in the past with the 1988 Honda Hawk GT that I just sold earlier this year. Get all excited thinking that you've finally located a hard to find item only to discover that it was indeed too good to be true. Very frustrating.
I generally have a very reserved attitude towards stuff like this for this reason, but I was uncharacteristically optimistic about this because I've ordered many a thing from them before and received it without issue. For whatever reason I had this idea that there'd still be new OEM parts available in Japan and that since it had a different number designation from the USDM models there'd be a slim chance that it was still available. I'm under the assumption that it was simply a regional differentiation in part numbers as opposed to a physical one, it really does seem like this simple piece of plastic is now unobtanium. Oh well, part of the fun is the hunt.
I checked with the dealer that I got my cluster cover from a couple of years ago, and they are now saying it is unavailable Looks like getting one from Japan is the last option to try.
I checked with the dealer that I got my cluster cover from a couple of years ago, and they are now saying it is unavailable Looks like getting one from Japan is the last option to try.
Success! Sadly I wasn't able to obtain a brand new one, but I was able to grab an ap1 cluster in good shape for an even better price from FB groups.
@GuthNW Taking your word for it on this Novus stuff. There's not much that really needs to be done so I think this will come out great.
@PercyJOH Gimme another couple of days. Pulling my cluster tomorrow and ordering LED wedge replacement bulbs as we speak. After pulling this cluster apart I have some pretty good ideas on what I can do to make those "cracks" go away on mine or at the very least lessen their visibility. I'll be in touch. Either way this will be a huge upgrade from your current situation, hope this helps you out.
@Deckoz Got your bucket. Didn't pull the stick-on trace boards; you can do that when you get it, I don't have any wax paper handy at the moment. Good spares for you. Oh...and a little dusty....You can handle that the "Deckoz" way....it'll probably be cleaner than when originally assembled.
Not a bad deal, at the expense of 1 cluster we can hopefully make 3 people happy. Let me know if anyone needs parts that aren't already spoken for.
I tried to polish mine with Meguiar's PlastX, but other than making the visor really clear, the scratches on mine didn't disappear
Pretty much the same result. Sucks about the plastX....I was gonna try that next...Unfortunately I'm not too bothered by it....even cleaning your visor is going to scratch it....
Whatever the material is made out of is weird.....I almost want to say it's laminated. I had cracks on the face of my cluster as mentioned earlier that I couldn't even feel at all but were clearly visible. It might be either coated or laminated, I'm not sure, but it definitely doesn't yield the same results as people doing it to their clusters on YouTube. Probably because theirs is literally just a plastic shield over their gauge faces, ours does a double duty and is part of our display, but you'd think they'd make it a little more durable...
Okay guys, suspicion confirmed. The cluster is in-fact laminated. Ask me how I know
So I decided to try using the NOVUS again, but this time I approached it differently. Instead of doing the entire area I decided to give each of the more prominent scratches some "spot treatment". I proceeded to attack them at moderate pressure and ultimately the results are shown below.....Too much pressure on an area de-laminates the acryclic (plastic, polycarbonate, whatever it is)below it. So basically when this thing gets scratched it scratches the laminate material as well as the plastic below it. So unless you buff completely through the laminate you'll always see the deep scratch below it, because it continues to remain on top of the actual scratch.
Best word of advice is to simply deal with the very light scratches, or try to use some kind of polishing compound with as little force as possible, which ultimately won't accomplish much anyway. I don't think many people have had their clusters out of the car like this, so they probably would never get as into trying to polish it, but let this serve as a warning to anyone that does attempt it. Generally speaking the gauge face will look optically clear in a driving position, so it's best left alone, because there's really not much you can do I feel.
Looks like I'll be buying yet another cluster, which is fine as the car is going away for the winter, and this one will serve as a test bed/spare parts; luckily I got it cheap. Perhaps when I get my next cluster I'll play around with some kind of ceramic coating or vinyl overlay to protect the surface further....Here's the pics, I'm sad, but hopefully I'm giving the community some knowledge, hard-earned of course.
Also to note *****NOVUS specifically states not for use on poly or coated plastics******
First pic: Head-on view before I did anything (driving position)
Second pic: Oriented so you can see scratches. The two scratches that I focused on are super visible. One is between the 2 & 3 on the tach in the middle of the cluster screen, the other is directly below the 7, again, around the middle of the screen.
