68 gauge restoration

[Hard Charger]

I am going to remove my dash and restore the gauges.

should I replace the circuit board while I am at it?

it worked fine when the restoration was started a couple years ago.

I plan on repainting the frame and face plates, gauge decals and even a new vin plate decal. a modern clock.

[Dmichels]

are the pins loose? are there any cracks in the board? You said it worked fine. It probally will last another 40 years
Dave

[JamieZ]

I'd clean it and test everything with a ohm meter.  I'd also swap in a new voltage limiter (you didn't mention that in your list).

[Pete in NH]

The printed circuit boards back them were made of a brown colored phenolic material. Phenolic, believe it or not, is actually a paper based material formed under pressure with a resin binder.The stuff was quite popular and cheap 40 years ago. It was widely used in TV sets of the day. It was also a disaster in those sets. The printed circuit boards in TV sets were often not well supported mechanically and the heat from the vacuum tubes, warped, cracked and burnt the boards.

In car dash assemblies the phenolic boards have actually held up very well. They were well supported mechanically and not exposed to much heat at all. If your current board is not warped or cracked I would say it will be just fine. The new reproduction boards would very likely be made of a green fiberglass based material which is much stronger mechanically and not prone to absorbing moisture like the phenolic boards are. But, the phenolic based board has gone all this time without issues and I don't know that the newer boards would buy you anything for the money you would spend.

The suggestion to do something about the old electromechanical voltage limiter is a good one, as it is a failure waiting to happen. When it does fail it can take your gauges with it. You can use either the RTE Engineering plug and play replacement limiter or build your own based on a 7805 regulator integrated circuit. If you do a web search you will find a lot of information on the 7805 type. If you do use the 7805 , use a bigger heatsink than many write up show as it will get hot.

[Dino]

Clean the board, solder the pins on both sides and test it all out, add the RTE limiter and you will never have to worry about the little gauges again.   

[Hard Charger]

are the pins loose? are there any cracks in the board? You said it worked fine. It probally will last another 40 years
Dave

I haven't taken it out yet, I wanted to get the parts together.
good ideas thought