HEADACHE. Help and advice pleaaaase? soldering, dash cluster, painting,

[somefool]

GAH what a dodgy day.

Finally got around to removing the cluster (level 2) so i could fix the sticky fuel and temp gauge. OK got it all apart no problems. Got the soldering iron out with fine solder and soldered the joints up on the voltage regulator. Seemed All good.

l


I thought to myself, ill put it in and make sure it still works, so in it went with the switchbanks. Lights up good, fuel guage goes up slowwwly - like it did before - tapping the dash was still needed. Then i started the car and found that the tacho was now sticky as well. The revs went up, bust didnt go down - Guess what? tapping was needed for that as well now.
grr.

Anyway, could it have been the solder that i used?
I thought it would have been alright because ive used it on other electrical connections (wires) before and it seemed to have worked fine there.



NEXT PROBLEM.

Ive just finished the install of an alarm, stereo, footwell LEDs and painting the centre console white.

I thought it would look quite good to paint the inside cluster thing white to match. While i had the cluster out, paint the inner surround as well - as I'm going away for the next 3 days so it would allow it time to dry well good before putting on the clear coat.



Gave the cluster surround a good clean, then wiped it all down with wax and grease remover. Then spent 4 hours masking up the areas I didn't want covered, seemed all good.
Applied a light coat of plastic primer, then subsequent coats after that - probably 15 mins - 30 mins apart. Then went in - had dinner ( 1 hr at least). Then when i put on the first few mist coats of white this comes up:




OK, wiped it off before it dried, gave it a light sand ect then put a bit of white on again. Same thing. I sanded it right back then. Same effect, even with the primer now. WTF.
If there is any painters out there , can you tell me what I am not doing right?
I can be certain that the area was clean and free from grease, it was sanded lightly before the primer was put on..

Up for a new cluster surround and even maybe new cluster board. 88greenVN if you read this could you perhaps detail me a little with how to convert VS dials over? As a friend unfortunately crashed his VS and if now wrecking for parts. Im guessing it's just those 3 nuts that hold the tacho guage in? ect. Thanks.

urgh i think thats all, apologies for the VERY long winded thread - but your input and help is much appreciated
I dont think the pic worked. i dont know why they never work when i post a thread. anyway they are attached.

Thanks for reading

[88GreenVN]

voltage regulator looks fine to me

The gauges are a easy fit to your VN cluster - undo the 7 nuts and swop over. The speedo will work also - just fit all of them.

Tacho will be so much smoother