Don't just replace or repair stuff without digging in yourself first.
While there's absolutely
nothing wrong with a good go at a repair, understand the difference between squirting a solvent and then a lubricant inside a hole in an instrument, and a full rebuild and restoration. The latter involves a tear-down and look at all the internals and replacing and or repairing internal parts such that the instrument functions as new, and also looks new. The solvent/lube just kind of woke things up, perhaps gummed up over time.
Yes that full teardown and rebuild is a lot of work. That's why the cost from the professionals like Palo Alto (and their brethren who have been mentioned in other similar posts) is high--it's a
lot of work. And, they've done it thousands of times so nothing is a mystery to them once they open things up. At the time I sent Palo Alto my instrumentation--all of it--things didn't seem so costly. I want to say the total cost for everything (including clock conversion) was maybe $750 or so. I had no idea if anything worked or not as the car was not functioning when I got it. I just sent it all to them.
Everyone's nightmare is a part (which could include instrumentation) that requires a LOT of YOUR labor to remove, a bit of quick repair, and replacement only to have it fail again in some way. Everything original on our cars is at least 50 years old now. I learned my lessons early on by trying to cut some time/labor/money corners only to have such efforts backfire in the end. I have
never been disappointed when any part of the Pagoda's myriad systems and subsystems have been sent out to professionals for restoration...or in some cases, when I've purchased fully remanufactured parts (with core turn in).
Here are the things I've done that with:
Brake calipers: sent out for professional rebuild at a local "foreign auto parts" store
FIP: sent out the H&R Fuel Injection, (I think they simply swapped out a rebuilt)
Distributors: sent to Dan Caron and Glenn Ring for rebuilds.
Alternator: bought Bosch remanufactured, turned in the old one for core. (bad luck with a local rebuild)
Starter: bought Bosch remanufactured, turned in the old one for core. (bad luck with a local rebuild)
PS Pump: bought remanufactured, turned in the old one for core.
Steering Gear: bought remanufactured, turned in the old one for core.
Auto Transmission: bought remanufactured, turned in the old one for core. (Some bad luck resulting in lots of damage to the old one...)
Instrumentation: restored by Palo Alto
Radiator: re-cored through Gernold Nisius @ SL Tech
Driveshift: restored by Driveline Service of Portland Oregon
Engine: rebuilt by Metric Motors, long block (included a head repair. They found a minor crack.)
But we all have our own approach and methodology to living with and caring for our beloved Pagodas.
