I wanted to share my experience restoring the outer covers of my relays. I used a Polycrylic/Toner technique that I found online. I originally just printed the relay images from the engineer tags from the tech manual on clear sticker paper and applied but I did not like the results. I could always tell it was a sticker. YMMV
Tip - Try first on a smooth surface such as metal plate, plastic, etc to get the hang of hit. This method should work on any smooth surface.
It's a simple, inexpensive, weekend project
Enjoy!
Step 1
Remove relay from car
Step 2 (optional)
Remove relay covers from the mechanical relay. I did this with one of my relays but didn't not do it with the others. It didn't seem necessary for my needs. Besides that the older original relay covers were too difficult to take off with out possibility of breaking something.
Step 3
Decrease and clean relay cover. I used Simple Green.
Step 4
Polish & clean relay. I used a cheap buffer attachment from Harbor Freight in my drill with some metal polish. This goes quick depending on how bad off your relays are.
Step 5
Mask off relay pins to protect from satin clear coat if you did not take off cover. Apply 3 - 4 clear coats to cover as per spray can directions
Step 6
Print out your desired relay image using the updated engineering tags 8-9-17
https://www.sl113.org/wiki/Restricted/Start.
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!!!! These pages must be printed in REVERSE/MIRRORED and with a LASER PRINTER ONLY!!!!! Inkjet printers will not work.
If you have a home inkjet printer you can print the sheets MIRRORED and then use a standard copy machine(at a copy store) to make copies. You want your copies to have toner on them. AGAIN! inkjet printers will not work.
Step 7
Cut out your mirrored image that you want to apply to the relay.
Step 8
Apply an EXTREMELY thin and EVEN coat of Polycrylic with brush.
Step 9
Apply your cut out image face down to relay cover. You basically get one shot at this so make it count. You might get 1/2 second to move it but I would not count on it.
Gently remove all air bubbles if any using smooth pen casing or other smooth object. Try not to get any of the polycrylic on the paper. It will make it more difficult to remove.
Step 10
Wait at least 1 hour to dry.
Step 11
Apply drops of water to paper image. Cover it all. Leave water standing for 5 minutes. This softens up the paper.
Step 12 (Critical)
This step is critical for the end result quality. TAKE YOUR TIME! Gently in a circular motion use your finger and rub the top of the paper off. GENTLY and SLOWLY!!!!. The paper will start disappearing as the upper layers turn in to pulp. Keep applying water. Work it until MOST of the white pulp is gone. This should take 5 - 10 minutes
If you do this 100% correctly all that will be left is the black inked image. HOWEVER!!! I could not get it that close because the images had too much fine detail. If I worked it too long or hard I rubbed off parts the ink. It's best to remove as much as you can feel comfortable with. The final clear coats should hide any imperfections.
Look for "whiter" parts of the paper. This indicates more rubbing attention as the paper is still thicker in that area.
Here is a pic of my first attempt that I scrapped and had to start over. My errors were not clear coating first (The polycrylic blotched the bare metal cover) and not removing all the brighter white paper. You can see it on the edges and it will be harder to hide with the final clear coat. Make the haze all even at least.
If you mess up you can always start over. Clean up with acetone and go to step 3
Step 13
Gently clean off any remaining pulp and let dry a couple of minutes
Step 14
Apply light satin clear coats until image edges are hidden or you are satisfied.
Step 15
Enjoy your newly refurbished relay
