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MG MGB Technical - Late B Instrument Bezels

On page 51 of Clausager's "Original MGB" is a photo of a US spec '77 B with chrome instrument bezels that look much nicer than the painted plastic ones that are the only type I've ever seen. The pictured car never left England and was owned by one Richard Waters at time of publication. Anyone on either side of the pond know where to get these bezels? They really do transform the look of the late dash especially in conjunction with an an aftermarket steering wheel.
Terry

One of our Club members showed me his 79 B last month with chrome bezels. He said he got them from various other Brit car gauges. I will ask him tonight if he has a list of which gauges fit the same size bezels. Also, I believe when I ordered a bezel and lens for a late B speedo from Victoria British, the bezel that came was a chrome one, instead of the black-trimmed original, so you might check with them.
Paul K

New Smith's gauges and accessories are sold from the UK at http://www.gower-oaks.co.uk/ However they don't seem to mention any new bezels that are availible, although it is possible I looked over them.

Here in the states, XKs Unlimited is supposedly the sole US distributor. They have a site at http://xks.com/ Their website leaves somethings to be desired from me and they don't seem to mention much about their Smiths range. They have seperate catalogs for different products and I have one of their Smiths catalogs, it is rather complete. I had to call and ask for it, their number is 1-800-444-5247. There are two styles of bezels availible in three sizes and two finished colors.

Hope all this helps.
Jared Snider

Terry,

You mentioned only seeing plastic bezels. I have a 77B and my bezels were metal, a silver finish around the outside edges and black on the inside border. I also purchased some gauges on ebay a while back that were constructed the same way.

I also liked the looks of the chrome/silver gauges and with some effort was able to convert mine to silver. The inside paint trim on the bezel can be removed with a none scratch pad and chrome polish. With a little elbow grease the black paint comes off and leaves the bezel with a silver finish. I then cleaned the outer surface of the bezel so the complete appearance of the outer and exterior ring were the same. The end results look good!

Jim McDowell

Jim: Right, the bezels ARE metal. With the paint, I just thought they were plastic. Your idea sounds good and I'll give it a try. I'm trying to get a look similar to the chromed gauges in my 73 GT.

Paul and Jared: thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into Victoria and the other web sites.
Terry

Hi,

Just had a look at Clausager to see what the excitement is about. The gauges are similar to those fitted to a post 76 UK spec car (see Clausager previous page). They are in fact Triumph gauges as found in the spitfire and the stag and possibly the dolomite, not sure if that one made it across the pond.

I can confirm that on the UK cars the bezels were metal overpainted with black paint. Not chrome though, more of an aluminium finish

ANDREW WRIGHT

you can use the chrome bezels from a us pre-68 dash
Scott

Get the chrome bezels of any Triumph sedan of the seventies. Same bezel but Chrome.

Allan
Allan

I got instrument bezels for my MGA, very similar to those used on pre 67 Bs and also some years of post 69 Bs from either VB or Moss about a year ago. Did you check these folks for them? Also check with Jeff Zorn's LBC as I think he handles those as well. Instrument bezels are not hard to come by.
Bob Muenchausen

This thread was discussed between 30/06/2002 and 05/07/2002

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