Hello, I've recently bought a 1991 Condurre 243 with the original VDO gauges. The lenses on all the gauges are cracked. I was told this was caused by an excessively hot day in the direct sun. I am looking for replacement lenses. Can anyone help?
There are repair services that will redo you gauges. New gauges are readily available and shouldn’t break the bank. You could also try a local glass shop to make glass replacements as well.
I spoke with VDO, and the hairline cracking of the lenses is a common problem. The lenses are a dual layer plastic (acrylic?) of some sort. I was told the cracking was normally caused by incompatible cleaning chemicals, such as the ammonia in glass cleaner. I spoke with gauge restoration shops all over the country and they were very familiar with my problem. Replacement lenses were recently discontinued by VDO. I was able to locate the replacement lenses for my five 2" gauges, but I could not find any stock for the two 4". For those I located and bought NOS (new old stock) gauges on Ebay and took the lenses off of them. It's so much better!! I wanted to retain the original look of the gauges in the boat. I also restored the dash panels to the original look with the help of a local graphics shop. The original panels were scratched and some of the lettering was coming off. Vinyl 'wrap' was used to recover them, and it all looks looks factory original now. A local leather shop repaired scuffs in the steering wheel and filled holes that had been drilled in the leather dash cover to mount accessories. It is very hard to detect the repairs. Now if I can just get the upholstery shop to finish the items I brought over to them..... I'm having fun restoring the boat. It's a beautiful boat, and I am thrilled about the quality of Cobalt boats.
