TOPIC:

I sell the needles on eBay. If you Pm me, I can send them directly, saves a few dollars for us both. You can pay with PayPal.

I purchased these instrument needles from LareNurminen. Several ways to install. Identical in appearance. Back to OEM status.

Regarding: The face seems to be coated with a powdery like finish. I guess it's to be anti reflective. Is there any medium out there available to coat surfaces this way, especially for such delicate items?

In my opinion, I would NOT attempt any such "treatment". There is a very likely chance of destroying the factory "labelling" and finish with an incompatible product. There are "decals" available - I've seen them for sale.
I've mentioned this before and will re-iterate at the risk of some laughter.
If the dial face needs some light cleaning without fear of removing the surface application ......"spit". This tip came from a technician with 30+ years of experience servicing Mechanical Cash registers (NCR) which used the rotary and pop-up indicators. It works and does so very effectively ! I use a "Kleenex" to do the light rubbing. Best Not to be sucking on a "Wurthers" at this time. This method also removes "Fly poop", too ! (Don't ask)

LareNurminen wrote: I sell the needles on eBay. If you Pm me, I can send them directly, saves a few dollars for us both. You can pay with PayPal.

Can you let me know the length of those needles. I have a Honda that needs new needles and these might work depending on the length.

The needles are almost exactly 1 7/8", but (if going on a Honda) will need a base to pivot off of- I just snagged a set of needles myself to refirb a couple of extra gauges I had, and the intent is to re-use the stock KZ1300 base. If you can make this work, however, the needles themselves are fantastic products.

As far as the "powdery" substance on the gauge faces- this, in all likelyhood, is the paint on the faces starting to come off. If your faces still look fine, the best course of action is to just leave them alone. My gauges are in decent shape, and I can confirm there's no kind of extra anti-reflective coating, apart from the flat black of the gauge background.

To confirm, I got these from LareNurminen.

Scotch, yeah, by intuition I avoided even touching the faces at all costs! I made a stand cutting the bottom of a yoghurt container, at the right height, and keeping the gauge securely sit in it. To keep the dial fro, rotating while the needle cured overnight - I jammed a folded piece of paper under the center disk.

The coating - I am sure the type of medium used was specifically designed to keep any glare from happening. Like in slick gloss versus matte porous surface. Like what you see inside reflex cameras - it's matte and porous to eliminate light reflection. The stock dial surface resembles that finish. But actually that's not what I had in mind when asking, knowing dial replacements are out there to buy. (do they offer a similar finish or just mimic the look? - I have no idea)

My concern is the surface which is directly under the 'glass'. I thought it's just black plastic. Apparently not! There was a little spot between the face and the glass and I wanted to wipe it off with a cloth. That seems to wipe the surface of the face and disturb what to me seems like a special coating I mentioned. Now to the photos...

Looks great but.. under viewed from different angle not so. I will not care at all if this will not be noticable when mounted on the bike. Still, curious about ways of correcting this. I thought about squaring off the affected area to make it look uniform and consistent. But first - need to take care of the needle on the tach meter.

Stan: Years ago, I had exactly the same thing happen to my KZ1300 cluster glass. I wondered if there was some sort of an anti-fog or UV.coating (or anti-reflective treatment as you suggest)..