Which material for gauge needle repair?

[Dave in Houston]

Dear Nighthawk Experts:

I tore apart the gauge cluster from an old parts bike to practice repairing the needles to fix a RWB '86 Nighthawk.

(See http://nighthawk-forums.com/index.php/topic,11317.0.html)

Here are a couple of pics of two slightly different approaches.   

The tach was fixed using polypropylene cut from the cover to a spindle of optical disks. The speedo was fixed using polypropylene cut from an empty pharmacy bottle.

The polypropylene is soft enough that it can be cut with a pair of butcher's shears. Is there any reason this material wouldn't be as good as the harder materials the esteemed Munkey pointed out to me in the link I posted?

The speedo needle would just get a white tip. The tach needle would get orange paint and a white tip. Which one do you think would look better?  (Please try to ignore the wretched condition of the dials. That gauge cluster sat out in the rain for a few years before I got it.)

Thanks!

Dave

[Munkey]

If it's stiff enough to not sag and light enough to not impede the operation of the gauges, It should work.

[jerjohn]

I like the orange polypropolene from the pil bottle. It is orange but is a bit transparent. I say do them both with white tips.

[Dave in Houston]

Thanks, gents.

I think I like the orange plastic, too. I'll probably do the fuel gauge the same way while I'm in there.

[ariwhiteboy]

Another vote for the pill bottle!