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I'd get a second gauge cluster and refurbish that and then swap. Everything comes apart fairly easily. The only irreversible step is the breaking of heat melted tiny plastic studs that allign the body and painted brass frame, but the chromed brass surround clamps all of these compnents together in the end, and I found no problem with this. I cleaned the brass surround very carefully removing the remaining gray paint, and then sanded it very lightly with 320 grit paper to give it some tack for the new paint. Be very careful to clean around the 4 colored plastic lenses for the indicators. They have a white paint incised and when this is gone, it's gone. Mask these with something of the same diameter when respraying. I just used a Krylon grey primer which has adhered very well. Looks great. You could get some wrinkle finish if so inclined.
I recommend removing the whole asembly through the front, and I don't know if you can do this with the dashpad in (maybe with the steering wheel removed) I don't know that it's impossible to remove it rearwards, but there is a lot of wiring and other obstructions, so out through the front is best. Unscrew speedo and unbolt trip meter from steering column, pop off the illumintion lights, remove the 2 retaining nuts - one to each side, and then manipulate the whole assembly so that you can pull it through the opening enough to remove the temp and gas gauges and leave them in the dash.
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