S/W Gauges, Dust?

[Crazy68Dart]

Just got some of my Stewart Warner "Maximum Performance" series gauges.  Pretty much all of them have at least one spec of dust on the dial behind the lense.  Is this to be expected?  Also, they are plastic housings, I was expecting aluminum I guess.

Should I expect dust from any gauge, or no?

How do Autometers compare?

Maybe I should have went with the UltraLite IIs after all, but I like the graduations and overall look of the S/W better.  I do think that the lighting in the AutoMeters is probably better, the S/Ws is so so...

Or maybe I am just a little to picky... just a lot of money.

Thanks.

[DartKnight]

Stewart Warners are good quality and they have been around a long time; I've had a few, but I never noticed that problem before. The ones I had were all used, so they didn't look perfect anyway. I've never noticed anything like that with Autometer's gauges either, although one problem I've had is that my Ultralites seem to fog up all the time during the winter; those are the only gauges I've owned that have done that for some reason. 

Autometer lighting DOES seem to be brighter, though...and that's even while using the green bulb condoms to match the hue of the stock dash lighting. 

[Crazy68Dart]

Stewart Warners are good quality and they have been around a long time; I've had a few, but I never noticed that problem before. The ones I had were all used, so they didn't look perfect anyway. I've never noticed anything like that with Autometer's gauges either, although one problem I've had is that my Ultralites seem to fog up all the time during the winter; those are the only gauges I've owned that have done that for some reason. 

Autometer lighting DOES seem to be brighter, though...and that's even while using the green bulb condoms to match the hue of the stock dash lighting. 

Yeah, I have done some digging around the net and everyone praises the S/W gauges.  I personally do like the looks of them more, but the dust thing is kind of annoying.  I might give their tech a call, and see what the deal is.

Just gets kind of old.  I have bought so many aftermarket parts that I have not been completely satisfied with...

Thanks.