I've successfully done a couple of these repairs, including the one you want
to do.  The paint on stuff only works with a solid circuit board.

The problem is soldering melts the plastic as soon as it touches the trace
on the plastic.  What I've done is separate a single wire from a length of
stranded 18ga wire, cut it to the needed length, and tin each end with
solder. Then gently scrape the foil trace to clean off the plastic. If yours
has torn completely apart, support the plastic "circuit board" pieces on a
piece of wood, taping them into position, then place the tinned wire(s) and
hold the soldering iron on it briefly until it adheres.  Repeat on the other
side of the break.

I was able to fix a completely torn apart run to the top of the instrument
panel that way.

You will likely melt the plastic, but just tape it together with Scotch
transparent tape, which will last a long time.

Looks like crap, but mine have worked for many years.

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Michael McSwain
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2015 2:59 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Foil instrument cluster wiring repair?

Hoping to repair rather than replace or completely rewire my instrument
cluster wiring.
I went to change out the little lights in the instrument cluster
(speedo/warning lights clock/etc.) for LEDs and ended up tearing the part of
the ribbon for the speedo light.

If your not familiar with the way the lights plug in, they fit inside a
circular cut out of the ribbon that has some copper foil/ribbon exposed.
Push/Twist/Lock.

Well, either when I took the old light off or put the new light on I tore
that little copper piece. Now when I press down and twist the new light into
place it just pushes the torn piece of copper out of the way instead of
making contact. No lights... Part of the copper foil is still there though
and I'm debating finding some new foil that I might be able to cut into a
circle and just glue it down over the circle that I tore so that it's at
least pressing up against the remaining copper and also making good contact
with my bulb.  Probably not the most permanent fix, but I'm hoping it might
work until next bulb replacement or corrosion starts in.

I see Gowesty has a total replacement kit $$$$, and I've seen posts where
people have rewired the whole thing diy.  Neither of those options sound
super appealing to me.

Any better ideas?