Well I would wait untel I send you those bulb sockets, I would not remove the panel too many times because you have a chance to mess up the printed circuit board in the back , they are very thin , does other lights come on when you crank the car , like the engine lite , if not might check the fuse or clean them , to check the fuel gauge is easy , find the wire plug to the gas tank , it's on the driver side , one wire , unplug it , get a short piece of wire and strip both ends , have someone turn on key and touch one end of wire to the bumper and the other inside the plug where the fuel sender unit stud goes , the gauge should go to full, if it does the tank sender is bad , if it does not you TVR on the circuit board is bad , or no power , which might explane why the brake and engine light on the panel does not work ,