finally got some white faced gauges...Homemade (with pics)

[Dan95-5.0]

well most of you know, i'm from canada and our gauges read the km/h on the outside of the speedo instead of MPH.

i wanted a set of stock looking gauge faces but with the km/h on the outside and it was hard to find. Speedhut was an option but i didnt want to spend $110 US for a set of gauge faces. there was also Duranged Design that wanted me to send out a donor gauge cluster and they could make me a set for free. i found a cluster for $60 but by the time shipping was done it would be around $100.

so i did what not alot of people would do. I made my own.

Yes i did it. i took out the cluster, removed the bezel, labeled where the needles were with the ignition on and off and removed them. what i wanted to do was remove the stock faces and put them on my scanner. for some odd reason it wouldnt want to come off around the needle and even used heat. so i put the whole cluster in the scanner and edited the colors and such to what you see below. it took me about a day to do. it was actually fun to do.

heres some pics

before:

after:

because i couldnt take off the stock faces with out ruining them, the cluster was at a slight angle when i scanned them so when i printed them out, they were a little off. so i edited the pics and they came out great.

when you turn the dash lights on in the car, its not to clear to see it but i got a cool solution for that.

stay tuned............

 

[95riosnake]

Those gauges look damn good! I was wondering how you were gonna deal with backlighting...I'll be interested to see your solution

 

[droptopford 5 0]

awesome job man, i could have never imagined they could come out that good from a scanner...

 

[super302]

 

[94gts]

man that must be one fast car

a 240 speedo, dam!









yes i know it kph

 

[urban96]

i have an idea for ya... might be a little time consuming but it should work great.

print out another set, cut out where you want light coming threw then get it laminated. that way you can add a bit of colored celephane or even paint the back side of the laminated gauges to make them light up whatever color u want

 

[HISSIN50]

nice job - props for skills!

 

[1hot5.0]

Nice job.

 

[LoudToy958]

I'm impressed. I always love to have people around who have new ideas. Thinking outside the box kinda stuff. Keep us posted on you lighting solution. I'd be interested to see that.

 

[Darkhorse845]

Those gauges look great good job!

 

[94GTLaserRC]

Dan, That is an AWESOME looking job there

Couple of things:

1. Yeah, like said above, we need to see some pics with back lighting.

2. What is the material you used to print them on?

3. If the lighting is good, you may want to consider refining your technique and keeping a set on Ebay... It wouldnt be "big" sales like the MPH ones, but if you can get $30-$40 once in awhile, why not. You would have to be willing to promote them to the Canadian/European crowd and ship to those places.

Good Job.
RC

 

[Stangfreak95]

Wow very nice Dan

 

[mytight95]

Man i love when someone does stuff like this........ Instead of just buying something.......It helps to motivate people to be original.......


GOOD JOB

 

[Dan95-5.0]

thanks guys,

i used regular paper just as a prototype. but i'm going to take my saved scanned files over to a photo place like walmart and have them printed out on some photopaper.

one of my lighting options is to remove my stock gauge faces out completly and then replace my stock cluster bulbs for some colored brighter ones so that the whole cluster will glow. but i dont know if it will shine through the photopaper.

but i have another option i'm going to use which will let me use the photopaper and still have it glow nice and bright

 

[MysteryMachine]

Looks great good job. Like everybody else can't wait to see what you come up with for the lighting

 

[illwood]

Nicely done!

How did you re-calibrate your needles when you put them back on? Driving test? Was noting the position enough?

 

[94GTLaserRC]

thanks guys,

i used regular paper just as a prototype. but i'm going to take my saved scanned files over to a photo place like walmart and have them printed out on some photopaper.

one of my lighting options is to remove my stock gauge faces out completly and then replace my stock cluster bulbs for some colored brighter ones so that the whole cluster will glow. but i dont know if it will shine through the photopaper.

but i have another option i'm going to use which will let me use the photopaper and still have it glow nice and bright

Those things will NEVER light up if you use photo paper...I dont care HOW much light is behind it. I sat here trying to think of another way but I cant figure it out. They use a thin plastic-type material for that.

I am very interested in seeing how these things turn out...keep us posted.
RC

 

[Xpipe]

nice job man keep up

 

[qwick94GT]

Those look great

 

[Dan95-5.0]

ok. heres a pic of half the lighting done.

this is a pic of the cluster installed without any of the stock white bulbs installed.

if what 94GTLaserRC says is correct which i'm hoping he is, i'm going to get my templates printed out on photo paper so the light can reflect off of the paper to spread out the light some more and the stock faces wont glow through my new faces. this way i can install the stock bulbs again so i can have the needles glow and also the odometer.

sorry for the crappy pic, its the best i can do to show the lighting. it actually looks better. it wasnt even dark yet when i took these pics.

i used string lighting from walmart. saw it on another website and it looked good.

hopefully i'll have some 100% complete pics by the end of this week