Hondas always do weird stuff with their gauges. The old preludes, the latest models, had dark tint on the gauges, when the car turned on, they showed up. But completly dark when off. I have looked at doing this on my car with El-glow gauges, turned to full brightness, it would be clear though the tint. Tint is one way light transmission. So light shinning though the gauge side gets out, but light doesn't get in. So outside light doesn't bounce off the gauge face, it stops at the tint. The gauges generate their own light and shine though the tint.