White Face Gauge Overlays are Here

Power Surge

Founding Member

Jul 20, 2002

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Palm Coast, FL

Feb 4, 2004

#1

• Feb 4, 2004

• #1

Well, I ordered a set of the white face overlays from the ebay guy. They came today. I will admit, I'm a bit dissapointed. I have done white face installs on other vehicles in the past, so maybe I'm just used to professional quality. There were done on a computer printer, and you can tell. They are just printed stickers with a glossy coating finish. They will probably look good once installed, but again, my first impression was not well liked. I'll take some pics once I have done them.

 

T

THE COBRAMAN

pig 'rassler

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Mar 11, 1999

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Feb 4, 2004

#2

• Feb 4, 2004

• #2

I'm curious how those of you that have them like them. Personally, I find white face gauges to be somewhat eyestraining, but it could just be I'm used to the white on black.

 

Power Surge

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Jul 20, 2002

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Palm Coast, FL

Feb 4, 2004

#3

• Feb 4, 2004

• #3

THE COBRAMAN said:

I'm curious how those of you that have them like them. Personally, I find white face gauges to be somewhat eyestraining, but it could just be I'm used to the white on black.

Click to expand...

Well, I'm doing it as part of the theme to the Thundersnake. All SVT's (except the gen 1 Lightning) have white face gauges. And since the car is SVT powered, I thought it would be a nice touch.

Since they give you both the 80 and 120 mph speedo overlays, I figured the smart thing to do would be test one on an 80mph speedo since I'm not using it. So far, I'm not too happy. The stock speedo and tach faces are curved, not flat like the smaller gauges. Since these overlays are actually printed paper with a plastic glossy covering, you can't heat them with a hair drier to make them contour. The end result is the overlay bunches up on itself as it goes up the curved face.

You also have to cut out the holes for the needles, the odometer, and the high beam holes yourself. Not a big deal, but people should be aware of it.

I am still going to try to use them. I think if I make some radial slices in the curved area of the overlay BEFORE I apply them, it make look cleaner. You'll still see the slits, but probably just barely. I took a red sharpie and turned the needle red, and with the overlay and the red needle, this 80mph test speedo now looks like an Autometer Phantom gauge. I really like how it looks, it's just a matter of getting these overlays to not look like ass.

I'll keep trying and post pics.

 

76_Cobra_II

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Dec 27, 2003

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Clayton, NC

Feb 4, 2004

#4

• Feb 4, 2004

• #4

I had them on my 78 II and I really liked the way they looked. I replaced my cluster bulbs with the all green bulbs from Wal-Mart and took out those Blue discs that were originally in the cluster, I liked that look, the white faces light up a nice glowing green, not ittitating to the eyes at All! I def. reccomend them, I am very happy! I plan on ordering them for my other 2 II's.

 

Power Surge

Founding Member

Jul 20, 2002

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Feb 4, 2004

#5

• Feb 4, 2004

• #5

Well it's done. Overall I guess I'm happy with it. I made the radial slices on the tach and speedo. I made them even with the hash marks on the gauges so that it would sort of match. It seemed to do the trick for getting the overlays to sit flush on the curved faces. Hopefully they will not lift or pull back in the summer heat. I painted the needles with a red paint pen. I like how it looks. You can still see the little sliced I made, but just barely. It's good enough for the race car, but I don't know if I'd do it on a "nice" car or show car. Maybe I'm just a perfectionist, LOL. Anyway, here's the pics....

 

7

77CobraII

I gave 77sleeper my rear end for free!

Dec 6, 1999

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Manhattan, Kansas

Feb 4, 2004

#6

• Feb 4, 2004

• #6

I have the same ones on my car. They don't fit well on the speedo or tach as you said. I plan on doing a custom autometer setup like someone else here has done.

 

76_Cobra_II

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Dec 27, 2003

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Clayton, NC

Feb 4, 2004

#7

• Feb 4, 2004

• #7

Im glad you posted pics of yours with the Brushed aluminum. I was wondering how they looked. My other Stang had the Woodgrain and looked alright, but I like the way it looks with the Brushed alum. Thanks for the pics!

 

D

danimaltheanima

New Member

Dec 3, 2003

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Feb 4, 2004

#8

• Feb 4, 2004

• #8

White Face

Yeah I had put those stickers from the Ebay guy on mine a few months ago. Mine look like ass because I didn't put any slits in there to releive the bunching up on the curvature of the tack and speedo. The Alt, Oil, Water gauges look great though. I will probably eventually do something about the tack and speedo but right now thats the least of my worries. If you think about the cost of the stickers compared to new Auto Meter gauges you really can't go wrong with these stickers. I am suprised that the guy who sells them doesn't have the holes already cut for the needle and high beam, and the slits on the circle. If he really wanted to sell a mad quantity of them he should really do that. I also have pic of mine but I'm not going to even try to post anymore pics since StangNet doesn't show them anyways. Its a waist of my allowable picture space on the forum.

Dan

 

76_Cobra_II

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Dec 27, 2003

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Clayton, NC

Feb 5, 2004

#9

• Feb 5, 2004

• #9

The RPM Guage was a PITA if I remember right? You cant take the needle off (TRUST ME) I did and ruined my Tach!! I guess ya have to flirt the needle thru the hole and put it in place, next time I will be more careful when applying mine. So you just made slits at the 10,20,30,etc... Slits?

 

Power Surge

Founding Member

Jul 20, 2002

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38

Palm Coast, FL

Feb 5, 2004

#10

• Feb 5, 2004

• #10

76_Cobra_II said:

The RPM Guage was a PITA if I remember right? You cant take the needle off (TRUST ME) I did and ruined my Tach!! I guess ya have to flirt the needle thru the hole and put it in place, next time I will be more careful when applying mine. So you just made slits at the 10,20,30,etc... Slits?

Click to expand...

Yes, the directions claim you can pull the needle off the tach. I tried it on a spare tach and broke it. So I just snaked the hole up over the needle. You have to do that on the speedo anyway, so what's one more. As for the slits, yes, I did them in line with the main speedo lines (10, 20, 30, etc). You have to slit them all the way down to about 1/8" from the actual printing. When you are ready to stick the overlay down, I found the easiest way to make sure it's straight is to line it up first with the odometer and high beam holes in the gauge. Hope this helps.

 

76_Cobra_II

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Clayton, NC

Feb 5, 2004

#11

• Feb 5, 2004

• #11

Well, my Speedo needle came off and went on just fine when I did my first one.

 

7

78 king cobra

New Member

Jan 20, 2004

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gloucester ma.

Feb 6, 2004

#12

• Feb 6, 2004

• #12

do you have the web page or email of seller of the white face gauges, thanks
alfredo...ps they look good you did a good job

 

76_Cobra_II

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Feb 6, 2004

#13

• Feb 6, 2004

• #13

http://www.gt350mustang.com/wfg/ford.html

 

78CobraII

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Jul 31, 1998

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Birmingham, AL

Feb 9, 2004

#14

• Feb 9, 2004

• #14

CobraIILover

Thanks for the tips. I'm about to do a set also and was wondering how to best deal with the curvature. Yours look great to me!

 

H

HaveII

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Sep 9, 2001

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Houston, TX

Feb 10, 2004

#15

• Feb 10, 2004

• #15

Just out of curiosity, not saying I would do it, but what would stop someone from just scanning these stickers in and printing all the want? Since this is an update for a Ford product, I don't think this could be copy protected? Maybe they could be printed on some stickers that might work better? Just some thoughts.

 

G

gopher_6_9

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Jun 16, 2003

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Feb 12, 2004

#16

• Feb 12, 2004

• #16

HAVEII you have the right idea, we have been doing it on the rangers for awihle now, what you can do is scan them from the factory overlays and then you can put whatever you want on them (I made some FRPP ones, some with a stormy sea cliff and lightning in the background), but I ended up getting Autometers now for the accuraccy of them.

 

78CobraII

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Jul 31, 1998

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Feb 14, 2004

#17

• Feb 14, 2004

• #17

I bought a set quite a while ago and am finally getting around to installing them. My instructions say to spray paint the backgrounds white.

CobraIILover, did you do this?

Thanks.

 

Power Surge

Founding Member

Jul 20, 2002

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Palm Coast, FL

Feb 14, 2004

#18

• Feb 14, 2004

• #18

78CobraII said:

I bought a set quite a while ago and am finally getting around to installing them. My instructions say to spray paint the backgrounds white.

CobraIILover, did you do this?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

No. As a matter of fact, I e-mailed the guy asking his solution to the curved part of the gauge. He replied saying he cuts the overlay to just around the printed area, and then paints the factory gauges white, so it blends together. Unfortunately he did not reply to me before I did it my way. But I don't think I'd have done it like that anyway.