Designing new gauges.
 

I wanted these.

http://images.motortrend.com/feature...uster_view.jpg

So i made these, using revlimiters instructions.

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...0018_large.jpg

I have these now. I am going to make them look less home made than these as well.

http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_i...0019_large.jpg

I will document everything as i go if you care about gauges. I get tired of looking at the same old thing. I hope this helps someone that has been wanting to do them themselves.

If you can figure out how to turn it so that redline is straight up, these will be FTW.

Move the stop pin, pull and rotate/reorient the needle on the tach, done.

I can that's just the way I wanted them.

Edit. Like this?

looks pretty cool.
im too chicken shit to even touch my gauges

Go for it. It is not that bad really. You will be surprised how easy it is to pull and disassemble the instrument cluster.

No doubt, i have it down to like a 10 minute science, probably less now that i have a quick release.

Yeah, it's really really easy. Just avoid the things on the back, don't want to break something and let the smoke out. o.o

That is pretty cool!

Agreed. I'd love to, but I know I will mess it up and regret it, so I leave them alone.

I thought mine worked fine after mucking with them ... until I ran out of gas at a 1/5 a tank.

I'm now in the market for a new cluster.

-Zach

:giggle: That wouldn't work with me. Two or three times in just the last few months I have run mine down to below E just to avoid stopping in a bad part of town. Apparently mine reads E and still has a gallon or two left, which I think is typically standard by design.

Lighting is my main concern with making gauges. It may look good in the day, but if it looks like ass in the dark, there is no point. I do most of my driving in the dark.

Dark pic. Seriously, go to revlimiter.net. It will tell you everything you need to know. That was my first attempt. I have honed my ability on a couple of other cars, so these will be better. I have been drinking to much to continue work tonight. But they look just about as good as stockers at night.

Edit: sorry about the alcoholic shaky camera pic. You get the idea.

Does look good. The originals would be fine if they weren't glossy. Do them in flat/matte and they would be great.

sat in a ferrari 458 italia yesterday, gauges were incredible

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._1315495_n.jpg

not the best picture but you get the idea. also when you start the car, the gauges are all on a screen so it changes from "458 italia" to stuff like speedometer, water temp, etc

can of matte spray ... I'm assuming he's using a wax style laser printer for this to get the gauge face as opaque as possible.

-Zach

Yeah that would work. I just said screw it, they will work fine. Also, i think you can find matte laminate.

Be careful printing that yellow face. I know that Adam (revlimiter) was having issues making colored faces. Something about not being able to get the color printed evenly enough to look good. You might ask him how he's been doing it. Or just pay him and let him do it for you.

Office depot has really good printers. Where at in knox vegas are you from. I used to live off grand ave.

If you have issues with light bleed through I'd print the black/red and see if a local sign shop can cut you some 3m yellow vinyl small enough (most shops can cut relatively small details).

I've used white and yellow vinyls over black backgrounds in the past with great success and with this method your not attempting to block light with a color that's very difficult to print opaque.

Only tricky part is aligning the vinyl but that can be planned for.

Also, if you do look into going this route ask the sign shop for the backer separate and tell them you'll 'prep' the vinyl yourself (e.g. - remove all the negative space which is not needed with an x-acto blade, in this case the numbers). This should save you some money as it is the most tedious part aside from laying out graphics and applying them.

-Zach