Yet another set of EL-glo gauge faces from procarparts.com!
These are not reverse glow like the ones in the first post of this thread.
http://www.procarparts.com/store-detail.as...X%2DXXRP%2DGG6X
The kmh readout is better than on the other two sets, but I don't know if I will be comfortable with them at first. I think they would be awkward for a while before I get used to them....
Personally I think this "full-glow" set of gauges looks better than any of the two reverse glow sets. They don't look as good as the ones Rasko made for us, but I'm thinking that at only $29 they're worth trying since the warning lights will function like on the original gauges with these. If I can't get the lights to operate properly with thin photo paper, I guess I'm buying these....
Jan Kenneth
Oh my, three posts in a row, I'm just on a posting spree tonight!!!
I guess I forgot about the advice I came up with myself in the other/old gauge thread:
Replacing the warning lights' bulbs with some slightly more powerful ones. I'll try that out before doing any more work on my beautiful white gauges!
Yeah, I'll definitely try this one out.... 8)
Jan Kenneth
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rasko Da Gama)</div><div class='quotemain'> If you take your gauges out, scan them with at least 300dpi, and send me files by e-mail. Â*I'll make another one for you m8 and other Right handed SOHC owners Â*</div>
No need :-)
The gauges you made an emailed to me some time ago are identical to mine in regards the Speed numbers. Apart from need to rename a couple of warning lights.
Yes, the fuel and temp needs swapping, but thats a simple process in Photoshop, especially for a genius.
but dont sweat it now on my behalf. I would rather wait until this issue of what to print em out on gets sorted. Plus i still have to R&R the front of my car, and a million other things.
Has anyone considered just placing the new gauge over the top of the old one?
nah, that won't work mark...it would be even worse then!
i'm definitely going to be "putting up" with them for now...but the moment i can find a "fix" then i will do that!
oh yeah, and another thing, these gauges will probably go "yellow" over time...they will fade, etc with the heat coming from in the car and start to wrinkle...this may take 3 months, 12 months or 2 years but it WILL happen one day...
it's easy for me to go down to my old workplace and get them laminated (and just have to cut the holes out again) but i'm happy with it for now - just wanted to let you guys know!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bluedraco)</div><div class='quotemain'>well, my galant is a HG 1990 model...
isn't JDM something to do with being a Japanese import or similar? Â*coz my galant is fully japanese made and assembled...</div>
well thats obviously the reason your dial is different than mine, earlier model.
All Galants in Australia were Japanese assembled. However JDM - Japanese Domestic Market vehicles are those that were sold retail in Japan and then imported in the 'grey' market. Unfortunately Galant is not on the approved list for grey import, so unlike the plethora of Silvias and Skylines in this country you wont see any JDM Galants driving around, unless they are 15 years + old. There is no restriction on importing cars 15yo.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pro_sniper)</div><div class='quotemain'>...We just need to figure out some way to make the light shine through... Â*
I was thinking maybe I can cut out a square section from the bottom of each gauge, and replace it with an equally-sized section of see-through foil with print on it... Â*</div>
That would be a good idea
You know how you can have a document copied onto a see-through plastic sheet for use on overhead projectors? There are special versions of those sheets available (even in my local bookstore), that are designed for being printed on by INK printers. It works really good, you can print color on them and everything.
As a matter of fact, I think it would work just fine having the gauges printed on this kind of plastic and then getting a white foil with adhesive on one side (for background) and stick'em together.
I've got lots of ideas going on right now, I'll try the bulb replacement first I think....
If that works then I have no more worries.
Jan Kenneth
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pro_sniper)</div><div class='quotemain'>As a matter of fact, I think it would work just fine having the gauges printed on this kind of plastic and then getting a white foil with adhesive on one side (for background) and stick'em together.</div>
I have read about that exact theory before, except it was just two plastic sheets, one white and one clear. Cant recall whether its here on TGC or somewhere on that Google thing.
In any case I am wondering, you still need to prevent a way for the light to not shine through the gauge, just the lettering. I dont think this idea will stop this?
Right guys...
I went to every garage there is today.
None of them had stronger bulbs of the size I needed. However: at the last garage I went to, there was a great selection of different colored bulbs of the right size.
So I bought a couple of <span style='color:red'>red</span> plastic that used to sit behind the gauges, because the light is already red when it's emitted from the bulb. This worked very well! The warning lights shine much stronger.
Still, I'm having the gauges printed over again on thinner photo paper. That should make the lights shine even stronger than they did originally, which would add to safety.... (yeah right, but it's nice to have an excuse)
Also, I bought <span style='color:blue'>blue</span> look is so much hotter than green, and gives even more of an EL-glow appearance.
Jan Kenneth
Pictures?
1990 Mitsubishi Galant 2.0 GLSi Hatchback *SOLD*
2004 Renault Clio 1.5 dCi
Come on Pro-sniper... Pictures pleaseOriginally Posted by pro_sniper
Right guys...
I went to every garage there is today.
None of them had stronger bulbs of the size I needed. However: at the last garage I went to, there was a great selection of different colored bulbs of the right size.
So I bought a couple of <span style='color:red'>red</span> plastic that used to sit behind the gauges, because the light is already red when it's emitted from the bulb. This worked very well! The warning lights shine much stronger.
Still, I'm having the gauges printed over again on thinner photo paper. That should make the lights shine even stronger than they did originally, which would add to safety.... (yeah right, but it's nice to have an excuse)
Also, I bought <span style='color:blue'>blue</span> look is so much hotter than green, and gives even more of an EL-glow appearance.
Jan Kenneth
Don't you see the whole mechanism behind the gauges? Is it really cool when you used those blue bulbs?
I'm not sure I can get my low-life, cheap, old, rotten digital camera to capture the difference properly. But I'll give it a shot later tonight if I can find the time. My priority tonight is to go see the guy with the photo printer to make new gauges on thinner paper. You believe that??Come on Pro-sniper... Pictures please
Don't you see the whole mechanism behind the gauges? Is it really cool when you used those blue bulbs?
And I don't see the mechanism behind the gauges. Even though the red plastic behind the gauges is gone, the photo paper gauge still covers the mechanism you know. I haven't done any cutting in the gauge face!
The blue background light bulbs don't shine as brightly as the green ones, so it looks more subtle. It's not a huge difference, but I like it better.
Jan K
i was thinking of doing similar things and tried the following:
1) different coloured bulbs - could only find the *bigger* sized bulbs in different colurs (the 5 of them sitting behind the tacho/speedo) but couldn't find the single smaller one behind the speedo so this didn't work out...
2) tried finding sleeves that i could put over them...the car came with green sleeves on all the bulbs, including the little one...unfortunately, i couldn't find a replacement sleeve for that little speedo globe - only the bigger size and a smaller size (which wouldn't fit)...
so i'm stuck using the stock "green" sleeves - however, with these Rasko gauges it actually shines YELLOW (when when i had 5 of the 6 blue sleeves on it shined aqua)! lol
if you look at the picture i posted a few posts back you will notice that my mx6 gauges look sort of aqua colour...that was with BLUE sleeves (dark blue) but for some reason it came out aqua (half blue/half green) even though there was nothing else affecting the colour...it goes to show that every time i have used these sleeves, they have given a different colour than what they look like!
note: none of these above were to do with the warning light gloves, just the speedo/tacho globes...
as for the warning lights - i can't find any stronger globes anywhere for them...however, i might try removing those red covers - is this easy to do?
Sure it's easy. You remove a couple of the bulbs for the warning lights, and stick a screwdriver in from the back to loosen them. Do it gently or I think they could possibly break. Now lift your new paper gauge a little, and you'll get your hands on the red plastic cover. Just pull it off and you're good to go.
And if you can't find the red bulbs anywhere, try coloring some on your own. It's not that hard, but you need to find a suitable paint. Buying pre-colored ones are probably your best option though, so if I were you I'd keep searching.
Jan Kenneth
I took two pics. As you can see I pasted a small section of one picture into the other. The main pic shows the left gauge where I've removed the red plastic behind the gauge and replaced two of the bulbs with red ones. Shines brightly. The pasted section shows the right side, where the red plastic is still in place and still using the original bulbs.
As you can see there is a significant difference even when it's dark. In daylight, the left ones that I replaced outperform the rest. And just to make it real clear; the watt figure of the red bulbs is the same as on the original bulbs, the only change is the glass is colored.
I'm done cutting the new, thinner paper gauges, so I'll try them when Letterman's Late Show is over. There are some things in life you can't do without, and Dave is good fun on an otherwise boring monday night
Jan Kenneth
This is a big difference for sure
I might try it out, but I'll wait a little for now. Guess what. Today I got a phonecall of one guy who wanted to buy my car several months ago. Anyway - he didn't buy it then (obviusly
So, he crashed it the other day and today he called me and asked if the car is stiil for sale :shock: I was like - I don't know - if the price is right then OK. So we agreed that he will call me in about two weeks when he gets the money from insurance and he asked me not to sell it to anyone since he would like it so much... OK, I said, come with the money and we will talk further.
I wouldn't sell it for nothing in the world if that 1990 Galant GTi wasn't still avalible - so if everything goes well - I might become a DOHC owner at last
We will see about that - I just don't wanna be happy too soon since I was in similar position before...
Of course - You m8s will be the first to know
Update:
Using the one gauge that haven't had the red plastic strip behind it removed yet, I replaced the gauge face with one made from a lot thinner photo paper. The difference was bearly noticeable. I should add that it's quite dark outside now, and the results might be better in daylight(...doubt it though...).
But it seems chasing the "right" type of paper for the job is not the way to go. Bulb replacement IS! Either find stronger bulbs, or remove the red plastic thingy and get colored bulbs. Stronger and colored bulbs ARE availabe even in the most remote corners of the world - and hey, I should know, I'm in one of those corners.
Go ask your local garages and auto suppliers, don't be afraid to ask them to check catalogs and call their distributor contacts.
Yes, they come at a price, I had to fork out approximately $3 per bulb. But they are likely to last longer than the car will, and it's a small price to pay to make sure you know when the oil warning light lights up on a sunny day.... :shock:
Jan Kenneth
I'm gonna try these on my Guages as soon as I get chance - altho I'm pretty busy with other stuff at the mo [including trying to sort my tinted rear clusters !] so I dont know when that will be.
I have one small problem tho; my warning lights arent actually in the dial faces like you guys' they're mounted in a separate strip just below ! Now, from reading this I might find this a godsend [no messing about trying to get them showing right] but I dont know if this means my gauges are a different size !
More investigation will follow soon, I think :idea:
PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS! PICS!
I wonder how a 'black' light will go to light up the numbers etc?
but i guess with a white background it will still highlight the mechanism wont it.
Posting Rules
Log in
Register
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks