custom gauge faces

[aeon]

what's up g-riderz...
i made some custom gauge faces in photoshop and printed them.
i put on the spedometer one this weekend, just to see if i like it.

it looks great during the day, but at night it sucks.

i left on the factory faces underneath. should i have taken those off, and is it worth having to recalibrate my needles?

or should i just mount a neon, or an l.e.d. so it illuminates the faces?

help!

peace,
aeon :firedevil:

[balln8g]

got any pics of what you've done so far?????
I've been looking to do something like this.

[aeon]

soon...

[Strahan]

I'd take off the factory faces. I can't imagine you get much light through with them on. If you take em off and put in colored bulbs you can get a very indiglo-like effect. When I put mine back in I just filled the tank then put the needle on full, drove around for awhile then put the temp on 1/2, got on the highway and set the cruise at what felt like 60 then using the odo and stopwatch kept incrementing/decrementing the cruise control set speed till I was able to roll over 1 mile at exactly 60 seconds then put the needle on 60. The tach I didn't care about, just put it on 0 when the car was off.

[pinoyesv6]

personally i'd just put an LED or neon. i had custom guages before but i changed em for real aftermarket ones. its easier to mount an LED or neons than take everything apart and calibrate everything.

[Reelax]

i believe it was "TJC" who used a small neon to illuminate his stock gauges from the front. i think they look great and that you should ask some advice from him on the install. also others that have done the custom printed guages (BGR and DANJ among others) removed the sotck faces to allow the gauges to be backlit. the only problem was that the light did not illuminate the gauges evenly ala EL but still looked pretty good.

[aeon]

thanks for your responses.

lastnight i bought 2 blue moutable 12v lamps that i will try to mount under the glass to cast light on the gauges.

anybody have any idea where i could tap power from?

maybe in the dimmer, or the two pluges that go into the cluster?

otherwise i could run something from the cig lighter?

peace,
aeon :firedevil:

[balln8g]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Strahan)</div><div class='quotemain'>I'd take off the factory faces. Â*I can't imagine you get much light through with them on. Â*If you take em off and put in colored bulbs you can get a very indiglo-like effect. Â*When I put mine back in I just filled the tank then put the needle on full, drove around for awhile then put the temp on 1/2, got on the highway and set the cruise at what felt like 60 then using the odo and stopwatch kept incrementing/decrementing the cruise control set speed till I was able to roll over 1 mile at exactly 60 seconds then put the needle on 60. Â*The tach I didn't care about, just put it on 0 when the car was off.</div>


Custom.....I've always wondered if I messed up my guage readings.

[aeon]

alright, i am shitty at electronics...so i need help.

lastnight i stripped the wiring on an old Nokia charger.
inside there were 3 wires...black, white, and red.
(pos, neg, and ground?...i don't know.)

the lamps i bought have 2 wires coming off of them...
both black. (pos and neg?...again, i don't know)

i also bought some intercom wire.
black and white. (pos and neg?)

the idea was to run the 2 12v blue lamps from the cig lighter socket via the nokia charger.

i took one lamp, hooked it up to the intercom wire, and hooked that up to the nokia charger. i plugged it in and nothin'.

i messed with it until i got it to light a little bit (the red wire from the charger needs to be touching one of the other wires. (?)

it lights, but only a little...
did i get the wrong wire? (wtf is intercom wire anyway?)

can i tap into the dimmer switch for power?

if you have added neon bulbs to your gause cluster, please let me know how you did it...i am electronically retarded, and in need of assistance.

sorry for the length of this post... :oops:

peace,
aeon :firedevil:

[luxcrusr2000]

Actually, you'd be better off buying a cigarette lighter adapter plug over at an auto parts store. They only have 2 wires instead of 3, which makes it a little easier. All you have to do is run the intercom wire from the neons to the adapter wire, connect it and the lights should work. If the intercom wire doesn't work you could try any electrical wire or even speaker wire will work. I used speaker wire that was left over from my speaker installation to wire up my strobes. :wink: Good luck!

[aeon]

perfect!

thanks!