grandgarson

Hi everyone, I hope I'm posting this in the right spot. It's not really something that has to be specific to a 1st gen RX7, but since I'm going to be building it for my 1980 RX7 I figure it fits.

I just got this car about a month ago and have a lot of things I'm going to be doing with it as I get the money to fix things up, so this probably won't happen for a little while, but I wanted to see if anyone out there has any ideas for me. I plan on painting the car a dark metallic blue with black trim and redoing the interior black and blue to match and when I redo the interior I'm hoping to redo the gauges as blue backlit gauges with black numbers. As far as I can see there is nothing like this that I can just buy for this car (plus I'd like to do it myself so that I can get a perfect match to all the gauges and keep the gauges in the cluster still looking stock other than the lighting). So far the only thing that I've found that would make it possible is a translucent plexiglass or similar plastic, but that's thicker than what I hope to use. If anyone knows of a place I can get a thin sheet of translucent blue plastic that I could cut to replace the gauge faces that would be great, since then I could simply either print the gauge patterns onto the plastic or on a thin clear sheet to cover it and install it in place of the original face and then it would just be a matter of getting the lighting right behind the gauges. I'm sure I can find a thin piece of white somewhere and some blue film to put over the back, but I'm really hoping to find something that will give me the blue face even when the back light is off, and I know if I go with a blue film then I'm going to want it on the back and not the front because it will most likely be a glossy finish and not a matte finish like I would want. I'm sure there is somewhere that I can buy the stuff. I know they make it since many cars use it for the indicator on the dash when you turn on your brights (it's usually just covered by a piece of tinted plastic so it only shows when the light behind it is turned on).

When I do this, I plan to get a spare cluster to work with to get it just right, as I know someone that has a few 1st gen parts cars and I will take pics of the entire process and post a nice how-to when I'm done.

IanS

iTrader: (4)

Sounds like a good idea, although blue background with black numbers may be hard to read at a glance.

Vashner

That paragraph is way to big. Chop it up into 2-3 pieces pls.

grandgarson

Yea, I had already thought about that and I plan to have the back light wired to the ignition so that it will be backlit whenever the car is turned on. That way it should stand out. I've also been thinking about putting a light tint over it so that when the car is off the entire cluster will be black. If I do that then it really won't matter if what the finish is on the gauges. It wouldn't really matter if it was glossy or matte.

grandgarson

Sorry about that. I would if I could, but I already posted a reply to someone else on this thread and now it looks like I can only edit my latest post.

The good news is that I may have come up with something that may work for the colored plastic. I'm thinking that if I can't find a place to buy it in sheets then I'll go down to the store and get some of those cheap colored plastic 3 ring binders. I'll have to play around with it and see how good it works with the back lighting.

Also, I plan on finding what I did with my digital camera and taking some pics of the car today and will post them for anyone who's interested. Keep in mind that I paid $750 for the car and though I think I got a great deal since it runs great and has a very straight body, they are defiantly going to be the before pictures for the entire car.

grandgarson

I stopped by Big Lots today and saw this plastic folder and it just might do the trick. Below you'll see a picture of the folder and a picture that I made up real quick to give you an idea of what I hope it to look like when I'm done. I did it real quick so it doesn't look perfect or anything, but it should give you an idea.

I'm not set in using this material as it is very flimsy and if anyone knows of a place I can get a sheet of plastic that is fairly sturdy but still very thin and about this color I would greatly appreciate it. It does seem to have just the right translucent properties to work right with the back light though.

This color doesn't really match the color of blue that I plan to use for the rest of the interior, but I think it will look very nice if I do all of the light up things in the car the same as this, plus it's a light enough blue that I wouldn't need to have the back light on to be able to read the gauges easily during the day.

IanS

iTrader: (4)

Have you ever taken the gauge cluster out of an 83 before? It isnt currently backlit, so how are you planning on making it so? How it lights up now is there are 2 - 194 bulbs that shine down from the top. The bulbs are housed in the top and shine through a yellow plastic lens.

grandgarson

Well, I haven't taken the cluster out yet, and I'm planning to get a cluster from another car just to play around with it and figure out how I'm going to get everything to work, but I figured that most clusters from cars of that age are either all one piece with the gauges and lights wired on a basic board or they are individual gauges with space between them. Either way I should be able to get them to work right. If they are all one piece then I'll have to find just the right spots where I can drill holes through the board without disrupting anything for the lights to shine through onto the plastic, otherwise if there is space to put them next to the gauges, I might do that and just make sure that the edge of the gauges are sealed enough to keep the light from shining out from the edges of the plastic and that should light up the plastic. In either case, I'll have to play around and see what works the best, and I may need to line the back of the blue plastic with aluminum foil (with thin plastic on the back to keep it from messing up any electronics behind it) with the shinny side towards the blue plastic to help the light reflect through better and be a little brighter and more even. I'm thinking that one or both of these methods will work well enough to get the gauges lit up, but if not I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I'm usually pretty good at finding solutions to problems as they arise.

I'm not sure how soon it will be that I get the extra cluster to play around with since the brakes are defiantly the first priority. The husband of one of my supervisors at work has several 1st gen parts cars, and I'm hoping to get a chance to go out and take a look at what all he has pretty soon. Maybe I'll get lucky enough that one of them will already have the cluster torn apart and then I'll be able to form a real good plan of attack.

Also, as promised, I did take some pics of the car. I've got them on another thread that I have going where I'm just trying to get some general ideas on things to do as I fix it up. Here's the link.

Directfreak

iTrader: (2)

Sounds like you know what you want. Personally, I would go with the blue numbers on black background. It's what I have on my cobalt gauges, and even those are quite a bit bright at night, but VERY legible.

You can see them in this old video, for an idea of what they look like at night.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/T...accus_7968.htm

grandgarson

Yea, I know it's going to take a little playing around with to make sure I get just what I'm looking for. My hope is that I can get the gauges to glow instead of shine. My goal is to have something similar to the warning lights, where you see the red light come on and it has the black letters telling you what the warning is for. I think it will work as long as I use a solid blue plastic that allows the light to show through instead of a see through blue plastic.

The biggest problems I really see are getting just the right density plastic to work right and getting even coverage from the lights in the back without it being too bright (I'm thinking that the brightness **** may play a big role in this).

IanS

iTrader: (4)

Something that oem gauges have is a white paint type coloring and then a "screen pattern" black so it darkens a bit and keeps the light even. Bright and dark spots are bad obviously so this may help with that somewhat.

Bass

Actually the '83 gauge cluster is backlit, through the transluscent (sp) numbers in addition to the two bulbs that shine onto the face. The face of those gauges is white plastic with orange applied to the sides and top. Then the black is applied over that. There are three lights for backlighting: one on either side of the tach that splits over to either side into the other gauges and the third one is behind the speedo.

What I would suggest that you do is to scan the faces of your gauges and print the whatever colour you want for the numbers etc onto a clear sticker. Then get rigid transluscent plastic that's the same thickness as stock (approximate only as there's room for error here) and cut/drill them the same as stock and pop it into place with your sicker overtop. Something like that anyways.

I've kept mine stock as I've always liked the orange/red look and have changed all of my other vehicles over to that. But what I have done is added foil tape (the kind used for sealing ducts - not crappy duct tape, but actual foil tape) and covered the inside for improved lighting. I've always found the lighting on the trip odometer to be especially inadequate.

IanS

iTrader: (4)

AHHH yes you are right. Those 2 bulbs that shine onto the face are what make it able to see the needles.

grandgarson

Below are some images I've put together and what I'm hoping to get the gauges to look like. I am thinking that I will change the gauge on the left by taking out the clock and replacing it with an oil pressure gauge and a temp gauge (the temp gauge was already disconnected because there is an after market temp gauge below the stereo.) I'd like to replace the center console with a stock center console instead of having the oil pressure and temp gauge there under the stereo, so I'm really hoping that I'll be able to fit them into the cluster next to the fuel gauge.

As I've said several times about things, I'm going to have to play around with things, but my hope is that I can paint the needles black and that even at night they will be visible since the entire face of the gauges will be glowing.

grandgarson

Update:

This is still my plan for the gauges, though they probably won't be a bright blue like shown in the pics above. I found a plastic binder at work that looks like it will work perfect for the color of the gauges. It's a darker blue, but still a good contrast from black. Plus, I've decided that I think I'm going to print out the gauges on tracing paper and overlay that on the blue plastic. That will make it more readable during the day and will be white with black numbers, and at night it will help a little bit with keeping it from glaring from the back lighting.

I've finally gotten a chance to go out and look at the parts cars that someone I know has and it looks like I hit the jack pot. He has 3 79s and an FB (not sure of year since I didn't look too close at it). He's also got another FB that his wife wants him to fix up so that one is off limits, but the others he just wants to get rid of and he's told me I can have anything I want off of them. I'm hoping that it won't be raining tomorrow and I'll be able to go out and start pulling parts. My priority for pulling parts is front bumper first, since it's been driving me crazy driving an SA with an FB front bumper, but then I'll start pulling interior parts.

I'm planning to pull all the interior parts that are in half way decent condition and hopefully out of the three cars I'll get a pretty complete interior. The reason for this is that I plan to use them to make molds so that I can make carbon fiber replacement parts for the entire interior of my car. I'm guessing that I probably won't be able to get a complete interior from the parts cars, but I figure the less parts I have to pull off of my own car to make molds from the better. I'll also be pulling the gauge cluster from at least one of them so that I'll have it to play around with so that when I get ready to put all the new interior parts in I'll have the gauge cluster reworked as well so it will all go in at the same time.