Hi again guys

As usual, when I dont have the engine parts I need, I turn into more trivial, usually asthetic things, like polishing or painting something.

This time, I happend to have the gauge cluster at hand and I thought "man, that thing looks like crap compared to the 99FD cluster."

For starters, Im a sucker for cars with the tach starting with 0rpm at 6 o´clock.

Since you just pop out the needle to remove it, nothing stops you from putting it at 6 o´clock if the gauge is re-design accordingly.

To make custom gauges, you CANT just overlay something on top of the existing one. For starters, its backlit, and the previous design will show up.

So the solution is to create the pieces from scratch. That meant finding the proper material to do so.

First try: printed gauge over a plastic material, and since we have no limits on what can be done, lets go Ferrari style mixed with RE logos (dont hate me if you guys dont like it, I wanted to try something in color instead of just black)

Oh, and while I was at it, I decided I wanted RED needles. (I will post how to some other time)

SO here we go, pics to make this thread worthy.


Stock cluster. I really really hate the volt meter and the clock



opening up the cluster






tach face removed



Pretty much what it will look like, but without the tach face



Stock and my options



Stock against light



Custom against light. The whole yellow part should lit up at night. I might add some leds to the oem illumination.



Gauge face against the LCD tv. This kinda shows what the material is like.


And .... you guys probably wonder "WTF? where are the pics of the finished thing!"


Here´s the deal: Post a comment, a critic, whatever you guys want, and I will post the pics tomorrow


Thanks for reading!

 

Badass, makes it look great, since SA gauges are boring stock i think......

 

awesome.

 

That's hella badass.

I would love to do that to my fb gauges.

 

i have the white face reverse glow and these are way nicer. Since my SE is red I would love to have a white face with red numbers and red needle.

You are very talented......

 

Be interesting to see how the yellow background looks when backlit through the green bulb filters... or are you pulling the filters as well?

 

Im going to use white leds to achieve the look Im after. I want the whole yellow part to lit up. "hey here I am, Im a center mounted tach, most modern cars forgot about me!"

 

Love em! I would have gone with the stock black back with white lettering, the yellow jumps
out too much to me. Awesome nonetheless! Would this work the same for FB gauges?


PS Happy 1600!

 

Thanks

This is just the starting point, and what better way to test than my own car.

Im trying out different materials and ways to do it. Since its printed, the design on the gauges can even be a pic of your face

I first tried printed plastic, but it didnt work the way I liked it.

Now Im on backlight material, printed with a machine similar to a laser printer, but way more expensive and with a higher resolution.

 

Someone had a thread up a while back, with gauges already scanned for S1/2/3
cars. Print them out and they are stock size. I'll see if I can find it for ya if you are
interested in it.

I wish I had the skills to do this!

EDIT: Here's the link

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...t=custom+gauge

 

Im curious on a few things;

1. The type of plastic.
2. The printer used. I used to work at a normal print shop, so Im really interested in this.
3. Did you just cut them out witch a razor/scissors or did you make a die.

It's very neat, although I am not a fan of the colors at all. But hey, to each their own and what you're doing looks great! I have a lot of respect for that.

 

I could be off base here, but only the 84/85 cars have backlit gauges stock. The S2 I know for sure has 2 yellow bulbs that light up the front of the gauges. It would be really cool if someone made new lenses for the bulbs so they could be simply white instead of yellow. And then change the face so you dont have a white face that lights up yellow at night (although that may be more eye-pleasing).

 

Teaser



moar pics to come

 

I was going to say something like that, The gauges in my '83 aren't backlit. But that ellow faced tach sure does look awesome, can't wait to see the rest of them.

 

1. type of plastic .... I have no idea. I just buy "backlight material in white" and the guy over the counter handed me the stuff. For sure its not "paper". It is plastic of some sort
2. Designjet L25500
3. Razor

 

moar pics, the tach looks great.

 

I would rather have black face/yellow text, but VERY NICE JOB! those def. look professional in the pics atleast.

more info on what you used exactly and how you printed on them?!?

 

Superb work. have an SA and would be tempted by a change in color of the gauges - tho maybe all three faces? I too have a red car, so I think the yellow would be over the top for me, but black &/or red numbers on a white face could be cool! Certainly agree the yellow tach makes a statement! Look forward to your further experiments....

Thanks for sharing-

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

this is the look I was after



I think mine came up pretty well.

What would YOU guys do? No bounderies, what would you do to your gauges?

 

Did you have to recalibate the tach sinse the numbers are in different places on the tach?

 

You dont need to

Just remove and re-attach the needle in the new position. The scale remains the same.

 

Have a turbo (well, compressor housing) that goes over the stock tach needle
mount and stationary. Then have the compressor wheel attached to the needle
mount itself, so when you rev, the wheel turns.

Yeah, I get THAT bored.

 

If you're trying backlighting, have you come up with any solutions for light distribution? LEDs have a fairly narrow distribution, and wind up making "spots" on the face of the gauges. I only ask because I had the same problem with my Civic back in the day, I did some playing around with various options and could never come up with anything I was satisfied with.

 

The easiest way to work with leds, is to shave the tip off, and aim them to the back of the cluster. For better light distribution you can put chrome vinyl in the back

On this case, I focused on material and material alone, cause I want this gauges (not the yellow color but the material itself) to be avail as a solution to all SA and FB owners.

The key here is the material used.

Once Im satisfied with the results I MIGHT offer custom gauges to other forum members. I cant even tell yet if this is cost effective.

 

That didn't work for my setup, I'm guessing it had something to do with how close the LEDs were to the surface. Glad you got it solved, though.