datsunlover Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 Yup, I'm a cheap (read-> broke) bugger, and wanted some nice white face guages; but didn't/couldn't spend $250 for a tach, $300 for a spedo, ect. Even the chepo wallmart tach's are $80...(and theres no spedometer's in there at all) I was looking at the autometer site and saved some pics of guages I would buy if say.. I had a big healthy money tree. Then a thought struck me... SO; I started messing around with my stock 280z spedo and tach. I took them apart, and then with a little help from photoshop (and about $1.00 worth of 'ultra glossy photo paper' in the printer) made my own 'autometer' white faces. Sure the white won't glow as nice as a real autometer, but it was CHEEP! I took off the silly green plastics so the lights will shine a little brighter hopefully, but even still.. it looks pretty good considering how quick I did it. I'm too tired right now to find the digicam and upload some pics, so I'll try to post some tomorow and get opinions/thoughts on how they look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaime240z Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 I believe MSA and even seen on ebay some white guage overlays for the stock guages. It sounds similar like what you're talking about but the latter will have oem style pre-printing and I think some even have a cool Z logo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaime240z Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 http://www.zcarparts.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=PIC02Here's a link. It might be a bit more than the DIY route but here's an idea: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tony78_280z Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 datsunlover Give us some pics, and some detailed instructions how you did it. I may be interested in doing this myself. I love doing things cheaper and more efficient than others. Sometimes this attitude ends up costing me more in time, frustration, and occasionaly cash. But this sounds like a fun project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgia Flash Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 A few years ago I too had this idea except I went to a professional sign maker place and asked them about it. The guy showed me some gauge faces that he had already made for a local fellow who owned a hot rod. He told me to bring him the gauge faces that I wanted and he would scan them in and then use a high grade paper to print them on. He said that people do this sort of thing all the time. By the way my wife bought me the MSA white gauge overlays for Christmas a couple of years ago. I still want the Autometers ;o) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tony78_280z Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 Ok, now I'm even more interested! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spotfitz Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 I recall Steve Graber's Velo Rossa site once having the white face gauges you could download for free. After alittle search I found this. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=80177&highlight=steve+graber Which had the link to Steve's site for the gauges http://www.newtier.com/graber/z-car/gauges.html He even offers to print them out and send them to you for $40. I don't know if he will still do this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunlover Posted February 26, 2005 Author Share Posted February 26, 2005 Ok, we seam to have misplaced our digi cam, so pics wont be up till this after noon probly. For starters, I tried taking the stock guage faces and scaning them (I started with the tach bacaus if I messed it up, I could always buy an aftermarket tach and it would look ok) Heres my first attemt: I scaned the guage, and use photoshop to change the color and add the 'autometer' text. Theres an 'invert' comand that is really slick for this; turns whit into black, and black into white. I re-did the numbers as they looked really bad after scaning, but that left the lines kind of... fuzzy, and not nice crisp and black. So I decided to use an autometer guage face (saved from their web site) and scaled it down to the same size as the Z guages. I did the same thing to that one (inverted the colors, added the little arows for signals) Heres the pic I used to print both guages on the nice paper.. It took a steady hand to cut the tiny green signal arows out, and for the spedo the squares for odometer and 'brake' lights. I plan on re-routing the little blue light (high beams) somewhere else. Carefully with an awl, I poked out the 3 holes in the center, using the stock guage face (which is a piece of METAL btw ) as a template. The photo paper is thick enough to hold its own and I reattached it with the two little screws. The spedo, I had to put 'MY' face over the stock face, as there is a little 'tab' (stop for the needle) sticking out, and a groundwire attached to it. I'll updatde with some pics soon.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 Nice thing about that is you can even recalibrate your speedo if you need to. Just put the MPH ticks at the correct locations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tony78_280z Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 Recalibrate speedo... that is a great idear!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunlover Posted February 26, 2005 Author Share Posted February 26, 2005 Well yah, I thought of that after as well.. Here's what they look like back together; From what I could tell though, the stock spedo is adjustable (in one way) by how much presure you put on the little spring that the needle shaft is attached to. I'm assuming if I wind it a bit more, and push the needle back on, it will take more 'speed' from the cable to drag the needle up to a given number. It would work the other way as well I think.. Anyway, I think they look pretty good.. its too bad about the stock plastic being a little ugly though.. Lots of stress cracking, and a bit of yellowing. But aside from that.. what do you guys think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaime240z Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 Wow that looks pretty good! How much did everything end up costing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tony78_280z Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 That looks frickin great!! Can you copy and post/send us a soft copy? like to download it. I'd make a few small changes to mine. Be sure it is to scale please. Did that speedo calibrate as you describe? Funny, I've never heard that before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgia Flash Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 Great job! Those look as good or better than the ones that I have from MSA. Keep up the good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunlover Posted February 27, 2005 Author Share Posted February 27, 2005 Thanks guys. Cost was almost nothing.. a few sheets of photo/glosy paper (roughly $1 a sheet I think.. come in packs of 10, 20, ect).. and about 6 hours of my time in total (that includes removal from car, which is a PITA) I used 4-5 sheets of regular paper to 'test' the faces, and do size matching. Oh, and I used (don't laugh..) a red CD marker on the guage pointers. seams to work ok.. As for calibration, I'll have to wait a while.. there is no driveline in the car right now (out getting re&re'd) AND it's dang cold here still. I figure it'll be about a month till I get the car roadworthy again, and the weather warms up enough for me. But if you take the spedo apart, you'll see what I'm talking about. There's a little spring that keeps a bit of tension on the guage pointer (rotation wise), so it always returns to the stop peg. At first, when I put it back together I didn't set any 'preload' and it wouldn't sit at 0 by itself. It's a little tricky, as the needle sits on a pin about the size/shape of the tip on a sewing needle. (That guage pointer actualy has a very small taper inside, that's what holds it on when you press it down. To remove, just pull straight up.. carefully) You have to hold the guage pointer a little bit cocked to 'grasp' the pin enough to turn it, giving some preload to the spring AND THEN get the little stopper past the peg on the guage face.. hard to explain with text, hopefully you'll see what I meen though.. I should be able to e-mail the photoshop file, and it SHOULD be to scale.. I havn't got to the other guages yet.. I'm not sure if I'll do them, or buy aftermarket replacements (saw some nice looking 2.5" white face ones at wallmart of all places!) Anyway, I recomend printing out a test first, as the glossy paper can get pricy if you go through a lot 'testing'.. Tony; I'll e-mail you one, let me know if it works. Anyone else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 They look great! I heard of people doing this a while back, but they had a problem with the paper fading or turning yellow. I think they'll work fine If you used good photo paper. Another suggestion is the sign shop, but have them print it out on UV and shrink resistent vinyl. Mario Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunlover Posted March 1, 2005 Author Share Posted March 1, 2005 Just an update; I got the other stock guages finished, and they turned out pretty good. I ended up byuing an aftermarket triple set (Oil presure, water temp, Volt) that I'll put a little lower on the dash (near the stereo I think...) so I.. *ahem*.. 'changed' the one stock guage face. It 'was' a combo guage for oil p. and temp. but is pretty much useless now, as I have more acurate aftermarket ones. Although I will hook it up so the pointers move, it no longer says oil or temp... He he he.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tony78_280z Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 Well... lets see them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dot Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 I’m going to call the copyright office and then you’re going to pay big time! Oh ya…law suits…lawyers…deportations…cavity searches…that's right... Looks good Matt. They probably won’t fade because the sun can’t reach them. If they do just say they are originals form the seventies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
80LS1T Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 Wow those look pretty darn good for a DIY job! I thought for sure after reading your first post that they werent going to turn out as good as you made it sound but I deffinetly have to give you props on a job well done! Keep the pics and info coming! Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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