Nigel Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 It turned out to be a hell of a lot of work, but yesterday I converted my stock gauges to back-lit white faces! Ok, actually, I mostly watched while a friend of mine did the work (which was nice for a change). I can't thank him enough. We spent 9 hours at his printing shop (LMI Printing in Toronto) on Saturday getting everything done. Keep in mind, these are not just white pieces of paper glued to the original gauge face. The faces were printed on translucent plastic and placed over electroluminescent sheets. I think they look amazing! The picture with the back light on doesn't really do them justice. They actually have a blue tint. The EL sheet that I chose is "Ice Blue". I can't wait to get them in my Z now. It should be a pretty dramatic improvement compared with the murky black holes that we're all used to seeing... Nigel '73 240ZT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willv260Z Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 Man those look clean! very nice:icon14: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilRufusKay Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 Wow they look great! Would your buddy do a set on the side? Not for free of course... I would gladly pay him for his time. I don't live too far away!! Rufus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buZy Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 Killer Gauges Man! Nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunlover Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Yah yah.. up stage me with my 'white paper over stock faces' that I made a few months back.. Looks good man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
260DET Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 They are great, what an improvement, lots of night driving soming up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaysZ Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 that looks awesome, would he be able to do something like that but have just the numbers light up in red or blue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two40MuscleZ Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Very clean install and impressive...VAN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jsquared Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 nicely done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 Thanks guys! I think it was well worth the effort. I'm sure there are fancier things that could be done, but this was enough work as it was. The only improvement that I would like would be to have needles that glow. We painted them day-glo orange, but at night, they look pretty dark. Something like a translucent orange plastic might work. But again, for the amount of effort involved, I'll leave things as they are. Manolo (the friend who did the work for me), is going to be making another set and putting them up for sale on Ebay. When this is going to happen, I have no idea. There was a company that posted here a year or two ago trying to get 20 people together for a group buy. They needed that many people to offset the cost of getting the dies made (cutting everything by hand is very labour intensive as I discovered). They posted again recently (two weeks ago?), still looking for another 10 people. At $120 US for a set, it sounded like an incredible bargin, seeing as I spent nearly that much in materials alone, plus you could customize them in a bunch of different ways. Another option is to make your own set. You just have to buy the material, and do all the work yourself. Here's the website for the company I found that sells the EL sheets... http://www.beingseen.com Nigel '73 240ZT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillZ260 Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Nice job, and thanks for the info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CybrStuff Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 that looks awesome, would he be able to do something like that but have just the numbers light up in red or blue? I checked out that Being Seen site (http://www.beingseen.com) and they have white, red, and blue EL sheet, which leads me to believe that with a combination of one of the sheet colors and an appropriate transparent or opaque overlay, you could produce just about any effect you wanted. I get the impression you want something like white gauges at day with just the numbers lit up in blue at night, which could be achieved with a blue EL sheet and a white opaque mask. You might even be able to create more exotic effects like multiple colors (redline?) using multiple EL sheets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaysZ Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 I checked out that Being Seen site (www.beingseen.com[/url']) and they have white, red, and blue EL sheet, which leads me to believe that with a combination of one of the sheet colors and an appropriate transparent or opaque overlay, you could produce just about any effect you wanted. I get the impression you want something like white gauges at day with just the numbers lit up in blue at night, which could be achieved with a blue EL sheet and a white opaque mask. You might even be able to create more exotic effects like multiple colors (redline?) using multiple EL sheets. that would be cool, yes. having the whole thing light up might be too bright for my eyes looks really awesome though! also, NIGEL, about your needle problem. there was a guy selling clear needles on ebay with LED's behind them.. i tried searching but i can't find them anymore (this was at least a year or 2 ago when i first saw them). i'll keep my eyes peeled for them though. i think it would look good with your setup edit: something similar to this but much much brighter and much cooler looking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 When I came across the procar (cheap) reverse glow gauge overlays, I went searching for way to make the needles glow. It turns out that those led needle kits are pricey. I think it was in the neighborhood of $75 for just 3 needles! Would look cool though. Another idea is uv reactive paint, and have some kind of uv light (maybe el wire?) around the gauge face. It would react with the paint on the needle and make it glow (in theory). Mario Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.