83ho86tpi

I placed the speedometer on my scanner ( because i dont have a digital camera), pics came out ok, but a little blurry. I made this in 98 and removed it in 02 when I sold the car. It was an 85 mph speedo that I sanded and painted. I picked out fonts at a sign shop and had them make custom decals that glow when backlit. I used another 85mph speedo for reference to space out the numbers. It read accurately when I went through speed traps. The trip meter button had to be removed so the needle could make it to 100. I had a metal rod I could poke in and reset it. I got bored and dug it out of the basement to scan. 1 pic is with lights on, 1 is with lights off. What do you think?

83ho86tpi

2nd pic

wilyk9

iTrader: (13)

Nice job 83ho86tpi

I would be very interested in learning more about this. I want to do something similiar with a 120mph backlit instrument cluster, make it into a 160mph. I want to use the backlighting to illuminate the guages at night, but fear that computer generated overlays will not allow this. Do you have any more details on how you did this? Did you paint the guages the color of the numbers, then use a black decal with the numbers cut out?

83ho86tpi

Nope. I removed the speedometer face and needle. Sanded the original numbers and paint off. Used a good FLAT black paint that mached close to the original black and had a blank speedo face to work with. I used FLAT black so it would not reflect any light, i only wanted the decals to glow. The sign shop kept my speedometer face for a few days. I gave them the blank one and a original one so they would know the size and spacing. They let me pick out the fonts on their computer and the color. When they were done they gave me a sheet of the colored decal paper with the stickers spaced out the way it should be on the speedo. I then made small marks on my blank speedo so I knew where to stick them, i worked slow and used the original speedo as a reference. They charged me 40$ for their work.

I replaced the instrument cluster bulbs with new bright ones and cleaned the orange reflecting backing plate that goes around the gages. The stickers / decal material kind of glows to give it the backlit appearance. It looks yellow in the day and comes out a neon red/orange at night.

crazy3rdgen

iTrader: (1)

looks like **** personally...

tom3

There is a plastic printer sheet called overhead transparency, get several sheets for a few dollars. Has etched surface to hold ink from jet printers. The ink goes on somewhat transparent too. You could make a white face gauge dial with the clear over top and do anything you want. Something to play with any way.

wilyk9

iTrader: (13)

My bad, when you said backlit, I thought you were referring to the way the newer guages light up the numbers from behind.
The way you did it is a neat idea for the indirect lighting of the older guages. Similiar to the way the factory did it, but allows you to customize the guage.

tom3, thanks for the idea about the transparency sheets, hadn't thought of that. Will be giving it some thought now though.

MurcoRS

I think that's a great touch! Not the design I would have gone with but cool idea!!!!