Any Gauge Face Creation Ideas?

xhazn · 05-06-2005, 11:53 PM

My car has no aftermarket gauge faces, and the stock one allows little room to see the pretty lights. I'm thinking about using a film negative which was exposed with a scan of my current gauge face, along with any modifications I desire. The lights will be visible through the transparent text. I'll hopefully add a colored piece of... something... behind the gauge face for daytime use (so that the plastic behind the gauge face is not visible). Has anyone tackled the theoretically simple task of creating a gauge face? I'll have to find out which bulbs I need for indigo style lighting. Has anyone replaced stock bulbs?

Has anyone used Intelliglow Needles? There's an example at http://www.importcarpartsplus.com/Needles.htm . Now that I look at those "Gauge Overlays", as they call them, I noticed how ugly a flat-black negative would look. Is there a way I can make transparent text and numbers in a material?

Chris31 · 05-07-2005, 12:21 AM

You can try a transparent sheet.

Scan your original guage and retouch it. Print it on a transparent sheet using a colour laser printer. The toner goes on the back of the gauge.

Might work with inkjet, dunno.

xhazn · 05-07-2005, 12:28 AM

inkjet, lol. i'd much prefer a laser print

But it's a good idea... If only Kinko's is okay with printing plastic.... I only have black and white laser printers.

xhazn · 05-07-2005, 01:01 AM

I can't even get this speedometer needle off... this idea's scrapped I guess.

silencery · 05-07-2005, 01:22 AM

use a plastic fork. Make sure to mark your needle positions AFTER the car has warmed up. Just a forewarning, you'll never be able to get them back to the EXACT same position; close perhaps, but not precise.

I've always wanted to use transparency papers, but can color laserjets print white??

shotgunefx · 05-07-2005, 04:17 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Chris31

You can try a transparent sheet.

Scan your original guage and retouch it. Print it on a transparent sheet using a colour laser printer. The toner goes on the back of the gauge.

Might work with inkjet, dunno.

I dunno if it will work without a little tweaking. I was thinking the same thing, I scanned my gauge faces and retouched them and was going to backlight it with my rgb leds. Called up kinkos and they said the transparencies are literally transparent. So you'd have to back it with some sort of diffuser or stack a dozen on top of each other.

Chris31 · 05-07-2005, 11:36 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by silencery

I've always wanted to use transparency papers, but can color laserjets print white??

They normally print cyan,magenta,yellow and black.

Unless you can find a specialised one with white toner, dunno.

Chris31 · 05-07-2005, 11:47 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by shotgunefx

I dunno if it will work without a little tweaking. I was thinking the same thing, I scanned my gauge faces and retouched them and was going to backlight it with my rgb leds. Called up kinkos and they said the transparencies are literally transparent. So you'd have to back it with some sort of diffuser or stack a dozen on top of each other.

If you got access to tektronix printer, it may be a worth a try. They print wax instead of toner, they are much thicker as well.

I guess its just a matter of playing around with them until you get the best results.

xhazn · 05-07-2005, 02:54 PM

I suppose I'll experiment with a scrap gauge cluster. Anything's worth a shot. Companies makes beautiful aftermarket gauge faces and I want to, as well.

d_sellers1 · 05-07-2005, 05:15 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by silencery

I've always wanted to use transparency papers, but can color laserjets print white??

There are printers out there that are capable of printing white but they cost several thousand dollars (read it in PC World or PC Magazine).

Here's a tutorial that may help. The first part of the tutorial talks about removing the gauges out of a Ford Taurus. Read future down and it talks about scanning, editing in Photoshop, and printing the new gauges.

Taurus Car Club custom gauge tutorial

Note: the gauges have an aluminum gauge overlay installed.

Derek

nzKAOSnz · 05-08-2005, 05:32 AM

damn im bookmarking that tarus page

d_sellers1 · 05-08-2005, 01:16 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by nzKAOSnz

damn im bookmarking that tarus page

Glad you like it. If you have any questions, go up in the forum and talk to Tara (aka detroit_raver). She's the one who did the write up.

Derek

Dudes99 · 05-09-2005, 01:21 PM

Hmmm. How about this:

Print your graphic on the transparency using white letters. Normaly white is your background(paper) color so it wont actually print anything where there is text. Try messing with it(different color papers). Next put some whitish opaque material behing the printed out gauges and see what it looks like.

Just my littl ole $.02.

old_lou · 05-09-2005, 01:34 PM

Why not try printing in a colour to match your car ie if its blue use a very light shade of blue. Or try printing it as a negative, then spray it with white car paint and see if you can wash the inkjet layer off leaving the white behind. Probly won't work but worth a try.

May work if you can find a plastic that the ink will not stick to very well.

Morr · 05-18-2005, 08:09 AM

Here's a set I made using an inkjet printer on Foliatec backlit film, turned out a little too transparant for my liking, but overall not too bad, gotten used to em now