Re Karl's post of a while back. Inspired by minivan's success I have started to mod my cluster. As for the gauge face, using a scanner at 2400dpi + photoshop + a color printer at 2400 dpi I turned this into this in just a few minutes. I am impressed at how easy it all was. It prints out fine on ordinary paper, but I will try some matt photo paper or maybe a sticky label for the "production version"
Make it with the F sign on the right. So it reads E----F. Looks weird otherwise. Theres a linkage on the motor for the oil pressure so that it will work like that. IIRC, Minivan didn't stick a label on the face anyway. He printed straight onto the face using a special ink. I think he had to modify his printer tho so that the tracks weren't leaving marks on the face. I don't remember all the details Looks like a good start but.
Looking at that linkage (which I don't want to touch as I am not a watchmaker) I think it does go left to right). If you rotate the whole gauge 90deg to the right you will end up with the F at the top and the E at the bottom which is correct. Anyway, once I power it up I'll know for sure.. I'd prefer it the other way as you say, but I don't drive around mesmerised by the fuel gauge, at least not now prices have come back a bit. The whole point of this is to get a decent temp gauge and a boost gauge where I can see them easily, and get back the other DIN bay in the centre for a retractable screen for the GPS.
I was going to say, it could be like the BMW guesstimate MPG gauge....But with the overlay on-top of the boost gauge. On the far left you could have "yay", and on the right you could have "nay", lol.
LOL, I thought he was seriously just going to replace the fact, as a joke, like hpcoolahan said before... higher boost = empty tank haha. Didnt realise what you were planning on doing. Thats bloody awesome. Nice work mate! MoulaZX
Top work mate! I want to do the same thing. Maybe if there is a few of us we could have somewhere make up a small batch of proper ones. Can't see it costing a great deal. Should be easy if you already have the template. What do you think? Ben
Finished it! Here is the final result. Took a bit longer than I thought, because quite a bit of the mod was a bit fiddly. For those interested in what I learned along the way: Using a spare oil pressure gauge or the turbo boost gauge as the new fuel gauge works, but not optimally. You don't get full scale deflection on the meter, and you would need to fiddle with the shunt resistors to get that right, or use a rescaled gauge face which would look funny. I didn't want to try and get those resistors out, so I recycled the OEM fuel gauge mechanism into the new spot. Very fiddly, tiny little parts, but overall not too hard. The power and earth posts of the old boost gauge funtion perfectly well as the power and earth points for the new fuel gauge. Using a razor blade, it was easy to cut the track to lift the original turbo control line, and then run a wire to that spot from the fuel gauge control line in the original position. A 3mm orange LED (with resistor) fits very well in the new fuel gauge as the low fuel warning light as you can see. This was connected to the old light spot using molex pins and a bit of solder. The clear plastic used to distribute the internal lighting was cut heated and bent to go around the new meter housing and get some light to the odometer and trip meter. Running a clear white LED to that spot would have been a good alternative, and I might still do that. And Ben, I really don't see the need for some professionally produced gauge faces, as I can't fault the one I printed at 2400dpi. Zductiv was right in that using the counterweight mechanism of the oil pressure gauge makes it go right to left and looks much better. The only difference is the presence of the counterweight means that when you turn the ignition off, the gauge will sink back to empty, while the OEM style holds its position. Of course it goes right back to where it should be when the ignition is turned on, so no big deal there. My thanks to minivan for the inspiration. Anyway here it is (slightly out of focus - temp gauge on the left; boost gauge on the right).
how would that go at night tho? since the lights behind won't really go through the paper...maybe even try printing onto tracing paper or something, its thin enough so light can go thru the "white" parts of the gauge
You need to pull one down to understand how it works. All of the gauge faces are opaque; the lighting is distributed by clear plastic frames around each gauge which have "fat" ends which sit on top of the illumination globes to pick up the light and cleverly channel it around. I don't know if that is the normal way of doing it, I have never pulled one down before. All the gauges are well lit at night.
Yeah I've taken a cluster apart before and that's why I was wondering, because my gauge faces were opaque except for the lettering, when I held one to a lamp the light only shows thru the numbers... but your gauge looks good, should print out custom faces for the speed and tacho. I don't dare take apart my gauge again...dont want to buy another one haha.
Very cool idea. I've thought about a thing before but wouldn't have the balls to pull it off. Good job.
Looks great Barry Looks like i'll have to see if anyone I know has a decent printer. Mines only a cheap POS. Unless maybe a can twist your arm a little?? Of course there would be some sort of financial compensation for your time. No biggie if you'd rather not, someone I know will have one i'm sure. Cheers Ben
Ditto I'd LOVE to upgrade the faces but everyone i know thats tried has ended up with a dead cluster or issues My cluster works. That'll do then
