Custom Gauge Faces

pexzed · Feb 21, 2009

Well done.

Like you say. Once you've pulled one apart, it all becomes clearer.
When are you going into full scale production

AfterWork_Ninja · Oct 1, 2010

Did you ever install this panel in your car?

How did it work, do you have any more pictures?

angrybear said: ↑

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).

Click to expand...

marcosis · Oct 2, 2010

i love this! me wants group buy!

Anti · Oct 2, 2010

marcosis said: ↑

i love this! me wants group buy!
Click to expand...

...you have an n/a

ryzan · Oct 2, 2010

I have a tt speedo cluster for sale

GaryS · Oct 3, 2010

angrybear said: ↑

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"
Click to expand...

I am currently having these made into real gauge faces. If anyone is interested in having an actual gauge face please let me know by email. Thanks.

antman · Oct 3, 2010

angrybear said: ↑

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"
Click to expand...

I like it....F for finished and E for enough ......:rofl:

Chad_ · Oct 5, 2010

angrybear was going to make up a tech article on how to do it but i dont think he has yet

id love to do this but i dont know how to do it without step by step instructions

http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=302171

AfterWork_Ninja · Oct 5, 2010

I love the fuel gauge mod, but like the look of this water temp gauge better than the defi setup. If you put a matching boost gauge in the place of the factory fuel gauge it would be perfect.

http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=303804&page=2

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Anti 14.7 x 14.7 = 44.1

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