Custom-made gauge faces

I'm in the vinyl sign industry and my wife has been complaining that the gauges in her Vx are hard to read (especially after I converted the lighting to red LEDs). So I scanned some Rodeo gauge faces, did some Photoshop and Illustrator work on them and Voila! white face gauges. I replaced the entire gauge faces instead of overlaying them and changed the lighting to shine from the front, using a flexible LED strip. I found that the overlays available didn't work right with backlighting anyway and then there's the issue of no TOD overlay.

Now here's the good part. I can't promise any timeline, but if anyone wants a TOD piece in white (or any other color for that matter), let me know and I'll try to print some soon (I install printers for a living). Since the TOD panel is not backlit, these will just be stickers to place over that section. Then, you can order a set of the regular white face gauges online. I'll try to print a dozen or so in the next couple of weeks, if the demand is there. My company strictly forbids us from making money off of things printed during an installation, so anything I print is FREE!! I could possibly do a gauge set, but no promises. I'll be happy to forward the vectorized templates to anyone, as well. Anything I print will not be able to be backlit, so think creatively.

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...6_18_55_18.jpg

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da.../DSC005911.JPG

Kidding, of course...:laughing:

BEAUTIFUL job...me likey!...:thumbup:

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How hard was converting those lights behind the gauges? And more so switching the gauges out witout messing up the needles id love to do this just scared of the outcome lol Thanks for ur input

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First, I bought an LED light strip off of Amazon :http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Mounted it where the clear plastic pane meets the black in the front (drilled a tiny hole to let the wires out), attached a piece of silver reflective material against it to direct the light towards the gauges. Then used some black vinyl to block the view of the light strip from the driver. I took all the main illumination sockets out of the gauge cluster. Took one of the sockets and ran the wires from the LED strip into the socket and then plugged it in to the socket (if the polarity is right, it lights up!). The result is very good. Great brightness, no glare, and the dimmer still works! I'll post a photo of this if anyone wants.
Next. I took the needles off when the VX was running and fully warmed up with the connectors still attached, noting the settings on the gauges. Powered it all down, attached the overlays, reattached it, started the car and then popped the needles back on. Then I reattached the clear part and reattached the light socket. It was really quite simple but it took some experimentation at first.

Very cool. Did you pull the needles?

I did, but getting them right is no big deal. The Vx idles at 750 RPM when hot, the speedo position at stop is right behind the peg (my GPS says I'm within 1 mph), the temp gauge hot is wherever you want it and note where the gas level is before you pull the needle. Start the truck before you put the clear cover back on and stick the tach needle at 750. Same with the temp. Start the truck, get it up to hot and stick the needle on. All this talk you hear about never getting it right again is bull. The really slick part of the setup is the front side lighting. You can choose your colors of LED strips. I may print some whole gauge sets soon. I've also redone the TOD panel to have just the outline of the drive train instead of a square cut-out. Just got to convince a customer to let me print it and then cut it on a vinyl cutter. Thinking about a red set, maybe a yellow set.

Any pics of these lit up at night? Very interested in tackling this project.

I'm out of town today, but I did plan on taking the cluster back out and taking photos of the lighting system and some of the cluster lit up. In addition, I printed a set of gauge faces for a test run.

Several folks have asked me to post photos of the illumination system I used for the white face gauges I made. The photos show various views of the LED strip mounted in the cluster shield, the wiring, and the connection to the cluster. Finally, photos of the gauges mounted in the Vx, daytime, day with illumination and nighttime. To attach the LED wiring to the cluster light plug, I drilled a small hole in the top of the socket, ran the wires through, and then wrapped each wire around the brass connector on the plug. To attach the lighting strip to the cluster shield, I first peeled back a little of the backing paper from the reflector strip (aluminum duct tape) and used long nose pliers to place it, attaching the reflective strip where the clear plastic meets the black plastic of the gauge shield. Then pushed it down to activate the adhesive and peeled back the rest of the paper while I used a metal ruler to hold the strip in place. The LED strip has a gel-like surface to it and it holds in place without peeling the backing paper off. You're basically pushing it as far as you can into the gap where the clear plastic of the cluster shield meets the strip of reflector. The LED strip faces the reflector and it's back is to the clear plastic. Then I ran a strip of matte black vinyl across the top top the clear plastic on the cluster shield to hide the view of the LED lighting from the driver and eliminate glare.

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...3_17_27_44.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...3_17_27_31.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...3_17_27_55.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...3_16_10_54.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...3_17_26_31.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...3_17_28_26.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...3_16_08_03.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...3_17_26_21.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...3_17_45_43.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...3_17_45_50.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...3_20_07_00.jpg

ill be interested in a complete set of white.
just name ur price

pm'ed you

got mine in
daytime light off
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/p...1365008277.jpg
daytime light on
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/p...1365008276.jpg
nighttime light on
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/p...1365008255.jpg
thanx you sssignature!!!!

I'm doing some in what I hope is Proton Yellow and also some on reflective vinyl this week. Not precut, though.

Very interested!

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Originally Posted by Jonnie

Very interested!

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PMed you

I'm can't say I'm actually interested enough to buy, but one feature I'd like is if you were able to scale the MPH by 10% so that my speedo would be accurate again.

I'm not selling, I'm giving away. But you're saying that because of gear/tire ratio changes, your speedo is no longer accurate and you want gauge faces that correct that? Hmmmm. Don't know if I could calculate that for you, but I could print you up some with either no numbers on the speedo-- or if you know the corrections, I could rearrange the numbers to your liking. (i.e. 30 is 35, etc.)

As for speedo correction, just get a scangageII. It has its own speedo adjusting software, just plug in the percentage and voila, accurate speedo on the scangage display. I synched mine with GPS so I know its pretty much dead on.
As for the gage faces, they are really nice! I got one, just need to add it to my list of things to do. They are really sharp and a great quality! The zombie hunting passes you made up are awesome as well!!!
I had some Jeeper/Zuks stop me on the way out and ask about our little VX convoy. They said they had never even seen one before, a lot less 3 in a row! I told them you guys did Dutch John bone stock, they didn't look they believed me. Oh well, we have pics and videos to prove it.
Back on topic...sorry.