pikey7

Finally I managed to get things sorted. I've managed to get the scans done (although not finalised. I can think of some improvements to make things easier, which i'll get to in the next week or so), and i've written an installation guide also.

Improvements to come......
*"MILES" to be added to Odometer reading
*choice of 'red-lines' to be added
*Turbo gauge to be added
*Some texts to be realigned (Logos on outer gauges uneven at the moment)
*Colours to be relayered to allow for recolouring of background or texts
*Plus maybe some other simple requests I get. I'm not gonna produce custom gauges for eveyones tastes, or I won't have time to have a day job!

A big thanks to Anders for hosting them for me.

The scans can be found HERE (4x *.psd files)

Note: These scans are for 180MPH speedo's only. If someone wants to suply me with a 160MPH dial which has been flat scanned so I can produce this, then I can organise to add this to the files.

DISCLAIMER: You undertake this mod at your own risk. The gauges can be fiddly parts to handle and work on, and as such I take no responsibility for damage caused. Nor do I accept responsibilities for inaccuracies in the displays which may lead to motoring offences and/or prosecutions or fines. You get the drift..... You're on your own! Technical help with editing or fitting these gauges I can help with though. To a degree!. Just PM me.

Using the files:

The files are formatted for Adobe Photoshop. It makes life much easier to put each item on layers as the end user can then edit, add, or remove parts of the display to his/her hearts content.

DO NOT SCALE, OR PASTE THE IMAGE INTO ANOTHER DOCUMENT. THIS WILL RESULT IN A FALSE SCALE OF THE PRINT!!!!

Print each file onto your choice of media. There are a few options here. Obviously, the higher quality of paper, the better the print, but bear in mind that usually better paper means thicker paper, and the lights from the original gauges will be harder to see. Consequently, too thin a paper, and you may see parts of the existing dial through the printed scan. The balance is tricky. I have used matte inkjet paper from Canon to good effect for my latest creations. I think it’s quite well balanced, but hey, it’s your call!

Once you’ve printed the gauge scans, you may want to trim the paper down for ease of handling. I know I found it easier.

Gauge face replacement

Tools needed:
Phillips (cross-point) screwdriver
24mm socket
Small flat blade screwdriver
8mm socket (I think anyway!)

1. Disconnect the battery ground
2. Remove steering wheel (for those of you with an airbag wheel, I understand this can be a painful procedure. This step just makes the install easier, but the replacement can be done without this.)
3. Remove instrument surround and centre vent. There are 6 screws. 3 in the upper side of the instrument surround, and 3 inside the centre vent which you access through the vanes of the vent. Pull straight out. There may be some resistance as there are a few rubber and foam seals holding this in, but it will come!
4. Remove 4 screws holding in the cluster. 2 each side.
5. Pull the cluster towards you gently. There are 3 connectors behind the unit. Start from the inside lower connector. There are two rotating levers above the main connector, one each side. If you gently push these levers away from the connector, it will be levered off the PCB. Repeat for the inside upper, and outside connector.
6. Remove cluster ( easier if you removed the wheel)

Easy bit done! Now for dismantling the cluster. Be very careful when doing this step. Things can drop and break relatively easily.

1. For those of you with standard illumination set-up, ignore this step. For those who have upgraded to Perry’s, or another LED style gauge illumination setup, remove the 3 bulb holders which supply power to the light bars.
2. Remove the 9 screws around the outside of the cluster which hold the main circuit to the cluster glass. These are relatively easily identifiable by being a goldish colour hex head screw with a Phillips cross screwdriver recess. I would recommend using a screwdriver rather than a hex drive for this step, as overtightening the screws on re-assembly can ruin a very expensive part.
3. Carefully separate the two halves of the cluster. Take care not to knock the gauges sideways as this could result in losing or breaking the gauge needles (or worse!)

Now for the gauges themselves. BE VERY VERY CAREFUL. IF SOMETHING GIVES A GREAT RESISTANCE, YOU ARE LIKELY TO BREAK SOMETHING!!!!!!!

Attempt each dial one at a time. This makes things so much easier.

The following list of steps is for the two outer dials. Speedo and tacho I’ll deal with in the next section

1. On the back of the unit, there are 2 (for each dial) black plastic clips, each with a nut in the centre, and two metal prongs (just dots from the rear of the unit). Remove the nut from BOTH clips, careful not to lose the washer under them.
2. VERY carefully pull out the clips. As I say, they are pronged into the dial, so you will need to use limited force. I normally just get my fingernails under them and pull. HOLD ONTO THE GAUGE, as it may fall out when the clips are removed.
3. Using a felt tip pen, mark ON THE SIDE of the dial where the two needles are pointing. Don’t panic if you’re not 100% accurate, but try to get within 1mm either side. You’ll see why later!
4. Remove the needles. Do it one at a time, and remember which needle came from which gauge. I find this easiest by putting two fingers between the needle and the gauge face, nail to the face, and simply pressing together while levering up. This seems to me to pull the needle straight off the spindle. There are a few ways to do this task, and it seems to be the trickiest part. Maybe I’m just lucky, but I’ve never had a problem!
5. Take your printed gauge scan, and using a sharp scalpel or craft knife, cut a small 2-3mm square around the small crosshairs on the print where the needles will point through. Test fit the print to ensure BOTH gauge spindles fit through the holes without too much trouble.
6. Have a couple of practice attempts at this step with no glue first to find the easiest way for you. Glue the gauge scan to the gauge. The best way I find is to use 3M spray mount. It gives you a few seconds of adjustment time once the parts touch. Spray the scan. It gives you more control (I find). Carefully lift the scan, taking care not to smudge the print with your now gluey fingers, and mount the scan. Let the glue dry for 20 minutes or so.
7. Trim the edge of the scans. You don’t need to be too accurate here, as the glass part of the cluster will cover the edges, but don’t get too sloppy!
8. Refit the needles. If you kept not of which was which, you will find that tiny splines on the spindle allow you to realign the needle to the same place it came from. Just push gently on the needle above the spindle and it should slide back on relatively easily. If you’re having trouble here, generally you won’t have the spindles lined up, so take the needle away, any try again.
9. Refit the gauge back into the main cluster. Insert the plastic clips, and by holding onto the side of the gauge (to not smudge the scan), you should be able to get enough of the prong into the gauge to hold it in place. Reattach and tighten the nut and washer.
10. Repeat for the other outer gauge.

Easy eh!? Now for the speedo and tacho. Similar to above but……

1. Mark the needle position on the side of the dial.
2. Remove the needle. Needles if you’re doing a turbo tacho. Carefully!
3. Using a small screwdriver, remove the two screws to either side of the spindle. The tacho has two small white plastic caps on the screw posts, so be careful not to drop these.
4. You’ll need 3 hands here, or at least two steady ones! Using a fine pen or pencil (I prefer the latter as there is zero risk of marking the dial face), offer up the scan to the metal dial face. If you do this while looking at a light source, you can line up the 3 crosshairs marked on the scan, with the three holes in the dial face. Mark the back of the scan with the pencil through the holes. This makes life so much easier when gluing the scan next…..
5. Pre-glue the scan, and leave for 20 seconds, (or as per glue instructions). Lay the scan PRINT SIDE DOWN on a flat clean surface. Drop the metal dial face onto the scan using your 3 marks from the previous steps to align them. Let the glue dry.
6. Using a scalpel, cut out the 3 (4 for turbo tacho) in the scan, and trim the edges. You need to be quire accurate on these dials as you don’t want any overlap onto the idiot lights or other dials.
7. From the back of the speedo dial. Use a scalpel to cut out the two slots for odometer and trip meter. The nice metal edge gives you a good guide!
8. Refit the dials to the main housing (don’t forget the plastic cups from the tacho!), and refit the needle(s).

Woo-hoo. New dials!

1. Refit the dial set back into the surround glass, refit the 9 screws, and refit the bulb holders if you have to.

Now for the very important part…….

2. Take your favourite beverage, cigarette, coffee, tea or whatever floats your boat, and take 10 minutes to admire your new instrument cluster!!!!!

Refitting the cluster is exactly reverse of removal. You may want to use a magnetic screwdriver for the vent screws. You don’t want those going walkabout inside your heater!.

And there it is. New dials! Enjoy……

Porsche-O-Phile

Good write-up. Keep in mind also that inkjet printer ink is NOT permanent, nor is it UV-resistant. Color results may vary quite a bit from one make / model to another. Recommendation: have a repro house do it with better media / ink.

dhallilama

bit of curiosity here... other than going to a speedo shop, any way of recalibrating a 160mph speedo to be a 180mph one? as in: i've had a previous car where a simple gear change inside the speedometer sending unit enabled me to change it from 85mph to something like 120mph...
im a cheap bastard, and dont wanna spend the money at a speedo shop...

tia,
dan

BTW: I've used this method of changing gauge face colors/styles with great results... had Kinko's print 'em for me. Sub- $10 mods make me happy...
Thanks for the awesome write-up, the scans, and hosting them...

BoostGuy951

Pikey, I like the way you think. This seems like something I'd do. Very outside the box.

sweanders

I used Pikeys scans and made myself a new tachometer and removed the boost gauge needle and scale. I ran out of toner so it turned out kinda bluish but it looks pretty good and the interesting area will be in the most visible spot.

Next step is to locate an extra tachometer without a pin or one with where I can remove the pin. Will probably get a professional print as well.

Jon Moeller

sweanders,
Care to do a write-up on your tachometer install/modification? That would solve a lot of problems for me.

Thanks,
Jon

sweanders

Sure, it is pretty straightforward. I am no PS pro, I just played around.

1: Remove the gauge cluster.
2: Modify the *.psd file to the way you want it, all I did was change the colour setting. Or you can use the one called "black_face_rev-1.psd".
3: Pull the tacho needle and boost gauge needle straight up from the dial face. Observe the white dots on the face for the boost and the edge of the tacho. The needles should be pointing towards these in a resting position.
4: Unscrew the two bolts on each side of the center (tacho) needle.
5: Print the PS file.
6: Center the tacho face over the printed tacho and cut around with a sharp paper knife.
7: Align the printed speedo face as you want it and punch holes for the two needles and the two screws.
8: Control the distance for the needle(s) and make sure that you fasten the needle(s) with the same distance from the bottom marking. I guess it would be easy to do an extra white mark for the needle in PS.
9: Put the face back and the printed tacho face on top and then fasten screws and put the gages back in the cluster frame.

I never removed the tacho gauge unit from the cluster and this is not necessary.

Geneqco

I did a search for white gauge faces and found this excellent post which includes scanned images. Only problem, it's two years old and the link no longer works. Any chance of someone reposting or emailing me the scans?

Many thanks.

sweanders

I probably have them still, but I won't be able to access the computer that I *think* that they are on for another couple of weeks..

Send Pikey a PM or e-mail, that is probably your best shot.

Geneqco

Thanks Anders, I have sent him a PM.

ilikemy944

Repost them when you get em

Acetylene

Yes, repost them please. I am very interested, as well.

danny951

This is exactly the kind of material worth going on our 944 wiki!

pcarpedia.com

The DareDevil

Nice job with the Wiki!!!!