Robert O. Dean

The gage faces on my RSA (tach) need to be replaced. My desire is to have something a little different. Looking at 356, 550, older 911 the GREEN on black gage faces are very cool (retro). I have checked with many gage rebuilders that do "custom" gage faces, but NO green on black. I have also called RUF that does green on black however they quoted several thousands of dollars just for the faces!

Do any "listers" have a solution/approach?

Thanks in advance.
Rob

BlueHeeler

If you have the time/inclination, it should be fairly easy to make gauge overlays on the computer, print them out, and stick on.

Pelican sells something similar, but not your color.

Andy Roe

What about putting green LEDs in the dials rather than the regular bulbs? They would however only be green when the headlights are on!

Andy Roe

Also, give these guys a call if you've not already tried them. http://www.paspeedo.com/porsche.htm

Oracle

A guy I know used yellow marker and changed the white lines to yellow in his old jetta, it actually looked really nice. not overwhelming.
He was very careful so it didn't look cheap.

altarchsa

I've often wondered, being somewhat of a graphic designer in my line of work, why you couldn't remove the faces, scan them, Photoshop whatever color scheme you want, then print them onto a vinyl adhesive overlay that could be applied to the original metal face.

I know the printing would not be as permanent as silkscreening a design onto the metal, but you could do this approach for tens of dollars instead of the hundreds of dollars of silkscreening. Some of the new inks are more permanent now.

I wanted to do white on black, which could use white vinyl and very little ink anyway. Any comments or suggestions?

BlueHeeler

I use to make/sell gauge overlays in college when I was mega poor for extra cash using the method EXACTLY as you described. The 964 is an especially good candidate because all of the gauges are flat.

There is no reason not to. X-Actoing out the hundred warning lights would be a pain, but less painful than $200.

JasonAndreas

The 964 gauge faces are clear plastic that have been silk-screened on both sides. I have them scanned @600dpi but the hard drive is sitting in storage.

ACSGP

Sooo now we know you have the expertise. Question is why aren't you offering this service to us Rennlisters Not for free, of course.

I really like the retro Heuer dials.

Robert O. Dean

Its seems like there is a business/market opportunity here...anyone want to quote a price and take some orders?
Rob

altarchsa

Cool, You've encouraged me to do it. Here come some white gauges!

......Well, after the motor goes back in, I reinstall the headliner on the sunroof, I track down that door locking issue, I track down the passenger side window issue, I get those HD's/H&R Greens installed..................

altarchsa

I'll move my project up the To Do list and use it as a test. If it works, I might offer to do it for Rennlisters if Blue Healer doesn't.

Should be easy, graphically. I've done photo art up to 7' x 2', architectural renderings (digitally and manually), and built tons of architectural models,which gives me somee graphics xperience.

I can scan at 600dpi (or up to 1600dpi), change background and foreground to any color, print photo quality in any color and cut out the open areas for warning lights. I could possibly laser cut them, if desired. I could customize the font style and add logos or other personalization for the non-purists. I could also apply the overlays for a "ready to re-install" product, if desired.

i would not want to take on the liability risk of removing faces from instruments.

If anyone is interested, please PM me so I can decide how far to move it up the To Do list. Also, give me an idea of the price range you would be willing to pay. I am easily motivated financially.

stinkydog

A laser engraver would be the way to go, if you're cutting vinyl or a similar material. Use a design program (such as CorelDraw) to do a vector outline of the piece... any competent local engraving shop with an Epilog laser system should be able to handle the job quickly and cheaply.

And the same place may be able to handle the printing, which would be easier to do before the cutting.

BlueHeeler

Go for it.

IIRC the 964 gauges are backlit so if you use a material that is not light transparent you cannot see the gauges at night.

JJJMCD

For 964 gauges, I don't think it's as simple as adding a sticker to cover the existing gauge faces, since (unlike the 3.2 Carrera and prior 911 gauges), they're backlit and, as a result, you need all of gauge face covering materials to be translucent.

When North Hollywood Speedometer (www.nhspeedometer.com) redid my gauge faces in white around 7 years ago, they removed the black paper coating from the plastic core gauge faces and then silk-screened the surface in white, with "cut outs" from the white coating (i.e., no white coating) for the numbers on the gauges and the hash marks along the outside edge of each gauge. Unlike the factory white-face gauges, there are no cut-outs for the warning lights -- since the silk-screen coating is semi-translucent, the red lighting of the warning lights shines through.

During the day, the areas where there is no white coating (just the plastic core) appear to be black but are really just the clear plastic. At night, those areas glow red/orange and the rest of the gauges look black (since the silk-screen coating is only semi-translucent, the backlighting from the gauge doesn't make it through on those areas).

I wanted the backlighting to be green, not red/orange. However, NHS told me that it wasn't possible, stating that it wasn't the lightbulbs that produced the color of the backlighting, but rather the color of the plastic material out of which the gauge itself is constructed. However, since then I have heard of people changing the color of the backlighting of their gauges using different colored bulbs, so maybe NHS was wrong. You may want to check with NHS to see if their technique has changed and they can do the green backlighting.

I would strongly advise anyone considering changing their gauges to entrust the job to a professional. NHS only charged me ~$400 to do all five gauges. If you break one of the needles or otherwise damage your gauges trying to do it yourself, you'll be significantly underwater financially.

Below are some pics of my gauges
.
Best of luck,

John