Do It Yourself Gauge Face Plate

[Chief]

While stuck in the hospital I did A LOT of TV watching. One thing that was nice was to catch a lot of the car TV shows.

While watching Hot Rod TV they were showing how to make custom dashes for older cars and a variety of options.

One of the things they showed was making your own gauge faces. When they showed how to do it I was like WHOA! This makes so much sense it's scary.

They simply created their gauge faces using a color inkjet printer and putting it on a vinyl overhead and then cutting it to size for the application. By doing this they were able to create any look they wanted, etc. etc.

Of course calibration of the points would be critical but it just made a ton of sense to me. Now that I've planted the seed I'm willing to bet that someone among our 6,645 enterprising members will jump on this like a possum eating a sweet potato.

Imagine having a base template here on the site that you could take and then tweak for your own interests.

CAFCNA Edtion gauge faces anyone?

 

[StrobinAvalanche]

Who is going to be the member who scans the gauge face plate? ? It would be one hell of a mod Chief. ?

What if someone e-mailed one of the companies that makes the white face gauges and see if they wouldn't mind sending you the template for the gauges.

 

[Hallock02]

Hey Chief,

I have my old gauge cluster I swaped out for a caddy cluster. The plastic face can come off to be scaned and you could go from there. Only problem is getting the scale correct. Let me see what i can do.



^Matt

 

[LazKat]

Darn, i traded my old cluster for some magic beans... No, wait, that was the *cow* I traded!! I traded the old cluster for the transfer work on the new cluster.... Either way, I don't have anything to scan.

But I'm looking forward to seeing what others can do!

 

[flynhigh]

SHould be interesting.. any takers?

 

[steelheadchaser]

This could be a real gold mine for someone that really wants to pursue this.

 

[Mickbee]

I knew a guy that did this same trick with his Miata. They looked great. I asked him where he bought the gauges because I never saw them like that before. He said he made them on his laserjet printer. I didn't believe him until he explained the details and offered to make me a set!!

He basically scanned in the factory faces to get the correct gauge points and symbols, changed the color and font, and printed them. I am sure there was more to it but it sounded simple. He also added the club logo...

Is it complex to remove the faces from the cluster in the Av?

 

[dvd_rules]

I'll tell ya what. I got the Silverfaced Escalade Cluster, and have wanted to match the Climate control and Headlight Faceplates. If I can get these off, a scan would be a cinch!

 

[JUPITER1]

Does anyone know if GM has a template for this item?

Repair shops have schematics for all items.

This would be one of the coolest mods!!

peace
phil

 

[Splatz]

He basically scanned in the factory faces to get the correct gauge points and symbols, changed the color and font, and printed them.

What material is this printed on once it's scanned? Chief mentioned a "vinyl overhead". What's that?

 

[Perpendicular]

How would the overlay be scanned, and to what file format & quality?

I have my original overlay sitting in a box and would be happy to help...

I can also mail my overlay to someone if they want to run with this.

 

[LazKat]

I think he was referring to an acetate transparency sheet. It could be done that way if it was backed with white vinyl whch would not only make it visible in daylight but would also be translucent enough for backlighting at night.

 

[Splatz]

Bump!

Any progress?

 

[kcksbadboy]

Hey, I have my NU Image overlay that I haven't installed yet. Would this do the trick to scan? Let me know I consider it done. E-mail me direct.

 

[dday]

Any progress?

 

[BIGRED_Z-71]

While stuck in the hospital I did A LOT of TV watching. ?One thing that was nice was to catch a lot of the car TV shows.

While watching Hot Rod TV they were showing how to make custom dashes for older cars and a variety of options.

One of the things they showed was making your own gauge faces. ?When they showed how to do it I was like WHOA! ?This makes so much sense it's scary.

They simply created their gauge faces using a color inkjet printer and putting it on a vinyl overhead and then cutting it to size for the application. ?By doing this they were able to create any look they wanted, etc. etc.

Of course calibration of the points would be critical but it just made a ton of sense to me. ?Now that I've planted the seed I'm willing to bet that someone among our 6,645 enterprising members will jump on this like a possum eating a sweet potato.

Imagine having a base template here on the site that you could take and then tweak for your own interests.

CAFCNA Edtion gauge faces anyone? ?

I did this... not on my av but with my 88 t-bird... only set of white face gauges in the club I belonged to. I did something similair to my av.... I printed a photo onto the gauges themself. i'll post a photo later.

would be cool to add the CAFCNA logo over in the lower left hand corner where the tranny temp goes.

~BIGRED

 

[BIGRED_Z-71]

here is a photo of the photo I was talking about that I printed out on the gauge plate. (Lower left corner)

~BIGRED