custom white face gauges. better the second time around.

[blown84]

well, today, i took the gauges outta my truck, yet again. last time, i used sharpie on the numbers and whatnot, and under the laredo sunlight, they faded very badly over only a couple weeks. so i redid em, and actually used paint this time. they are now the same color as the needles. while i had em out, i corrected the odometer, since i swapped the speedo from another truck that had the trip meter. and lastly, i added LEDs.

this is when they came out today. notice how light and faded the numbers are. also that the tach needle fell off.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

here you can see 12 of the 14 LEDs i used to light the four "vitals" gauges.

You must be registered for see images attach

i left the 55 and the circle around it for last. you can see just how faded the sharpie was. im never gonna use sharpie for my gauges again.

You must be registered for see images attach

the gauges are completely repainted and LEDs installed. you can see how i used the flexible strips to go around the tach and speedo.

You must be registered for see images attach

completely reassembled and ready to go back in the truck. note how you cant see that any of the gauges are lit by LEDs, even with the strips around the speedo and tach.

You must be registered for see images attach

assembled and installed, it was after dark, and perfect for a night shot. they are almost too bright! (at least the way i wired em, they work with the dimmer. :-X22)

You must be registered for see images attach

for comparison, this is how they looked before the LEDs.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

oh, and i did all the numbers and whatnot by hand with model paints and brushes.

 

[Ididriver]

Nice work
I love the led lights. Where'd you get them from?

 

[stumpjumper3]

Those look great! X2 on where you got the lights.

 

[blown84]

got the LEDs from autozone. two strips (sold together), four "pods" (sold together), and ten little lights (sold together), all for bout 35 or 40 bucks. i was knew what i wanted to do, but had no idea how to approach it til today. i bought the lights over a month ago. but when i got to it today, i only had to unstick and move two lights, ever so little, and had to trim a corner off on of the pods. the strips are made so that they can be cut to fit, and i cut a bit off the end of the one on the tach. it worked great, cause the cut point, where youre supposed to cut it, was exactly where i wanted it.

 

[blown84]

im thinkin bout doin this for others with 86 and older trucks as well. if youd like to send me your gauges to get painted and/or lit with LEDs like mine is, PM me.

 

[94IDIT]

They look great man!

 

[Diesel_brad]

That looks annoyingly bright. Can you dim them?

 

[snaponprofile]

That looks annoyingly bright. Can you dim them?

assembled and installed, it was after dark, and perfect for a night shot. they are almost too bright! (at least the way i wired em, they work with the dimmer. :-X22)

YES.

 

[blown84]

they actually arent bad at all. with all the city lights, its bright enough outside the truck that the lights dont bother me.

 

[riotwarrior]

Very nice work...I did something similar years ago with a 78 CC I had, on the numbers I painted with Glow in Dark paint....was spooky lookin to see them glow....

 

[blown84]

I thought bout doin some florescent paint on the numbers and needles with some black lights as lightin.