White gauges for 83-86?

[kas83]

Looks like I'm getting an 85 IDI, and I remember seeing a truck of this vintage with white faced gauges in the instrument panel. They were stock gauges, even a factory tach, with white faces and blue or black numbers/words. Anybody have info or a link to these? Thanks in advance.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

Paint them a reflective insignia white, the entire gauge, and then paint the numbers and other details by hand. This is how I restored my gauge cluster for my brown truck. I didn't paint my gauges white though. It can be done just take your time.

 

[Sycostang67]

I used white appliance paint and sharpies for the lines.

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I also painted the inside chrome and removed the blue light filters so it would be easier to read at night.

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[timothyr1014]

ok sycostang that dash looks great, but i am trying to figure out whats bastardized....this is an idi forum and your tach goes to 6k, there is no shift indicators below it, but there is a column mount shifter.

And the compliment was not just on paint and lighting, but also on the wood trim....the whole thing looks great

 

[f-two-fiddy]

Also, the lighting is the wrong color.

Nice work, though.

Does the tach actually work? I tried a gasser tach, it would never read correctly.

 

[Sycostang67]

That was in my 85 F-250, so it was a gas cluster. It used to have a C6 but I swapped in a ZF hence the column shifter. I left it there to confuse people.

The lighting is just white bulbs with no filters. I wanted it to be as easy to read as possible. Most of the blue filters shatter when you remove them anyhow.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

I used green 5x LED's for my cluster, I like the color of my pointers they are super bright during the day but dang the green lighting must cancel out the color and I can't see them at night.

Here's some pics of mine even though they arent white, they still give you an idea on what can be done.

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I'd show a picture of it during the night but my camera doesn't take very good night time pictures.

 

[f-two-fiddy]

Yeah, I repainted all of My pointers with florescent paint. Added reflective foil tape to the cluster, and 970 lights. I can actually see the gages at night now.

 

[Agnem]

OK, so one of you added foil tape, and the other used chrome paint. Where are you actually applying this?

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

I did not use any sort of silver reflective tape or paint on mine. I simply repainted the housing with a modern reflective white paint that has halogen crystals in it.
You need to strip the cluster all the way down to the bare bones gauge case.

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[Agnem]

Yup. That's pretty stripped down. I'd be worried about the plastic cracking... mine is so old....

 

[kas83]

What types of paint were used? Where did you pick it up? And did you remove the pointers to paint them, or just mask them off? I have a spare cluster to experiment with, and would like to start working on it later this week after I get the truck all cleaned up.

 

[Sycostang67]

I used white appliance epoxy and just sprayed each guage then redid the pointers after the epoxy dried. I did mask off around the base of the pointers since you could see the internals. I didn't want paint getting inside the guage and locking it up.

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I used chrome spray paint on the inside of the case.

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[fury9]

how did that chrome paint work out? and did you put the blue bulb covers back in? my spare (took it for the factory tach, but its 100% apart now for the white upgrade) is sitting on my counter and ill post pics of before during after.just want to know what everybodys opinion is on the inside of case paint, I was thinking of just going blue led with white case paint , too bad i replaced all freakin 10 194s before i got this idea

 

[dyoung14]

how did that chrome paint work out? and did you put the blue bulb covers back in? my spare (took it for the factory tach, but its 100% apart now for the white upgrade) is sitting on my counter and ill post pics of before during after.just want to know what everybodys opinion is on the inside of case paint, I was thinking of just going blue led with white case paint , too bad i replaced all freakin 10 194s before i got this idea

i have also done the white face mod, i been thinking of putting my blue lite covers back in, or upgrading to the blue led's, i didnt even paint the inside of the case and mine is really bright at night