PAGE INDEX
Page 1………Dash and Head Unit
Page 2………Doors and Crossovers
Page 3………Engine and Intake Project
Page 4………Trunk, Amps, and Sub
Page 5………HIN, Baby!
Page 6………Hong Kong Disco At Night
Page 7………White Face Gauge Installation
Page 8………Sparco Seat Installation
Page 9………Random hot J-bodies
White Face Gauge Installation Project
October, 2004
Raw gauge cluster, all assembled. One main difference between the stock gauges and these white face gauges is that the indicator lenses (pieces on the sides) don't have any color tint. That means that the turn signal indicators are clear instead of orange and the high beam indicator is clear instead of blue. Some people might like that, but I thought it looks kind of cheap. See below for the remedy...
Remove five screws to separate the front clear lens, black lens bezel, and back assembly. The black wire on the bottom of the gauge face is the power connector for the EL illumination. It attaches to a transformer via the dimmer knob and color selector switch. You can tap into power for the gauges at the dimmer knob. There is a dash light (undimmed) power wire there, a dimming power wire, and a dome light lead. You'll want to use the undimmed power wire, since the EL gauges can't be dimmed like normal dash lights. They need their own dimmer circuit, thus the dimmer knob and color switch. If you tap into the dimmed power lead, the EL gauges will just turn off at a certain point, not dim.
Be sure to mark where the gauge needles are pointing BEFORE you remove them. Also be sure not to move the needles before you mark them. You have to put the needles back pointing in the exact same place or your gauges will read incorrectly (trust me on this one).
The needles come off quite easily, but be careful because they're pretty delicate. I used a red marker to color the underside of the needles. First, I scraped off the white paint and then carefully painted just the underside red.
After you remove the stock gauge sheet (not shown), you can see the "guts" of the gauges and the clear illumination lens. Most of the idiot lights are LED, except for the turn signal and high beam indicators. You may notice that the speedometer isn't marked like the temp and gas gauges, since it parks at roughly 5 MPH. You still have to be carefull and put the speedometer needle back exactly where it came off or your speedo will be wrong (trust me on this one, too).
You'll need to use some adhesive to hold the replacement gauge faces in place (trust me on this one, yet again). My white face gauges didn't have any adhesive on the back, so I used some spray glue. The blue tape was used to cover the holes in the lens so adhesive didn't spray down in there.
Close-up of the needles. You can see how the red paint is applied just the underside of the needle. That maintains the "ice cube" backlit effect, just like the original white needle color. Also shown is the turn signal and high beam indicator bulbs. I painted the top part of these bulbs flat blue in hopes of having them glow blue. DON'T DO THIS. It didn't work - they still glow white, just not quite as brightly. In the near future, I'll either replace them with colored bulbs or use actual translucent bulb paint.
Installed and ready to go. I like how all the gauges have the matching white face and red pointers. Let me know what you think!
The tachometer is a Summit Racing item and has intermittent problems. I have a new Equuis unit to replace it. The A-pillar gauge is a no-name voltage gauge that works great. Both the tach and volt gauge have selectable 7-color LED illumination. Cheezy, I know, but it's kind of cool. Plus, I can match it to the blue and green reverse EL illumination of the main gauge.
PAGE INDEX
Page 1………Dash and Head Unit
Page 2………Doors and Crossovers
Page 3………Engine and Intake Project
Page 4………Trunk, Amps, and Sub
Page 5………HIN, Baby!
Page 6………Hong Kong Disco At Night
Page 7………White Face Gauge Installation
Page 8………Sparco Seat Installation
Page 9………Random hot J-bodies
