Luminescent Gauge Overlay Install

eb66to77 · Jan 27, 2008

Hey all,

I am finally getting some Bronco time in and decided to redo my gauge cluster with the glow gauge overlay. I still need to do some cleaning and some buffing of the outer ring and haven't hooked it up to the Bronco yet but what do you think so far?

kbldawg · Jan 27, 2008

Looks really good man. Nice work.

admin · Jan 27, 2008

Not trying to be picky, but it looks like some black shows through around the edges (like fuel, temp, oil) Maybe it's just the low angle of the pic and you wouldn't see them from a normal driver's top view. Or maybe they're shadows from the camera flash?

I only ask because I was thinking of going with them too. Almost looks like the white background isn't big enough, but again it could be the angle.

How's the clarity of the text and lines? I had bought some cheap white face stickers from ebay quite a while ago, but never installed them because the printing wasn't very crisp. Are these as crisp as the factory numbers?

Thanks!

eb66to77 · Jan 27, 2008

Let me go look again. The covers filled the gauges pretty well. I have a bunch of pics that I am going to put together for a "how I did it" thread. I will look at them and post them now. I remember Josh (tito) posted some pics of how his wife's looks lit up in his build thread.

Edit:
The black you see is actually from the speedometer bezel. There are actually two layers of black painted metal between the glass and the gauge itself. I didn't strip and polish the speedometer bezel since I didn't want to pull it apart.

The print on the gauges are clear and I can only see one or two areas that are light prints. The colors are solid on my set. I know that the white face gauges from ebay aren't that good.

The speedometer overlay was the one that gave me the most grief. The overlay is made for a flat mounting surface but the mounting surface is actually beveled and so is the needle. I drilled out the three mounting rivets on the speedometer bezel to 9/64" and spaced the overlay so it was moderately flat with two washers per bolt. I used #6 x 3/4" bolts with nyloc nuts so that I could leave the bolts moderately loose as to not misshape the mounting tabs. I glued the inner circle of the overlay to the speedometer surface.

eb66to77 · Jan 27, 2008

Here are some other pics Jon. I can put it together in a word document if you want to put it in the tech page. I know some others have done this too and some that want to. It was really easy but takes a steady hand (like not mine;D).

bluebronco69 · Jan 27, 2008

ya i love mine they are clear and easy to read i think mine are from wild horses or JBG but they are great, i got a set of the plain stickers from ebay, apparently from the guy that supplies toms (doubt that but he claimed it) and they were great quality, aren't going to use them though since we went with a different paint scheme

Scoop · Jan 28, 2008

Looks very good. Did you touch up the needles too?

eb66to77 · Jan 28, 2008

Yeah I repainted them with touch up paint. It is a chevy color. I'll make sure I put that in the writeup. Thanks Scoop!

Fishbone · Jan 28, 2008

I'm thinking of going with either the stickers or the illuminated gauges, so I'll look forward to seeing your writeup too.

I'll have to do a search to see if I can find the pics of Tito's lit up. Maybe you could include a pic of that too.

Thanks

eb66to77 · Jan 28, 2008

I am going to hook them up today or tomorrow so I will have some pics. For now search for his build thead of the pink truck.

sprdv1 · Jan 28, 2008

Looks good.

ObscureMachine · Jan 28, 2008

Looks good! I did this upgrade last year and it's one of my favorites (since I can see it all the time). On mine, I took out the turn and high beam indicator lights and replaced them with LEDs (siliconed to the back of the gauge cluster). IT works great, but they're a tad bright.

If you can wear gloves when you reinstall everything. I kept getting fingerprints all over the glass and had to pull it, and clean the glass 3 times before I learned.

Tito · Jan 28, 2008

The trick I found for the speedo was to use put the glue on, slip the overlay on, then with a cup that fit toward the outside 2/3 around press it against it and hold it or stack some good weight on top for about a half hour. Worked great on mine and I didnt get any lifting at all. I am still looking for the pics but havent found them.

eb66to77 · Jan 28, 2008

Thanks everyone. I am still happy with my decision to do this. I want to see mys tuff regardless of how inaccurate the gauges are after 34 years

.

Josh, I remembered the pics being in your build thread but I guess they are not.

eb66to77 · Jan 28, 2008

http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showpost.php?p=959139&postcount=22

Tito the Fabulous' Glowing Gauges of Wonderment

tjstack · Jan 28, 2008

looks great matt.

Tito · Jan 28, 2008

Thanks for finding that, I couldnt for the life of me locate it. I would upload some but my contributor auto re-up is having a case of the Mondays :-X

Anyone know of a way to clean up the dials without removing the numbers??? Mine dont look so hot, pretty white overlays but with yellow teeth %) %)

bluebronco69 · Jan 28, 2008

for the needles, i have taken newspaper and just made a cut in it so it will slide under them, and then used some ch*vy engine block paint #200 i think, (orange) and they look great, mine and michelles gauges look so much better now, and it goes great with new white stickers or glow stickers

bluebronco69 · Jan 28, 2008

hey obscure, we are thinking of putting in LEDs too, for the back light and for the turn and hi beam indicators, how many did you use, i was thinking one for each turn and hi beam, and two in each of the back light holes, you said yours turned out bright so i dont want these to end up being blinding

kkhammer · Jan 28, 2008

So which "brand" are yours? Or at least where did you get them?

Luminescent Gauge Overlay Install

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