Main > Driving & Racing Cabinets
Real Instrument Panels
Howard_Casto:
Yeah I'm wondering how bad it'd be to swap out the graphics on one of these. Obviously you could just print some out and swap it that way, but I don't know how the lighting would work... is that stuff made out of translate or what?
twistedsymphony:
on some clusters it's literally impossible to remove the needle... remember that 240sx cluster I mentioned with the broken needle return spring in the speedometer... yeah, I broke it trying to remove the needle.
Most cluster I've seen are plastic with the numbers and masking printed on the back and another mask and additional printing on the front.
There are companies that make EL back lit overlays for clusters for people who want to change the color and font style... and I'd doubt any of them would be willing to re-index it for you.... not to mention it's unlikely any of them even make something like that for a tarus.
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you could always light it from the front... I have a 99 Subaru Legacy and it does have some back-lighting but it's primarily lit front the front via 2 lights mounted in the hood in front of the gauges (but behind the glass... still part of the cluster assembly) I had done some modifications to mine and snapped a picture:
for reference this is (essentially) what it looked like before I modified it (not my cluster, since this one has a European kph Speedo):
I got rid of the car icon top center, got rid of the PRNDL lights between the gauges, added a set of polished aluminum trim rings around the gauges and swapped the originally green front lighting for "natural" uncolored lamps (I liked the soft amber tone as opposed to a harsh white that an LED would produce).
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BUT this brings me back to my other point about KPH clusters... that German cluster above goes to 180KPH... there's no reason you couldn't black out the little "km/h" logo and then just change the signal to read up to 180mph instead.
Howard_Casto:
Oh I'm not hung up on the Taurus specifically, I just thought it had a very clean "arcadey" design. It seems like half the clusters on the markets have 50 do-dads randomly sprinkled over the dash... I like rpm's on the left, mph on the right and little else. ;)
I guess the smart thing to do then would be to pick a cluster that they are also selling replacement needles for on eBay. Then, in theory at least they could be removed. My ears are still giving me heck so I looked through a bunch of clusters ebay last night.... They had quite a few in the 20 dollar range, for various makes and models and that's with free shipping + buy it now turned on. I guess if you wanted to get really cheap (I'm not even that cheap) you could get them for far less. You've got to watch for pics of the back though. I was amazed at how many mid 90's era cars still used a cable for the tacho.
For the most part the back-lighting just lights up the tick marks primarily doesn't it? I mean I know there are "hidden" lamps for turn signal and what-not, but I wouldn't want to change those anyway. Maybe do like you are suggesting but with uv-reactive paint? Then it wouldn't outright look like a spotlight is shining on it, and yet the numbers would appear to glow.
I've been piddling around with concepts for weeks now. I think I need to pull the trigger, pick up something to play with and see what I can come up with.
Howard_Casto:
Check this one out:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/04-06-Volvo-S40-Instrument-Cluster-Speedometer-30728646-OEM-Used-1729-/291147987696?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item43c9c5baf0&vxp=mtr
I would definitely want a better deal on one... I'd probably go for a junky used version, but that's the kind of cluster a person would want. It's really simple and it looks like each portion of it is a separate module. So you could build your dash and then put the gages in it instead of building a dash around the cluster.
Howard_Casto:
Ok I've got a couple of choice selections from the bargain bin, maybe you guys can chime in on any electrical concerns... I'll probably order one tonight or tomorrow.
Here's one from a Sebring:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/96-97-98-CHRYSLER-SEBRING-SPEEDOMETER-CLUSTER-INSTRUMENT-GAUGES-142247-MILES-/310549617006?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item484e33196e&vxp=mtr
What I like about it are the fully round dials. I'm going to probably do a vintage styled dash.... you know wood with the gages as inserts, so that would be easier to mod as I have a template. No cabling on the back though, so it might be a pain in the butt to interface with.
Here's a Saturn:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/95-96-SATURN-SL-SPEEDOMETER-CLUSTER-INSTRUMENT-GAUGES-140953-MILES-SSZ01-/260751533890?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3cb600a742&vxp=mtr
Very clean, and it has the wires this time so that's nice. Also you'll notice the curve at the bottom is very similar to the profile of a Logitech wheel... so a person could probably just bolt it directly above if they wanted to get lazy.
Speaking of easy to implement.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/00-01-02-03-PONTIAC-GRAND-AM-SPEEDOMETER-CLUSTER-INSTRUMENT-GAUGES-DP1462-DA-/310541720506?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item484dba9bba&vxp=mtr
Very modern, probably not for me BUT....check out the back of that thing. It looks like each gage has a single two-wire connector unless I'm looking at it wrong. That probably means that a 5v pwm would run anything on it, which would make things really simple electrically.
Here's another, very 80's not for me BUT I could see it making an awesome theme to build a cab around.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/89-90-91-92-93-94-95-MAZDA-MPV-SPEEDOMETER-CLUSTER-TACH-INSTRUMENT-GAUGES-/310007038184?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item482ddc00e8&vxp=mtr
And here is a Taurus one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/96-99-FORD-TAURUS-MERCURY-SABLE-INSTRUMENT-SPEEDOMETER-CLUSTER-F6DF-10B885-AA-/371061356973?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5664faf9ad&vxp=mtr
Normally it wouldn't be worth mentioning, but see that board in the lower right on the back? I know for a fact that's the amp/calibration board on those cars. It converts the 5 v signals throughout the engine into 12 for the panel and has some minor adjustments as well, so again, I'll be it would be easy to interface with.
Now this dodge is my favorite:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CL044-1998-1999-2000-2001-2002-DODGE-CONCORDE-SPEEDOMETER-CLUSTER-UK-MILES-/271443870280?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3f3350c248&vxp=mtr
It's kind of cheesy, somebody has obviously put white stickers on the thing, but that is the look I'm going for.. white dials with chrome trim. I just have electrical concerns... those connectors look kind of funky.
Obviously there are dozens upon dozens of styles out there, I'm just trying to narrow it down. Many of the examples I posted are automatic transmission gages, so I'd want manual anyway for the gear indicator and over-rev, but at least now I know what models to search for.
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