Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

4C FED

4C FED

Absolutum Dominium
Finally decided to install the gauge faces that I bought from George Blake.
Figured I'd post up the details to help others out since it is fairly involved & I did some things that others might not think of.

Mineral Spirits does a great job of removing the old glue without harming the plastic. Do not try Goof Off, it will mar the finish.
I then used the Meguiars Fine Cut Cleaner to polish the faces.
After initial testing of the lighting, I wasn't satisfied. I could see where the silver backing on the Tach was blocking the light on the increment bars for the Tach. I decided to remove all of the silver backing. I was much happier with the illumination after that.

On the needles I used a razor blade to scrape the old paint off. This left the surface scratched & dull. I then used some 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper to smooth everything out & finished it up with the Fine Cut cleaner to polish the surface to be painted.

To clean the inside of the white cluster holder, trip meter & odometer I used 409 & a soft brush. This will be enough to prep the inside surface of the gauge holder for paint.
 
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4C FED

4C FED

Absolutum Dominium
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

And then...

I put foil around the Tach & boost gauge motors 'cause they were quite dull. Then I decided since these faces didn't have the provision for the boost gauge, I would remove the boost gauge motor.
No foil was needed on the far left gauge set. They were nice a shiny.

A pic of the silver backing that I removed. I used the Fine Cut cleaner & a lot of rubbing.

Painted the inside of the holder with the white paint & put a top coat on using the reflective paint.

I wanted to make sure as much light as possible was going forward, so I glued foil to all of the top surfaces.
 
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4C FED

4C FED

Absolutum Dominium
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

And then...

One of my biggest peeves with the cluster is not being able to see the dang odometer & trip meter at night. So I added foil to the back of the bezel to ensure I could see these at night.

I used just an ever so small amount of clear RTV on the faces just around the needle holes. Just 2 little drips, about the size of a pin-head, across from each other for each hole.

Everything installed back in except the needles.

Needles installed and roughly calibrated.
 
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4C FED

4C FED

Absolutum Dominium
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

I'll post some pics of what they look like tonight in the dark.

I'm still not quite satisfied with the far left gauge cluster. It is lacking some illumination between the water temp & volt gauge. I might stick one LED in between these to fix this.
 
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sy2207

sy2207

Donating Member
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

Well, I too finally got around to installing my gauges but I wasn't going to settle for poor lighting. Instead of spending the time to wrap all of the gauge housings with foil, painting reflective paint I just went ahead and lit up each gauge with leds. I knew that even If I made everything reflective it would still not shine as evenly as if I had control of the lighting pattern.

I removed all of the aluminum on the backside of the acrylic gauges so the light could hit George's CF gauge overlays. I could not install leds to the backside of the fuel, oil pressure, and volt gauges so I just shot the leds directly at the pointers through the side of the clear base. In some places I had to file into the plastic to allow for room to install the led. I angled each toward their respective pointer. The lighting still was able to light up the numeric displays as well as the increments on the housing.

The speedometer and the tach were both able to be lit from the backside. I got a hold of some more leds and hot glued them to the inside of the circuit board shining upwards. I filed a slot to shine a pair of leds shining up to light the pointer of the speedometer. I did something similar to the tach but I couldn't shine them 90 degrees to the pointer because the origional boost gauge hole blocked the light. I had them shining at different angles but the lighting was even. I think they turned out great and I should have more pictures when I get everything installed.

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4C FED

4C FED

Absolutum Dominium
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

Wow, bright. Looks like you forgot the needle stops. Or did you drill holes so you could see the LED's?

I bought a couple of those big square LED blocks to stick behind the gauges. I had to trim them down to a rectangle & wire some jumpers to get them working again.

I'll get some pics up soon.
 
sy2207

sy2207

Donating Member
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

You are right I haven't installed the needle stops. I still haven't installed the cluster in my truck yet but I am getting close to it.

The camera makes the gauges look a lot brighter than they really are. I think the lighting is no brighter than my old reverse electro-luminescent gauges I got from speed hut. Definitely post some pics up with your setup when you're done.
 
Syclone Rob

Syclone Rob

Its all ABOOT the SYTY eh
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

When you guys remove the needles, how do you know that when you reinstall them that they are in the same position?
 
4C FED

4C FED

Absolutum Dominium
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

Datamaster or Tunerpro to get everything but the speedo in the right spot. Just turn the key on and then install the speedo needle @ 0.
 
sy2207

sy2207

Donating Member
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

Yep, pretty much the same thing I did. As for the fuel, just remember where it was when you pulled it.
 
hideakimura

hideakimura

NipponSyTy
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

I took pic before remove.

Syclone Rob said:
When you guys remove the needles, how do you know that when you reinstall them that they are in the same position?
Click to expand...
 
canadian

canadian

sy in progress
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

With respect to installing tin foil on the back side of the gauges, is it electrically conductive? If it is, I'd be worried about it flaking off and shorting something out. Not sure if that's really a concern or not. These mods look great though.
 
MAITAI1993

MAITAI1993

DON'T MAKE ME SLAP YOU.
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

can you guys post the propper way to pull this cluster i do it for a living and for some reason this cluster is very intimadating to me maybe because its mine and in mint cond.. if it was somebody eleses i could tare it up...(lol) :tup:
i Have a set of the indaglo ones that match my piller pod..
 
4C FED

4C FED

Absolutum Dominium
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

canadian said:
With respect to installing tin foil on the back side of the gauges, is it electrically conductive? If it is, I'd be worried about it flaking off and shorting something out. Not sure if that's really a concern or not. These mods look great though.
Click to expand...

I've never seen aluminum flake. Oxidize, yes.
 
attackdog

attackdog

New member
Re: Installed Carbon Fiber Gauge Faces

Man they look nice. That will have to be another job for the SY this winter. They just keep adding up.
-Dean
 
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