DIY gauge faces

I was wondering if anyone had made their own custom gauge faces for their Micra.

I am currently replacing the instrument cluster bulbs with some LEDs, and I thought about pulling out the stock ones and scanning them in to my PC and doing some Photoshop work to make some white faced ones, and also painting the needles red with some model paint.

To anyone who has tried this how successful were you? Is photo paper good enough to work with, and would LEDs shine through enough to illuminate the gauge faces?

Cheers :-)

Someone did some awhile back and they looked great..forgot who it was though

Doubt photo paper will work..you wont have any/much light shining through at all

I'd need to try and get a fairly thin stock glossy paper I'd imagine. Something that will let enough light through when the lights are on.

Apparently the LEDs I'm installing are very bright so they may be able to get through clearly enough with the dimmer on the highest setting.

Fella on the uk forums was floggin em he briefly mentioned the type of paper he used, you would need it to be a solid colour otherwise the light coming through will make them look transparent.

Photopaper is only shiny on one side so it might work if you got one of the lower grades of paper which are not all that shiny and such (not the crazy kodak/etc types).

Maybe even looking at using some plastics (that laser printers can handle), similar to the transparents used on overhead projectors.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/meanmicra/reduceto48.jpg

http://www.micra.org.uk/showthread.php?t=23453&highlight=dials

Thanks heaps for that Crumpets. That should be a help. :-)

I have thought about it myself, or getting a UK speedo console but its all MPH and would need to look at whether there would be any issues with displaying the speed and wiring it up..

They have a few models over there that include rev gauge in their console, only super s over here (I think).

But I am certain you can find yourself a semi translucent bit of paper/plastic that can handle laser printers and would suit from officeworks or a craft shop.

Do you think there would be an issue with using an inkjet? I have a laser printer at work anyway so could always try printing there.

You wont get the same levels of clarity i would think and whether it will work on a surface that is not really paper (if thats what you need to use).

If you find paper that is laser printable just head to an office works/print works or whatever they are called nowadays.. Printing centres are a plenty in the CBD areas of all cities, you should be able to find one to print it cheap as chips.

Maybe even take out the existing guages and take it to a hobbyshop/craftshop/printer and ask them whether you can print over the factory material/plastic

Relating to this line of questioning, might sound silly but if I got my hands on the euro super s dials, and changed the face from MPH to KPH based on the face design over here, would there be a problem?

I am assuming the cable for the tacometer takes the reading regardless of the facia being MPH or KPH?

It would make sense that is a straight bolt in as the car is a bloody import from there anyway?

i was thinking about that today, and i don't think it will make a difference only because there are some face plates that have miles AND k's on it

i doubt they'd change anything mechanically when its just a difference in scale

done it myself... bought a uk super s cluster with tacho, ran it with the mph speedo for a while. totally acurate just a bit harder to read.. got sick of reading tiny kmph print so just swapped speedo's over... theres like 4 screws on the back of the cluster the whole speedo comes out in one piece, put the new one in and plug it in!! easy as...

oh yeah and did i mention the tacho worked as soon as i plugged it all in.. no need for any wiring or shit like that!! pretty stoked!!

i was going to just swap the faceplates over but it became a real hassle trying to get the needle off and also re positioning it in the right spot would be an issue!! much easie to cut a slit in the plastic faceplate and slide it off around the needle.

So you just put a after market tacho in place isntead? I was just thinking of putting a KPH dial in place and going from there..

Then using the what do you mean officer i was doing 110kph (when it was really 110mph)

So what you are saying is that you managed to just swap the speedos out, that's it? That's pretty awesome, I think I might try and hunt one down then if it's that easy. At least with swapping the speedo over you can retain the km reading on the odometer.

It is just getting a facia that is kmph and it might require changes elsewhere? Not too sure

Feck pricey if all you are after is a kph facia.. surely just a matter of scanning an existing one and copying it and following kit instructions from there

no i bought a uk super s cluster with a tacho and then just swapped the speedo's so i now have a super s tacho cluster with aus speedo and all in kmph



yeah, i had rego check due in a couple of days so i realy had to have the km's the same!!

How much did you end up getting Super S cluster for? There's one on UK eBay at the moment, but it's only postage in the UK. :(

lonephantom: have you asked if they'll send it OS? not really much extra effort for them when they at the post office

Hahha the one on ebay at the moment i been haggling with the fella, he is not willing to send to to Aus to I have asked him to send it to my family and they can ship it over.

There are a few other clusters on the UK Micra forums, not Super S but another model with the same cluster just teal coloured facia instead of black.

Hmm don't really like the teal colour, although if I were to make the custom faces it wouldn't matter in the end.

Are they a direct plug in for our models?

Apparently, the best bet is just to ask one of the nicer gents in the UK, such as Frank if he can keep an eye out for you.

They hit wreckers and have their fingers on the pulse of the Micra spares so its likely they would be more than happy to help.

We are unlucky in that we dont get 1/10th the parts they can

hi crumpet, got your message on the msc. me and my mate both got a set each of the dials from the scrappers, couldnt just leave them there! i think he would post to aus if you won them, i cant see any reason why not. i would be willing to ship to aus.
the faces do have k's on them, but they are just smaller, and as mentioned earlier, you could out the original speedo face in, as this would also retain the milege. the teal ones are exactly the same, just different colour.

Yeah I mean i can switch the speedo from mine im mainly after the rev guage anyway but if you can get me a price on shipping to aus i can probably convince my family to send it over as a bday/wedding/xmas/something present and save myself further coin.

okay mate. i will pop down the post office today, and find out postage costs to aus, and to liverpool, n see what you think.