Like the title implies I finished my home-made white face gauges. I think they look friggin badass. I put them in both my old 86 IROC and my 87Z. I just got a scanner that I could use to scan the stockers with and reverse the colors like the tech article suggests so I figured I'd give it a shot. Worked like a champ.

I burned the files on a CD and went to kinkos and printed them on their high quality color printer. $1.49 or something for each page. All told, w/ the printing, and marker for repainting the needles, glue, an exacto knife for cutting, etc the total came in around $20. That was for two sets of the gauges.

They look sweet. I put a little Z28 on the tach for my Z, and a little IROC-Z thing on the IROC's tach. Nice touch I think.

I've zipped up the gauge files and anyone that wants to try to do their own is welcome to them, feel free to change them too. They aren't as high of a resolution as I would have liked, but they look just fine installed IMO. These fit on my 86 and 87, I would assume they will fit all the similar years as well. The 87 had a recessed oil pressure gauge on the tach whereas the 86's was not recessed. I didn't notice that until I was installing the 87s faces. I just put an extra piece of paper in the recess on the 87's tach to help take up the space, turned out fine (so the two different scans in the zip file are the same tach scan, from the 86. Only change is the Z28 or IROC lettering). That was the only difference between the two. If you use my files make sure you use a good graphics program and zoom in and double check everything to make sure I didn't leave any artifacts or anything that I haven't noticed yet. Maybe clean anything up you feel needs it. The Z28 or IROC thing in the tachs can easily be removed if you don't like them. Like I said feel free to use them and change them. If you're better w/ the programs or have more patience I'm sure you can probably make em look better.

Also, these are the 5500 rpm redline gauges, not the 5000 rpm ones. 145 mph speedo.

The Zip comes in under 500k, everything unpacked is around 6 megs, they are bmp files. Crappy programs like regular Window's Paint and the like will resize the images if you try to edit them in it. I used both Paintshop Pro 7.02 and Fireworks 4 to edit mine (you can get free demos of both). Make sure if you use Kinkos that you don't use Paint to print them from either. I used Corel Photo-Paint and they printed perfect. All the images have some junk around the edges that I left to be a rough guide for the initial cutting. Cut just along the inside of all that for starters and then do your finish cutting to get final fit. Pretty easy.

Heres the link to the zip file: http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/at...ges/gauges.zip .

Have fun.

------------------
Ray87Z
-Vortec headed 350.
86 IROC w/ a cammed 305 TPI.
Formerly Ray86IROC.
www.inter-scape.com/Ray



[This message has been edited by Ray87Z (edited May 17, 2001).]

 

Ya got mail dude..

 

just wanted to share my little spinoff of the gauge design

 

Cool!!

what kind of paper did you print them on?

 

is there anyway to get them back down to normal size? they're huge when i print them.... does paint shop pro bring them back down?

 

Real cool. I think I'll play a little
Thanks.

------------------
'86 Camaro Sport Coupe

 

Paintshop Pro 7 has a feature under image/resize where you can reset the pixels per square inch back to the correct setting if you have opened them and saved them w/ Paint or something similar and don't want to start again from scratch (151.886 dpi is what Paintshop shows as the correct size). For some reason paint and other dinky programs convert the file to 72 dpi, which doubles the size. But if you just use the files in a good program to start with there is no need to worry about this. I have no idea why Paint resizes the images, perhaps 72 dpi is the standard .BMP format or something... Maybe there is a way to tell Paint to keep the 150 dpi setting too, I don't know.

Paintshop, Fireworks 4, and Corel Photo-Paint are the only big graphics programs I've opened these files in, and they all worked fine. Windows Paint and Internet Explorer (printing from IE) both resize them if you try to use them.

I downloaded the Paintshop Pro 7.xx w/ Animator demo from www.download.com . Those who are going to download this might want to email me for a certain extra file to go along w/ the demo, hint hint...

------------------
Ray87Z
-Vortec headed 350.
86 IROC w/ a cammed 305 TPI.
Formerly Ray86IROC.
www.inter-scape.com/Ray


[This message has been edited by Ray87Z (edited May 17, 2001).]

 

ok thanks, i've figured it out. BTW my '86 IROC's speedo only goes up to 80?? is the 140 i downloaded for your 87?

 

No, the gauges were all scanned from my 86 IROC. As far as I know it is original (although I'm not sure stock if it would have had the 5500 rpm redline tach). Did your's come factory w/ the TPI motor, if not maybe that's the difference? Either way I guess you won't be able to use these scans without having your speedo recalibrated, which totally voids the whole low buck DIY thing...

------------------
Ray87Z
-Vortec headed 350.
86 IROC w/ a cammed 305 TPI.
Formerly Ray86IROC.
www.inter-scape.com/Ray


[This message has been edited by Ray87Z (edited May 18, 2001).]

 

oohh ok yea mine came w/ tpi. speedo only went to 80 and the redline is different. i actually can use it, i have my speedo scanned, but thanks to finals i never got around to scanning the other cluster. taking all that off is a pain in the *** . What did you used to glue them down?????

 

For gluing them we used just yur average glue sticks. They make for easy removal later on down the road. We also made sure to get one that says permanent tho whatever that can mean cuz all glue sticks dont glue for good...

OBTW its my 86 IROC... he just hates to say his little brother has it hehe =)

As far as taking the gauge covers out, it wasnt really that hard. There is the front cover that has about 5 screws or so and then a plastic one with about the same. The next to come off is a metal one that outlines all the gauges that used the sa,me screws as the clear one. Then all the gauges just pull out, with the exception of the speedo which was a little more troble than the others. Make sure to refer to the tech article for this one so ya dont screw anything up.

Laterz



[This message has been edited by Scourge86IROC (edited May 18, 2001).]

 

That is sweet! Do you have any pics of the gauges instlled in the car with the lights on? What kind of paper was used to print the gauges. Thanks!

 

Any chance we'll get pics? Let us know after a while how they stand up to sun. I know some guys were talking a while back about maybe turning yellow after a while. Glad yours turned out good.

 

Well pictures of the gauges in car might take a little while seeing as how we don't have a digi-cam. All we have is a scanner so after we take em well have to wait for the roll to run out over time... I guess we could waste a few hehe =)

They are printed on high quality laser printer paper but thats the best I can give you. Hope fully they aren't gonna have any yellowing problems but if that does occur it should be pretty slow so after around a year has gone by they may need changing I suppose... not too much trouble but I will keep and eye out for it now that you mentioned it.

Perhaps if someone else decides to go for it they should look into some sort of spray for lasting effect or whatever cuz I have seen some stuff for art and what not that you spray on to prevent the paper from changing in any way...

Seems that Project: Homemade gauges will never be completed hehe

------------------
Laterz

Scourge
ICQ:77761321

 

Yeah, the glue is the Permanent Glue Stick like recommended in the Tech article. I wasn't too sure how that would hold up but I tested it out glueing a sheet down to a similar piece of metal overnight. The paper ripped to shreds apon trying to remove, the glue didn't give way. I have some reservations about lasting ability though. I may be sorry about using that glue later, but frankly it is no big deal to reprint the guages and try something else for adhesive if it doesn't turn out to last very well. Any suggestions?

I'll try to borrow a digital camera sometime soon, meant to tonight...

And yes, the 86 IROC is now officially my little brother's...

------------------
Ray87Z
-Vortec headed 350.
86 IROC w/ a cammed 305 TPI.
Formerly Ray86IROC.
www.inter-scape.com/Ray

 

Forgot about art supplies/sprays. If it is a problem, something like that would definately be worth trying.

 

Sorry, if it's a bit large.

[This message has been edited by soulbounder (edited May 22, 2001).]

 

nice...

 

I can basically get the firebird in any color. If anybody has any request for gauges, I can try my best.

 

anyone know if it will work right for 85 and below? damn non-backlighting...

------------------
1979 L-82 Beefed up Corvette. Bright-orange with orange pearl.
end of summer: NOS!! im thinkin 250 shot. (already have a full race engine.)
god i love this car.

1985 WS6 Trans AM T-tops
bone stock sloth of an engine on its last leg(LG4 w/ 172,000mi)
T-5 tranny. thank god, i couldnt stand an LG4 auto.
Plans for an LT-1,
dual flowmaster exaust,
& a pounding stereo.
but its gotta wait for my Vette to be a badarse before it will be.

 

Soul: That is awesome! I'm definately scanning in my gauges to do it myself. Any ideas on a background image for a 92 RS? Great job!

------------------
1992 Camaro RS
305ci automatic, all stock til I get some cash.
My 1992 RS

 

How about a plain old Chevy Bowtie? Your www.thirdgen.org username, the camaro nosepiece logo, Z28, RS, IROC. The possibilities are endless!

 

I still want to see these things on at night!

 

I'll see what I can come up with for an RS.

 

You don't have to make one, I was just looking for ideas for when I do mine. I think I'll use the bowtie though and maybe play around with putting "RS" inside it. I'll see, it'll be a while before I actaully take it all apart anyway since I'm lazy

------------------
1992 Camaro RS
305ci automatic, all stock til I get some cash.
My 1992 RS

 

hey soulbounder can you send me one i am very interested. Can you make the speedo to 120? if so i would greatly appriciate it and the firebird in red
firbirdgta@visto.com

 

I don't have access to a 120 speedo picture right now. Does anybody have a picture of their 120 speedo scanned? I could probably draw one out but to get it perfect to where the speedo would be calibrated correctly would take some time.

 

i have the white gauges on my blue iroc and i put in blue lights. it looks f'ing great. at red lights i always notice people looking in my car at my gauges. some of those lights are a pain in the a*ss to get out though. i also used a red permanent marker to color the tips of the needles. ill try to post some pics.

 

Hey soulbounder,can you make up ones for an 86 iroc with the 140 speedo,it would be cool to see white faced guages with the iroc logo in the background.

------------------
www.rearman.com/camarokid.htm

If it aint a V-8 that $hit aint fast!,unless its a GN,lol!

305 tpi,700r-4 with shift kit,My mods are minimal,just a bunch of little $hit.Anyone know where to get underdrive pulleys for a v-belt set up?

[This message has been edited by IROC KID (edited May 23, 2001).]

 

HOW COME MY 86 IROC HAS AN 85 MPH SPEEDO??!! EVERYONE ELSES IS 140. OH YEA, dude if i send someone my speedo scanned can you change it white?? im having a hard time..

 

86 was the transition year. The federal law changed then. Some cars built later in the year got the higher mph speedo, but my June built car didn't.

------------------
'86 Camaro Sport Coupe

 

IROC KID, I can put the iroc logo in the background. All depends whether you want it on the speedo, tach, or other gauges. Drop me an email if you get the chance. Prepz28, if you send me a scanned picture of your gauges, I'll see what I can do.

soulbounder@yahoo.com

 

 

Would it look better (cleaner) if you deleted the km/h & #'s crap?

 

 

After reading this thread I just couldn't help but try it out for myself!
Man, thats the best $5 I've ever spent!!
WOOHOOO they look SWEET.
I put a lil "Vortec 5.7L" on my speedo and Ray's "Z28" on the tach

SWEETNESS!

I kinda cheated though
I have the split guage speedo, but I put the 140mph face over top anyway, the guage is still accurate up to 85mph since it goes up to 85mph then the KM/H is on the other side.

I'll take some pics of it for you guys if you want.

*is pumped*



------------------
WHO NEEDS VTECH, I HAVE VORTEC!!

1982 Camaro w/ mild L31
14.02@104mph
one legged..

 

Souldbound,that guage looks sweet,i wish someone made a set like that,i would definately buy them.

------------------
www.rearman.com/camarokid.htm

If it aint a V-8 that $hit aint fast!,unless its a GN,lol!

305 tpi,700r-4 with shift kit,My mods are minimal,just a bunch of little $hit.Anyone know where to get underdrive pulleys for a v-belt set up?

 

Damn 85 mph speedo... I think I'll start a support group

 

anyone got the ones you can by from *Wherever the hell that was* why aint any one scanned those??

Oh well you all are making nice-@ss ones anyway, maybe better than those...

 

Good point. Someone should scan in their MacEwens so we can play with them without having to take out our instrument panel. Anyone got a scan of the 110 gauges from a 92 RS? If not I think I'll work on it this weekend. We should upload em all to a webpage for others to use once we got scans of them all.

------------------
1992 Camaro RS
305ci automatic, all stock til I get some cash.
My 1992 RS

 

Good idea,better then paying $70 for guages,lets hope macewen doesn't find out,lol.

------------------
www.rearman.com/camarokid.htm

If it aint a V-8 that $hit aint fast!,unless its a GN,lol!

305 tpi,700r-4 with shift kit,My mods are minimal,just a bunch of little $hit.Anyone know where to get underdrive pulleys for a v-belt set up?

 

Yeah my brother and I had thought of splitting the price of the MacEwan guages, scanning them and duplicating them for one of the cars. We would have done that if the whole homemade set thing hadn't of worked. Surely someone who orders the things has a scanner and can hook everyone up (I'm sure MacEwan would frown on this...)

I was contacted earlier by a guy who had a DIY white face gauge site up. He already had a whole v6 car set scanned up and converted to white (they're metric though, so KMH is the main reading). They were nice high res scans too though. If anyone else scans up any of the different MPH speedos this guys site would be a good place to store them online. Here's the URL: www3.mb.sympatico.ca/~bharlow/ And don't forget there are a set of Firebird guage scans available here at thirdgen.org in the DIY White Guages tech article...

BTW, I got my first complement on the guages. I dropped my car off at a shop to get my LCA relocation brackets welded up and the Mechanic afterwards commented on the sweet white face gauges. Wanted to know where I got them. He was suprised that I made them myself. That rocks...

------------------
Ray87Z
-Vortec headed 350.
86 IROC w/ a cammed 305 TPI.
Formerly Ray86IROC.
www.inter-scape.com/Ray



[This message has been edited by Ray87Z (edited May 25, 2001).]

 

duplicate message

[This message has been edited by bigrobb (edited May 25, 2001).]

 

yeah I was going to suggest the webpage idea too, I can set up a geocities account and we can all use the password to upload. (unless someone has webspace with cgi to let anonomous users upload) then the "artist" can make their own folder for their stuff so they get credit. I (or whoever else) can put up a simple html page to link to them by the creator of the face. Cause I really doubt all you guys making 'em will go in and screw it up by deleting everything. but there are people that would.

And who cares if MacEwan gets mad, will they even notice? will they notice after they are changed? bootleg stuff gets sold everyday, I think it's time for it to be free

Oh yeah and my friend has webpage redirection at his domain, and if you use it it will kill the little geocities ad because it's a frame

so it could be *whatever* .westthird.com unless someone has this same type redirection at a better domain name. *hint* thirdgen.org

I just saw that other one, if people use it make sure the original scan gets uploaded too, then others can have a "fresh start"

 

duplicate message



[This message has been edited by bigrobb (edited May 25, 2001).]

 

Hey soulbounder, I know you are probably busy with everybody else's gauge requests, but if you could, if you have access to a an RS 110 mph speedo, could you try one of those and post it or email it to me?

[This message has been edited by Hctv19 (edited May 25, 2001).]

 

Man, I'm sorry, but I don't have access to one of those right now. I have a scanner but the only gauge I have is the 145. I have a 120 in my car but I don't have the time to hack my car to pieces to scan it. I graduate Saturday so things are kinda busy for me right now.

P.S. I'm not really that experienced in making the gauges. I just sat down at the computer in front of paint shop pro one day and those guages are what I came up with. I'm by no means "good" lol. But thanks for all the compliments.

 

I'm trying to find a scan of the 120 MPH guages, does anyone have them? The one for the 140 MPH firebird above is bad a**.

 

Im curious, but arent the McEwen guages on some sort of vinyl type paper with adhesive backing. If so, you can just scan the McEwen guages on them and get them printed out at a local decal shop or sign shop. At the same time adding in your own design. Like I said, just correct me if Im wrong, Im not too sure on that.

Oh and by the way Soulbound, awesome job on those faces. Looks really cool.

www.91HybridZ28.homestead.com/91HybridZ.html

------------------
SS 17x9.5 wheels,
HOTCHKIS 1"drop springs,
HOTCHKIS tower brace,
Bilstein struts and shocks,
K&N filters,
MSD 6A,
MSD 8.5mm Wires,
MSD Cap & Rotor,
Hypertech airfoil,
SLP intake runner (plennum not ported yet, soon)
High flow cats,
SPOHN panhard bar, lower control arms, and subframe connectors,
Baer front track system,
3" Flowmaster Exhaust System,
2100 Stall High Performance Torque Converter,
300 watt sound system,
and soon to come...ZZ4 crate motor...hopefully.

 

I don't know if they are or not but it's a good idea anyway. Just be careful puttin them on.