I used the directions on Un4gvn's Poor Man's white face guages page and I printed my guages on photo quality Print and Stick paper. This way I would avoid glueing the paper to the guages and if I ever wanted to take them off I could just peel them off and the black would be undamaged. however after leaving the guage sit several days after applying, the corner came up as you can see in the picture. I was thinking about putting a thin layer of glue (what kind would I use) around the edge to make sure it doesn't come up. This way I will still be able to take the white guauges off if I want... Does anybody else have any better ideas for this???

What brand and type of paper are the rest of you printing on???

What are you guys using to color the needles??? I want something permanent so I don't have to take this apart again....

THANKS!

 

Anybody PLEASE?

 

PLEASE??? 32 people can look at it and not reply????????

 

Ok... I would try to avoid using glue. Rember back in elementary school when we would glue paper and such together how it would get all wrinkly? That would probably happen. What I would do is take the overlay off, clean the guage with alcohol, and maybe rough it up with some sand paper (if you dont care if they get ruined). Then, pring a new one, and MAKE SURE to get ALL the air bubbles out. You shouldnt have to let it sit for long at all either. Also, where did ya get that paper? I would love to get some photo/sticky paper if I can find it.
Good Luck, let us know how it turns out!!!

 

I have NOT done this myself, I just don't want to see you too stressed out before someone finally replies with the correct answer.

My guess is that he just used a glue stick or something like that. I read his article again(un4givin89) for about the third time today. It also seems that he used a CD label to stick to the original face so that it would not leave a residue after peeling off the white gauge.

As far as needle colors, people have used both red and black, that I have seen. Check out his article again, he might have updated it since you used it.

white face gauges article

Later,
Jesse

 

I'll throw my thoughts in too (even though I haven't done this). Since you have the gauge face off, get an 85mph speedo (the shape should be the same) to use for a donor face, and sand it down real good. Paint it white. Print onto a medium weight glossy paper. Spray the back of the paper with 3M contact glue, and let it dry. Cut out the paper carefully. Spray the gauge face with the contact cement and let dry. Very carefully attach the paper to the gauge face. Maybe this is too complicated, but this is probably how I'd tackle it.

 

Use some double-sided tape. It's razor thin and will hold fine.

 

Your ideas sounds good but I have a couple questions.
Why would you paint the guage white when its going to be covered up anyways???

My second question is why spray the back of the paper with 3M contact glue and let it dry?? What is the point?
Then if you cut it out and put contact cement on the guage and let it dry how is the paper going to stick to the guage?

Thanks man!

 

Even though I have not tried this either, I would think that you would do that so that you don't have any black showing through the white paper. (On a side note: I have no idea how thick that paper is.)

 

Contact cement works better and gets stickyer as it drys, If you try to stick it on with the glue wet it will soak into the paper and give you wrinkles and that bad stuff, And painting it white would give you a bright white face black behind white would be duller, unless you have some heavy bond paper.

 

I used card stock paper when I did mine, its been hot->cold->hot-cold and I have no problems. If you use regular 20# paper, it might be too flimsey, and be the cause of your wrinkle problem. If you use a heavier paper, when you go to glue it down it should not wrinkle from the glue.

I personally might try Staples (Officemax or Office Depot) and get some white full sheet labels. I use a Laser printer for everything and I get Avery 5165 full sheet labels. I used construction paper because my gages are yellow not white.

When you go, try & look for acid free stuff because it should not yellow over time. (It might not be available).

If/when you decide that white gages are no longer what you want, you can peal off the labels & then take some lighter fluid & soak the stickum. it should not hurt the paints.

Hope this helps.

John

 

You shouldn't have used sticky paper, that cheap stuff always peels. Try using CD Labelers like I said in my guide, cause it uses a much stronger adhesive. Ever try peeling one off a cd? that bitch isn't coming off without some work.

 

The reason for spraying both parts with contact cement and letting them dry is that they'll stick to themselves better than to dissimilar objects. Spraying one piece and applying the other while they're still wet isn't nearly as strong as spraying each piece independantly.

I'm with blue502... don't screw up a good stock guage face, get the face off a bad cluster or a 85mph cluster and use it instead.

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I really appreciate it!
I got a couple last questions.

1. Could I use that CD Sticky paper alone and try that??

2. If I decide to use a doner guage like Blue 502 recommended and paint it white, How would I paint all the other little guages white ?? I thought at first that would be easy... just use the ALL the doner guages... But the small guages are pop rivited to the unit and I would rather not mess with taking those off because I might mess up the calibration...... And I really don't want to paint my good cluster guages white incase I ever go back to black..

Has anyone ever removed the guage faces off the units on the small guages??

Thanks

 

you aren't going to loose calibration by taking them out, you'd paint them the same way you painted the other one. And yes CD paper will work, duh.

 

un4given,
Just taking the gages out isn't what he is talking about. I think he is talking about taking the needle AND the face off of the small gages to paint them white also, which deals with rivits that hold the face on. On a side note, I just finished using your guide to the whiteface gages (very good guide by the way) and no matter what people tell ya, some of us DO get nervous about doing stuff like this, I was, so I don't think the "duh" comment toward Bill was necessary. In your guide you say that you printed the gages onto a different paper and glued it onto the CD paper before putting onto the gage, Bill was asking if the CD paper ALONE would work.

Bill,
Yes the CD paper alone will work (depending on the thickness, some are thicker than others). I printed mine out onto the CD labels and they looked just fine. There was no shadowing of any kind. I don't see a need to paint the gage plates white and then put the whiteface gages on. Just my thoughts.

Mark

 

Mark,
Thanks for answering the questions I asked Mark. And yes I was refering to taking the whole guage and face off... Neways like you said its not necessary. I just hope that cd paper sticks on good so I don't have to do this again! You by chance don't have any pictures Mark do u?

Thanks again!

 

No problem! I don't have pics of the finished product yet because I have been playing around with different designs on them. I have put them on to see what they look like for a couple of days and then changed them and the CD labels got harder to take off the longer I left them on. Not that they were hard to take off, its just I don't think they would just peel off like yours did. Just be sure that the faces are VERY clean (no finger smudges either) before applying the labels.

Mark