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Posted by: JOE M Nov 14 2007, 12:00 PM

Has anyone made there own custom face for there gauges. I found a site that lets you create a template for custom gauges. I am not sure what I want for a face but I want to spice it up a little. I made a few templates so far. Here is one. I have also started to create my own led display that will be mounted into each instrument. It consists of about 30 small led`s that run off of 4 volts so I need to find a resistor to drop the voltage.

Posted by: TC.356 Nov 14 2007, 12:12 PM

Joe,

Please post a link to that site . . .

Posted by: JOE M Nov 14 2007, 12:19 PM

here is a pic of my led aray.

Posted by: JOE M Nov 14 2007, 01:06 PM

here is a link. this is just for the template. if you want to make a back light rather than just a diameter light you will need to more than just make a template. it requires making layers to your pattern. i will popst another link later to a site that explains how to make layers. it is actually easy and does not require a lot of skill. the good thing is that the original gauge is not modified in any way other than removing it.

http://www.thehoffmangroup.com/aurora/gallery.php

Posted by: JOE M Nov 15 2007, 11:54 AM

Here is my first drawing. I can make the face any color. I am not sure what would look the best.

Posted by: jasons Nov 15 2007, 12:46 PM

Its a cool project, how do you plan to print them?


EDIT: Just noticed, that site offers printing.

Posted by: JOE M Nov 15 2007, 12:55 PM

I might have something silkscreened. For now I will probably just print on paper and see how it looks in the car. I have been looking at some face plates on other porsche such as boxter and the 911 (newer). I might try to take that look and feel and incorporate it into a my gauge. The first one I printed is on photo paper and stuck on .075" thick plastic. Not sure if I like the color though.

Posted by: Blood red 914-6gt Nov 15 2007, 01:48 PM

Your 30 is off one space.

Posted by: JOE M Nov 15 2007, 03:50 PM

Yep here is a revise in blue and installed in my unit.

Posted by: Aaron Cox Nov 15 2007, 05:49 PM

neat idea....

Posted by: marks914 Nov 15 2007, 08:56 PM

I do lots of custom gauge faces!
The quad gauges led to tachs, and that led to speedos and now I pretty much do anything. I did the IP/gauges windshield and wheels on the SR392 at SEMA as well.
Most of them are stock looking with custom readouts, but I have done a few wild ones. See my website below for more info.
Mark

Posted by: JOE M Nov 16 2007, 11:35 AM

What are you using for the face? Is it a silkscreen?

Posted by: marks914 Nov 16 2007, 09:16 PM

I was using a screen for a while, but each gauge turned out to be a one off, each customer wanted something a little different. Now I use a plastic-printed adhesive backed vinyl overlay that is mounted to the original or a new metal face. The first one I made is still stuck on some plastic out in my backyard, I made it over a year ago.
I also use dry trandsfers for the bezel faces. We have some mock-ups at work that are 10 years old with this technique, and they still look like new. Now I have the flexability to do a multiple color gauge in a single pass, with crispness that surpasses silkscreening. OEMs use pad-printing, not silkscreening to do instrumentation nomenclature, that is much crisper than screening.
To do a screen, you are looking at about $75 per color to create and about $50 to print from just about any screen shop, that is for each seperate gauge. Once you have the screen, you can usually print 1-50 for a lot price of about $50. The piece price is cheap when you are doing 50, but for one, it is costly.
Mark

Posted by: marks914 Nov 16 2007, 09:21 PM

Here are a couple of gauges in the OEM style

Mark

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2017584280057582025YfyERO
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2851033840057582025XSkKDd

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2692095480057582025QJaapr

Posted by: marks914 Nov 16 2007, 09:24 PM

Here is a silkscreen set, as you can set, as you can see, nice, but not as nice as the vinyl overlay

Mark
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2104835250057582025AKHBGb

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2407748930057582025yNJOHs

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2835721400057582025LEYGKZ

Posted by: marks914 Nov 16 2007, 09:28 PM

Here are the white face prototype vinyl overlay gauges in my car.
They have been in for about a year now.

Mark
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2713420060057582025IihXqx

Posted by: nsr-jamie Nov 17 2007, 04:51 AM

Wow Mark, those gauges are awesome!! I would really be interested in getting one of those quad gauges in black for my 914 next year for sure! Excellent work!!

Posted by: JOE M Nov 17 2007, 08:49 AM

Thats really nice work. My intent is only to have a winter project not to go into business , so for what I want to do it sounds like it could get costly. I think I will just play around with some more ideas but I will probably never use them in my car. Sounds like when I am ready for some new faces I found the right place to go. Great work Mark.