As a graphic designer Im extremely picky with typefaces and layout so I decided to make my own gauge face, Im just not happy with anything available. I'm going to see if McNord can make using my illustrator file. Its nothing earth shattering, just alot more modern. I love Audi's clean simple gauges, and thats where the design language is coming from. The white/black ODO is just photoshop now, but I will be testing tomorrow. With a little research I think replacing the red diffuser with a white one in the stock ODO will create this effect. I made the white diffuser and assembled tonite and am going to test it tomorrow.



I did another side project just for fun. I think the current Ferrari 458 gauge cluster is a work of art, so I themed a gauge face off of that. I think it'd look sweet with 6LE brushed aluminum bezels in the right car.

 

Looks good

 

very nice .

 

Really like those! Especially diggin the 458 version. Like you, I'm not thrilled about what's available but would definately be interested in either direction. Maybe a 200mph speedo though?

 

I like the top example. I would buy that

 

Looks good! McNord should be able to work with that. Here is my design he did a couple years ago.



Installed:

 

I'm with this guy, best looking set I've seen. Sub'd

 

I could if I had a template, otherwise I would be guessing on where the ticks go. I could space all the speedo ticks out uniformly to fit 200, but would have no clue if itd be accurate. In light of needing calibrating maybe it doesnt matter though as long everything is evenly spaced?

Thanks for the good words everyone.

 

i like the audi design wouldn't mind something like that, not a fan of the 458 gauge though. In the 458 it looks good i think it just kind of sticks out like a sore thumb on the camaro cluster though.

 

i like the top one aswell. Looks modern but not ricey.

 

Can you make the 2nd one for the 93 model?

 

I could, but I have no access to a oem 93 gauge face, so currently no. I need OEM face to make template so the tick marks are all in the correct location.

 

I really like that top one also! I have red leds in my cluster but I still think it would look pretty good.

 

I really like that first one!

I think it'll be hard to get a true black and white odometer. The color comes from red LEDs. I swapped to white, and the background kind of gets a bluish hue. Still better than the red, but not exactly what I had hoped:

no real good shots, but you can see it in the sides of these two pics:





I cleared the factory face so it's pure white - no blue tint. Just an FYI, if you're as picky as me you may need to make some tweaks and add a few bulbs to get more even lighting.

 

I like the first one! I am wondering if it is possible to actually make a LED panel to light certain parts different colors.. I cant remember what it looks like behind the gauge face, but it would be sweet if we were able to add more leds to the mix so we had more of a controlled light..

 

Thanks for input Atrus. Its nice to see someone that has actually done white leds. I was testing with an older 97-98 style odo with the film and made a white filter and lit with a white led and saw about the same result, thanks the pics....as I was gonna go blind swapping the leds in my 2000 style odo. Its the blue/grey cast on the conductor film that is making dark blue'ish hue to the background. The black and white Audi odo's did this as well before they went to tft screens on the odo. Tft screen is out of the question in this case so I can live with those results, as like you said, looks better than the red and goes better with my black and white theme. What leds did you use, just regular 3mm or did you find the smd style encased in the white block like the oem red/orange ones?

FamousZ.... There is not alot of room to get to crazy. Good thing though, with the 194 bulbcasing and multiple wide angle smd's the light dispersion is completely even, it really couldnt get any better. The 194 bulb with 5 smds from led superbrights ive found to be the best and ive never had one burn out like the cheap ones from other vendors. You can create different color in specific areas from the back of the gauge face by applying translucent film in the color of your choice in the area you wish.

 

Here what i was messing with with the old style odo in case the 97-98 guys wanna see. Forgot to post.... White film/white led.

 

That's what I am running - the cool white 194 replacement LEDs from superbright. I did add an additional (4) NEO-3's to select spots on the perimeter to help with some darker spots. I cleared the blue tint off the stock face (PITA, but doable). It's really difficult to accurately get a picture of the color, but my vehicle is now bright white, like a C6. There's none of the blue or dirty green tint that an unmodified cluster would have.

Also, in some clusters, there's a pair of reinforcement ribs right near the 1k RPM mark. I had a few clusters I bought to test with - two had this rib, one didn't. The rib was causing a cold spot, even in totally stock form. My stock cluster with stock bulbs was always dimmer around the 1k RPM mark. I removed these ribs and got more even lighting. Also, the wire for the odometer was giving a cold spot with the LEDs, so I ended up hacking on the white plastic body to reroute that wire to avoid the cold spot there as well. That was somewhere around 150mph on a Z-28 cluster.

The swap to LEDs does pose a dimmer problem though - the OE dimmer hardly impacts the LEDs at all - pretty much negligible. I don't like bright-*** lights in my face all the time. I picked up a PWM kit and modified it to work with a negative common ground. I am currently reworking my dimmer switch, utilizing a custom McNord overlay, to incorporate the PWM as a dimmer and still having a button to turn on the interior lights.

 

Oh, and realized you were asking about what LEDs I used on the odometer. Just some white 3mm leds. Removed the (3) red SMD's and installed (2) white 3mm LEDs. Someone had a nice writeup - Kalieco or something was the username.

 

the top one looks clean. the 458 looks good. maybe change the color on the tach to an optional accent color to choose from. can you do the same for 95-96 camaros if you had the cluster??? might have some interest from forum members.