Re: Gauges

["dmc6960" <ultra@xxxx>]

Trevor, I'm not to sure if you even read my post or not, but I am 
already working on backlit illuminated gauges. I dont know if you 
have ever taken a DeLorean gauge cluser apart before or not, but if 
you have you'll find it to be very different than a normal, modern, 
backlit gauge. A simple indiglo overlay cannot be done on these 
gauges.

Here is a simple description of a DeLorean guage. They consist of 
silk-sceened decals printed directly onto solid black plastic faces, 
attached directly to the gauge actuators. Also, unlike most other 
gauge faces, there is no single plastic overlay that covers the edge 
of all the gauges. This way, each gauge can be semi-individually 
removed. The faces interlock into eachother in this manner... 
Tachometer on top, speedometer on left interlocking below it, and 
oil/fuel below it on the right. Further to the right below the 
oil/fuel gauge is the right side dummy-light pod. To the left below 
the speedometer, is the volt/temp gauge with attached left-side dummy 
lights (not on a separate piece).

Now, I've seen this type of gauge faces before. What this company 
does, is produce self-illuminated decals to put in place of a stock 
backlit decal. With the DeLorean's cluster not already being backlit, 
you raise the question of powering these decals. You would need to 
drill unsightly holes in the cluster to supply this. Also, standard 
backlit decals are attached to a gauge by means of screws. The 
DeLorean's gauges do not have frontside screws to do this with. Then 
the edges would look unfinished because of that lack of a single 
plastic overlay covering the edges of all the gauges. One more 
complication comes in the form of illuminating the needles. Since 
this conversion relys heavy upon there already being a backlit 
cluster, they usually dont take into account changing the needles 
around, plus the odometer on the speedometer would have no means of 
illumination. All of these issues, I have addressed with my 
backlighting conversion.

More complication comes in the form of printing the decal faces. The 
lettering on the stock gauges certainly isn't anything found today. 
People who have looked into this before can back me on that. If you 
look at the popular 170mph conversion, you'll notice it really does 
not exactly match the rest of the cluster despite claims that it does. 
I have been painstakingly working on recreating each gauge face by 
hand in high resolution digital images since simple scanning does not 
produce desirable results. I've been at it on and off for over a year 
now, and I'm still not done.

With all of these specialty difficulties about the DeLorean's cluster, 
I question if Speedhut will even want to take on our car. Plus, they 
will also need a doner cluster to base thier work off of if they do go 
ahead with it. I will personally continue my work on the backlit 
dash, to reach my goal of a working prototype to be displayed at the 
DeLorean Car Show/Memphis this June. For anybody who cannot attend 
the show, pictures of the prototype will be posted online after 
official unvailing.

Again, if anybody has any questions about my backlighting conversion, 
please feel free to email me at ultra(at)isd.net

Jim Reeve
MNDMC - Minnesota DeLorean Club
DMC-6960


--- In dmcnews@xxxx, Trevor Johnson <comet4055@xxxx> wrote:
> Okay, Despite no useful responses, I have located a place that can 
make
> gauges, if you have 15 orders, they will go ahead and manufacture 
them.
> Price depends on what options you get but it looks to be around 
200$,
> which is not bad at all. If you are at all interested check out 
their web
> site, www.speedhut.com.