Making Custom Gauge Faces, Opinions would be great

[KNG SNKE]

I have started my venture in making custom gauge faces. I have working test projects now to see how this is going to work out. So far so good. Below you will see the different stages I am testing. I have printed 2 sets, 1 on matte paper and 1 on glossy paper. The matte paper has a much better black look and overall color look. The glossy is not as black. The 4 different options the only difference is the opacity of the colored portions. Please note that these are not gauge faces that would go in my car, they are there just to test the different colors and how good they pass the light through the paper.

On a side note I am still in need of a speedo, volt, oil and gas gauge or gauge face.

Matte Printout

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Different Opacity

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Glossy

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Different Opacity

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[EllowViper]

For a Navy guy, you're pretty creative!! I'd like to see an entire set mocked-up with some new ideas. Keep at it.

 

[KNG SNKE]

For a Navy guy, you're pretty creative!! I'd like to see an entire set mocked-up with some new ideas. Keep at it.

Working on it but I need 4 more gauge faces to scan.

And what do you mean for a Navy guy! Damn Mahreens!

 

[KNG SNKE]

The blue is hard to see without back lighting, as you see the camera could not capture it. Looks great with a light behind them. (Yes the lighting is uneven, I am holding a flashlight into the hole in the back of the gauge) The gauge that is pictured is the Matte 100 opacity.

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[Timnineside]

Very cool idea, I like it a lot! Nice to see someone working on other options.

If your looking for input, I don't like the 3 different colors. (assuming you did that for mock-up purposes) Bummer the blue doesn't look as bright during the day, because it looks sweet lit up.

Also do you have LED's in your dash? May want to do your mock up to using LED's in dash, and a LED flashlight. They are more direct with brighter light. I will make things a lot cleaner looking, but may also be more/less difficult to work with.

Cool either way tho!

 

[KNG SNKE]

The multi colors are only for mock up and will not make their way in my dash permanently. I may be able to lighten the blue up, just will take some time. In the photos there is a led flashlight shining into the gauge. The flashlight is outside the gauge shining in. I plan on doing a mockup with led and oem dash lights to see how good they light up with each. I can do blue with a white gauge face.

 

[Timnineside]

Sounds good. Are you thinking about selling these as well? I seen before somewhere you were selling rear splitters (obviously I am thinking about picking some up)

 

[ZYellow01RT]

Those multi-colored gauge faces look great. I've also had some ideas regarding the gauge cluster appearance...possibly changing the color of the ring that encircles the gauge to a bright yellow color, to highlight the exterior color of my Viper.

Heck, even red rings would look good for the guys with red Vipers.

The trick is to keep it subtle, and avoid any rice effects...

 

[KNG SNKE]

Those multi-colored gauge faces look great. I've also had some ideas regarding the gauge cluster appearance...possibly changing the color of the "ring" that encircles the gauge to a yellow color, to highlight the exterior color of my Viper.

Heck, even red rings would look good for the guys with red Vipers.

The trick is to keep it subtle, and avoid any rice effects...

When you remove the gauge face the white ring easily seperates and can be painted. Other options could be a white face with yellow lettering. These are all ideas I am working with and will explore them. If you have any ideas that you would like to see in the works shoot me a pm and I will see if I can do a mock up.

 

[Timnineside]

I think the multi-color wouldn't be so bad if you did them like this:

1-blue 2-yellow 3-red. So refering to the temperature guage mainly it would make sense. Blue=cool, yellow=where you want to be, and RED=Nobody wants RED!

HAHAHA, J/K! But IMO that is the only way I could see using multi-colored if it made some sense.

I would just do all yellow for your car, but market the "cool blue"

-Tim

 

[KNG SNKE]

The multi color was only to see how well each color passes the light through the paper and honestly will only look good in maybe a dolphin Viper. Now to do a scheme with raising temperatures it would look fine but the different gauges would have to match. I can make them in any form that one would like but I have to get past my testing phase and install this temp gauge in my car to see how it looks in the dash. I will probably mock up a tachometer this weekend as well just to see how it performs.

I personally like the idea of the blue. Get in the car and you have pitch black gauges. Drive around with your running lights and the dash lights up. I have seen aftermarket gauges like this and I like it.

 

[ZYellow01RT]

When you remove the gauge face the white ring easily seperates and can be painted. Other options could be a white face with yellow lettering. These are all ideas I am working with and will explore them. If you have any ideas that you would like to see in the works shoot me a pm and I will see if I can do a mock up.

So...how do I actually remove the gauges from the dash?

I understand that it's fairly easy after that step, but want to make sure that I don't F anything up during the initial removal..

 

[KNG SNKE]

I will have a 100% writeup once I have all gauges scanned, printed, tested and installed. Removing the gauges from the dash is the easy part. Opening the gauge itself takes a bit of time and patience. I will also have a writeup on how to recalibrate your gauge after you reinstall them. The plan is in action, just waiting on the rest of the donor gauges. Anyone out there have any?

 

[JohnnyViper]

keep up the good work

 

[plumcrazy]

looks great !!!

 

[KNG SNKE]

Here are the proposed set potentially going in my car.

Things to note. The yellow on the outside of the tach gauge is not visible so there will not be an abundance of yellow (as if that was possible in the first place). The yellow dot in the middle is just a marker as well and will be cut out.
The logo can be made into what ever I want it to so that was just a test run.

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[plumcrazy]

kool. is the yellow in the KNG SNK text the same as the other yellow ?

 

[KNG SNKE]

When I originally did it yes so either the computer is playing tricks on my camera or I don't know what. Might be like that because I laid yellow over black for the gauges and the lettering is straight yellow from the palette. Same thing with the dot in the middle. That is the right color dot but a different shade, it was laid over white. Just small details that will be attended to prior to a final printout and full test run.

 

[KNG SNKE]

Something for the reds, red with black and red with graphite

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[spikeone]

good stuff

this might be a nice way to convert from MPH to KMH instead of buying a whole new speedo!

 

[Jance GTS]

Oh how I DON'T need to do this in my car, but I so want too!!!

Let me see if I understand how this works. They are just an overlay?

If you are making a completely different gauge design to replace the stock one, what about changing the font???

For my custom 2000 Dodge Ram, I found a company that custom printed overlays, since they were overlays they couldn't change the font, but they did remove some of the extra stuff that I didn't want on the gauges. I sent them my gauge cluster and they did the rest. They didn't do the best job of laying down the sticker, but it looks better than the stock version.

Stock

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Custom Overlay

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I had them remove the km/h Numbers, RPM x 1000, < Fuel Door,

I just recently contacted them about the AC control overlay for Vipers, but I think their reply went to my junk mail and I never got it.

I'm interested in helping you design these....

 

[KNG SNKE]

The font can absolutely be changed however I have not advanced my PhotoShop skills that far. I will have time this weekend to tinker around with font changing. I can easily delete unwanted items though. Austin has been helping me through the misc questions I have had so I will run this by him. I already have an idea how to do it though. I can tell you doing this on the RAM is cake compared to the Viper. Takes patience for the Viper. No major concern for breaking anything though

Have a spare ac gauge?

The conversion would be similar to changing the font. Can do it, just need to tinker.

 

[JonB]

I will have a 100% writeup once I have all gauges scanned, printed, tested and installed. Removing the gauges from the dash is the easy part. Opening the gauge itself takes a bit of time and patience. I will also have a writeup on how to recalibrate your gauge after you reinstall them. The plan is in action, just waiting on the rest of the donor gauges. Anyone out there have any?

Recovering from race-days off, I should be able to furnish by next week. JonB~~~~:<~

 

[KNG SNKE]

Uh oh, there is some good news. I will get to cracking on refining the design and order some ink for the printer.

 

[ZYellow01RT]

So, how do you remove the gauge from the dash?

 

[KNG SNKE]

So, how do you remove the gauge from the dash?

I will do a writeup once I have a working set of gauge faces. To remove them from the dash is simple though, you just follow your dash removal procedures in the DIY section and unbolt them. Remove the face off of the gauges is the part that takes patience.

Jance, sorry I missed your question. These are not overlays, they are replacement gauge faces.

 

[Jance GTS]

The font can absolutely be changed however I have not advanced my PhotoShop skills that far. I will have time this weekend to tinker around with font changing. I can easily delete unwanted items though. Austin has been helping me through the misc questions I have had so I will run this by him. I already have an idea how to do it though. I can tell you doing this on the RAM is cake compared to the Viper. Takes patience for the Viper. No major concern for breaking anything though

Have a spare ac gauge?

The conversion would be similar to changing the font. Can do it, just need to tinker.

I don't have a spare ac gauge.

Any chance you could send me the files so I can edit them in photoshop or something? I'd really like to modernize the overall look

Thanks!

 

[Jance GTS]

^^^^ HAHA sorry! It sounds like I'm going to jack your designs, I just want to help haha!

 

[KNG SNKE]

^^^^ HAHA sorry! It sounds like I'm going to jack your designs, I just want to help haha!

The only gauges I have thus far are the tach and temp so I have been experimenting with them today. I overcame a huge hurdle today in figuring out exact sizing. The gauges I have been printing have been a hair smaller then the OEM's but now they are equal. I am going to mock up a few different gauge schemes and post them up later. Once my testing is final I will figure out if I am going to offer them out or not. Most likely yes but no promises. I never intended to offer the diffuser blades up for sale but they generated so much interest that it was necessary. I honestly only wanted to make them for my car.

 

[KNG SNKE]

Here you go. Updated temp gauge with different lettering and a yellow with black design. Basically I can put anything on the gauges. Color determines how the light will shine through the gauge as well but I currently am using matte paper with laminate on both sides so it should shine through fine.

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