Nick Davison
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 08:26 AM |
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Dashboard Instruments for £6
Thought I would share this with you all. I was dismayed to find that it is virtually impossible to find instruments compatible with my sender units
on the engine. Having to buy senders and instruments nearly doubles the cost and then there is the problem of engineering them into the systems along
side the original. So I converted these old Smiths gauges to work on my installation and incorporated some personal touches at the same time.
I am dead pleased with them and felt that I should tell someone about them.
Nick
 
Rescued attachment Gauge 4.jpg
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MK9R
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 09:33 AM |
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very nice. I am planning on doing the same with some stewart Warner Guages we bought for £7 each. Did you customise the faces your self??
Cheers Austen
RGB car number 9
www.austengreenway.co.uk
www.automatedtechnologygroup.co.uk
www.trackace.co.uk
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Nick Davison
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 09:42 AM |
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They have had the faces stripped and painted and the graphics are printed onto OHP acetate which is in turn sprayed on the reverse side and glued onto
the faces.
The innards are the standard Lancia units removed from the instrument cluster.
Are your Stewart Warner Gauges old or new items?
Nick
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MK9R
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 09:57 AM |
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Fairly old, but never used. I have managed to source all the senders for less tha £30, so all in all it should cost me about £60 for the set (Merlin
want over £200). Also i am using the motorbike instruments for the speedo and tacho, so i want to make new faces so they all match up, including my
MK9R logo.
So let me get this right, you sprayed the face (and front bits) the cream colour, then printed (from a PC?) onto acetate, then stuck it on the front
of the newly sprayed faces. I have found smewhere that does self adhesive clear film that can be printed on. They also do self adhesive water proof
gloss photo paper.
Cheers Austen
RGB car number 9
www.austengreenway.co.uk
www.automatedtechnologygroup.co.uk
www.trackace.co.uk
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stephen_gusterson
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 10:35 AM |
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they look good.
I had thought of trying to use ford 'inners' with a facia of my own making but gave it up as I knew I was no graphi artist.
Cost me 350 quid for my guage set as an alternative. 
Bought em from a usa company
www.eguages.com
mine look like this :
atb
steve
 
Rescued attachment speedo.jpg
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Nick Davison
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 01:26 PM |
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Very Smart Steve.
Nick
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stephen_gusterson
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 01:30 PM |
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apart from the 350 quid bit
thats not too smart!
(My wallet did tho....)
I would have thought that there was a market for some kinda graphics / bezel kit for sierra guages - if the electrics could be fitted behind nice new
bezels it could save loads!
atb
steve
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Nick Davison
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 01:39 PM |
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Austen
I initially selected a colour from Halfords ( I don't buy much from Halfords normally) in my case there were 2 parts to the face as you can see
I removed these and sprayed them in the colour. Then I obtained some OHP slide acetate which can be printed on by an ink jet printer, one side is
slightly rough and the other side smooth. The rough side is the side to print onto. Before I printed on it I sprayed the back of the sheet and let
it go dry, I would expect that if too much paint were put on it would flake off as it went through the printer so only a light coat was used. I
designed the faces on Microsoft Publisher and printed them out on the rough side of the acetate.
The reason for spraying the reverse of the acetate is if it was left clear as it is glued to the gauge face the glue would show through. This way the
only visible sign that there is a false face on the painted tin is a faint line above the forward face with the cut out in, this edge was cut to
follow the shape of the cutout in the tin and now it only looks like a shaddow line.
Hope this helps
Nick
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ned
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 01:44 PM |
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not to take away from peoples ideas, but i might be concerned that the ink from an inkjet printer would fade over time..?
I do agree with Steve that there seems to be a niche market for converting older gauges and saving £100's though.
Ned.
beware, I've got yellow skin
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MK9R
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 01:49 PM |
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cheers Nick, will take that into account while doing mine
My mate is a graphic designer so he should be able to knock something special up and print it on a laser printer
Cheers Austen
RGB car number 9
www.austengreenway.co.uk
www.automatedtechnologygroup.co.uk
www.trackace.co.uk
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MK9R
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 01:51 PM |
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Just to add, if a few people want new faces for a sieera clock, I spoke to bedford guages and they can make new faces (aluminium) up to what ever
design for about 25 per set, but there is an initial setup and design cost of around £120.
Cheers Austen
RGB car number 9
www.austengreenway.co.uk
www.automatedtechnologygroup.co.uk
www.trackace.co.uk
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Jumpy Guy
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 03:49 PM |
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Kinda related- need some help with gauges ...
I have a 1.6 pinto, and no gauges at all
I think that the Sierra only had a speedo, no tacho as stock
What are my options-
get the sierra speedo from a scrappy? what tacho to use? I dont fancy paying 200 quid ish if i can avoid it
Ive been offered a set of Blackbird bike clocks for £30- can I use these, and how do i interface between the transducer and the clocks?
aarrrggghhhh! brain exploding
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andyps
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 04:17 PM |
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Sierra instruments
My hope for the dials is to use the Sierra ones, but with more interesting graphics, I am hoping I may be able to separate the dials to move away from
the Sierra laout but have not taken them out of the car yet - might this work?
Andy
An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less
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JoelP
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 05:18 PM |
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I hope and plan to reuse my standard dials, so i certainly hope they seperate. I've had the back of the dash and i'm fairly sure the come
apart. The speedo definitly does, so thats sorted. The rest can be bodged!
Hows it going Alan? I think the wiring loom on your sierra will include a wire for the tachometer, even if one isn't present, mine did. Maybe a
better model in a scrappy will have one?
Maybe get the full dash from a sierra, that would be very cheap. Dont have a clue about the blackbird dials, someone will know though!
All the best anyway!
BTW, this is my 100th message! Yeah baby, yeah! Damn i must be bored to be there in 2 weeks!
Gotta admit, it will be a joke if it describes me as a senior builder! I think it does at 100..... ah well, dont believe a word of it!
No, it says builder, we're safe...
[Edited on 12/8/03 by JoelP]
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stephen_gusterson
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| posted on 12/8/03 at 10:19 PM |
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higher model sierra have tachos.
atb
steve
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Rorty
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| posted on 13/8/03 at 05:16 AM |
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"Smith Davison"? I thought your name was Nick Davison! 
No, quite ingenious really. How thick is OHP stuff, I've never really studied it that closely?
I had some water slides/decals/transfers (depends on your global location) made up for me for sticking on some things I was selling. They're the
same as the transfers you get in an Airfix kit. They would be ideal for this purpose, and weren't very expensive either.
Cheers, Rorty.
"Faster than a speeding Pullet".
PLEASE DON'T U2U ME IF YOU WANT A QUICK RESPONSE. TRY EMAILING ME INSTEAD!
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Nick Davison
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| posted on 13/8/03 at 11:33 AM |
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water transfers would be a lot better providing you can get the graphics you want on them.
The OHP silde is fairly thin, about the thickness, or slightly less, of a business card. The good thing about it is that you can put any thing on it
you want, so how about having a good looking scantily clad woman as the background for your rev counter!!
Or if you were realy clever having the acetate disc with the devisions on it un painted and mounted in place of the pionter and the pionter fixed!
Nick
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MK9R
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| posted on 13/8/03 at 11:39 AM |
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I like that idea, very trick!!
Cheers Austen
RGB car number 9
www.austengreenway.co.uk
www.automatedtechnologygroup.co.uk
www.trackace.co.uk
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Jon Bradbury
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| posted on 14/8/03 at 11:53 AM |
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Sierra Tacho
Steve
You're right the better Sierras have tachos on them but the needle only travels about 120 degrees from 0 - 6000rpm and it looks distinctly
"sierra".
The instrument panel on these is modular with the lesser instruments (fuel / temp) having legs that stick out of the back of the unit; the flexi pcb
is clipped onto them at the back.
Question is, how to turn the sierra tacho into a full 280 degree movement?
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andyps
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| posted on 14/8/03 at 05:52 PM |
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Sierra tacho
My thought, following on from the fact that the tacho should be separable from the rest of the instruments, is to mount it at an angle - so 0 revs is
at about 10 o'clock - at least it should look a bit better this way!
Andy
An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less
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DaveFJ
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| posted on 15/8/03 at 08:42 AM |
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Out of interest why didn't you spray the back of the acetate after you had printed on it?
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GO
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| posted on 15/8/03 at 11:15 AM |
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I like the acetate idea!
Has anyone got any idea's on how to create a nice bevel around the front edge to make the gauges look more like individual gauges?
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Nick Davison
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| posted on 15/8/03 at 11:28 AM |
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The only reason for spraying the acetate first was to see if the paint would stick. It did and I then had a sheet which I could use.
Nick
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andyps
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| posted on 16/8/03 at 04:41 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Jon Bradbury
Steve
You're right the better Sierras have tachos on them but the needle only travels about 120 degrees from 0 - 6000rpm and it looks distinctly
"sierra".
The instrument panel on these is modular with the lesser instruments (fuel / temp) having legs that stick out of the back of the unit; the flexi pcb
is clipped onto them at the back.
Question is, how to turn the sierra tacho into a full 280 degree movement?
You could always up the rev limit to about 15000 - that should be about 280 degrees
Andy
An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less
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AvonBelgium
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| posted on 20/8/03 at 06:01 PM |
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Very Nice,
I was experimenting also,you can print the grapichs also on a polyester label, and this with a inktjet printer.The result is very nice.
But the problem with the Sierra dash stays tesame, ugli !! unles you find a casing for the instruments
Therefore I was looking around for some gauges at nice prices
Thake a look at theses sites
www.dolphingauges.com
www.ezwiring.com
www.haneline.com
Very nice instruments from 250 $ to about 400 $
The only problem for me is that temp is in °f instead of °c and that they all are MPH instead of KMH.
Somebody ase a sugestion about changing the dials from these gauges ??
[Edited on 20/8/03 by AvonBelgium]
[Edited on 20/8/03 by AvonBelgium]
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