How Can I Change The Face On My Gauge Cluster?

[YellowJacket!]

My Guage cluster is in good shape but after years of sitting outside the colors on it have become faded.  It is perfectly readable but I have a "whiteline" instead of a Redline and the transition from faded green to almost white on the temp guage looks cruddy.
So I was wondering, How do I make it look new?

Thanks,

David

[Extent]

The tach is easy to repaint, just get some red model paint and a small brush and go to town.  I never did have to repaint my speedo because I just replaced it with a digital one.  When I put in my voltage meter I printed a custom face for it (red and green rather than blue and white, plus it needed to be smaller)  I just made up the face I wanted in photoshop and printed it out.  Cut it to shape and glue it in place.  It's easy to do for the temp syle guages, in order to get around center mounted needles like the tach and speedo you've got to cut a slit in the guage face and slip it over the shaft, then just hide the cut the best you can.

Scans of the original guages were posted up somewhere before, and a new set of custom faces as well.

[Superfly]

These were floating around the forum a while ago.... you can start with this.

[Sable]

Those are the gauge faces I came up with a couple of years ago, they still look good on my V! Actually, if you check out my site, you can download the templets. I would burn them to a CD-Rom and take them to Kinko's and have them print them out on white sticker paper with a color lazer printer. They seem to be very durable. Just be careful putting them on, you have to cut a line from one edge to the center for the gauge needle. I ruined my tach and speedo trying to pull the needles off.

~Sable

Click there and then click on the Gauge Templets Link
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[Mutt]

Dave, in case you haven't seen it yet. There's a whole guage cluster on ebay. Don't know if you have an 82 or 83 but here's the link.

http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZmilitarian

[MotorPlow]

The back of the instrument cluster unscrews. Once inside, there are 5 or 6 screws that will release the gauge cluster from the inside of the instrument cluster housing.  As the needles in the cluster do not come off, this is probably as far as you can go.  The face stickers from Sable are a good alternative to painting.  I don't think my hand would be steady enough to paint.

I broke the glass on top of the gauges on my spare instrument cluster.  I found that you can replace the glass.  After you get all the glass pieces out and take the gauge cluster apart, you can very carefully use a large flathead screw driver to break the backing that is used to hold the glass in.  The backing is glued from the manufacturer on the inside.  I was able to get the backing off on one big oval piece.  Take the piece to your local glass shop and have them cut a new piece of glass to fit the oval ring.  Glue it all back together, let it dry, put the instrument cluster all back together and your good to go.

[Superfly]

when I took the gauges apart, I sanded down the orig. gauge face.  because the old gauges will seep through at night!  I took the needles off of one set, and will never do that again.

[Walt_M.]

The gauge cluster on ebay is for an '82. Easy way to tell, no fuel gauge and 85mph speedo.

[Lucky]

Sable, a while ago someone sent me a set of guage faces, but i don't have the package they came in.. was it you? they look like yours except that their mostly green/gold on a black background. they were customised just for me, my website logo on the tach, & "Lucky"on the speedo.

I still have them in the package, i haven't used them because the speedo is for an 85  mph head. 

if it was from you (& i apologise for not remembering) could you do a sheet with the 83 speedo? ilike the colors better on the ones below, but not the red "55" lol that can be omitted..  :)

thanks, --Lucky

[Sable]

Hey Lucky,

     Yup, that was me, I sent those to you when you graciously sent me a synq rod to replace the one that busted when I attempted to synq my carbs. Actually, I still have those saved on my harddrive they go from yellow to a dark gold (actually, I remember not being happy with Kinko's with the way they came out), but I liked the look of your logo on the tach... put your name on the speedo to balance it out.
     I sure can make up another set, however, I don't have an '83 gauge to make the lines and speeds match.... If you can e-mail me a 1:1 photograph of your speedo looking straight down at it(or, a picture of your speedo with a ruler along the bottom edge so the numbers and lines can be easily seen so I can resize it to 1:1 ratio), I can get it done. Did you want the ones that Superfly posted? Because I did make a small change to them. The yamaha logo is not as big on the new design because it was not centered properly. The new yamaha logo is smaller and is centered above the gauge needle. I've also been contemplating getting rid of the red "55" and putting on a red "65"
Check out the templets at:
http://home.comcast.net/~slapshot1342/GaugeTemplates.htm
This will show you the slight change from what Superfly posted.

~Sable

[kiawrench]

 i still have not fixed my lil issues, but a new cluster face is on the list, still working and good color, i just want to rework the mph to reflect what it is really doing, .
   i have enlisted the help of a local police officer, who is going to help me "recalibrate my speedo, out on a few lesser used roads.
   We have the idea set up, i will ride bike, and pace his cruiser(recently calibrated speedo) and as we hit certain speeds, i will make a mark on the blank speedo template i have made up(just the arc for speedo) once this is done, i can transfer the marks in photoshop to my templates and tweak colors and numbers there. end result, a speedo that wont get me a ticket , i hope!

[Lucky]

here is a pic of the 82 over the 83 face.  i don't want to take my 83 apart 'till i'm ready to change the face...
as you can see though, the 'range' is the same, where the 82 ends at 85, the 83 ends at 140.  there is no 'stop post' on the 140 side of the 83.

NO red anything (55 or 65 mph) please...

Thanks!!
--Lucky

[YellowJacket!]

Is that your "Lucky" sevens on the trip Odo on the 82?  ;D

David