There is a guy on EBAY selling White faced Gauge overlay kits for 87-91 diesel trucks. if you do an ebay search with (87-91 ford) you will find them. (i'm not talking about the reverse glow gauges). So why am i telling you this? Because i let this guy use MY cluster to make the master set that he is now selling! Back story: i found him on ebay selling Gas sets for 87-91's. i contacted him and asked him if he had a diesel set. he didn't. i asked if he could just change the word "unleaded" to Diesel on the fuel gauge. Thankfully, he really knows his stuff and reminded me that my Tach reads lower than a gas tach. So he offered me a free set if i sent him my gauges to be used as a master. so i did. i figured that while i was at it, i also sent him the decal for the heater and AC controls, the little decals over the lights, wiper, and fuel tank selector; AND the piece that says wait to start and water in fuel; AND the 2 decals on either side of the steering column with the turn signal arrows, high beam, and all the other stuff. Well, he made them all and they look great! i just got my cluster in today (he installed them for free). tomorrow i will install the heater/AC control decal. he is selling the set for 14.99 but i don't think he is offering the other decals yet. i think he is waiting for an email from me to let him know if they are worth selling; well they are. i just went outside to see what they look like at night. by the way, i changed the illumination bulbs to blue. well, they look ok. you can see the outline of the gauge works. i'm not too worried; after all, they are not factory made. i don't do a whole lot of night driving. if anyone installs a set without colored bulbs, i'd like to see that. sorry this is such a long post. y'all ask me any questions and i'll answer them. thanks for reading.

 

ok everyone, check out my gallery for pics. they are the best i could do with a cheap walmart digital camera.

 

I just installed mine a couple days ago and while they look great in the day, if you don't follow the supplemental instructions regarding how to back light them properly they will look horrible at night. I plan on fixing that later. I'll include some night photo's for my gallery soon.

The instructions were ok but left out a couple of details that a novice like myself will find annoying.

First, since this is the first time I've done this I did'nt realize that the overlays were meant to "lay" not adhere to the gauge face. Therefore I mistook the overlays for decals (the old faces were like a sticker) and tried to peel the backing off the speedo overlay. OOPS. It didn't totally ruin it but I was bummed.

Second, I was instructed to remove 2 screws from the speedo and possibly the gear indicator. That's 4 screws to choose from. Even after removing all 4 it still wouldn't come out. I ended up removing the needle then the face leaving the works in the cluster.

It still came out as good as it should but A little better instruction regarding the speedo are needed.

 

HEY LUMPY,
mine were done for me so i don't have a copy of the instructions. what do they say for properly back-lighting them? also, did you get yours from whitegaugeguy also?
thanks.
edit: hey! did you notice the extra overlays he did for me? check out my gallery. i'm sure he'll sell you the ovelays for the light/wiper/fuel swithces. i really like my turn signal ovelays. the only thing about those is i don't have a 4X4, but my decal still shows 4HI and 4low. they don't light up, but the fact that they are there is fine with me. if you have him send you the other overlays, let me know and i tell you how i attached mine. Oh, the heater/AC panel look cool.

 

hey lumpy, did you remove your old guage faces? you know, the ones like a sticker? those will block some of the light if you didn't.

 

I didn't have the time or supplies to backlight them right. The instructions were more of a suggestion and are similar to the way people in other threads have done. I don't have it here in front of me but I think it suggest getting colored bulbs and a sheet translucent material to help diffuse the light. I'm not sure how that would work. Unfortunately that means doing the whole process (except trimming)again.

I did get these from whitegaugeguy. They look pretty nice. Now I need a matching one for my AC. Mine has the temp slider on the bottom and a horisontal fan switch. I might try to make my own since it's pretty simple to take apart.

Thanks for the link equium. After getting these I realized I could do that. Now I don't have to research it so much. I use PS on a daily basis and have access to a nice Laserjet. I'm curious about how well the black layer will block light. If it doesn't I might stack several layers. The old guage faces (which I did remove) were very opaque and looked hard to duplicate. They'll make great templates to scan.

Some of your pics look like mine. I painted the divider thingy white on mine. Did you install the switch overlays yourself? If so how hard was it?

There was no suggestions about what paper to use. I suspect if it can survive a laserjet it can handle sunlight. If it fades then I'll change it.

The hard part will be deciding on a cool graphic. I have a few ideas.

 

"I painted the divider thingy white on mine"
what divider thingy are you talking about?

yes, i did the switch overlays myself. the old ones just peel off-use something sharp. i used a small dab of super-glue to put the white ones on; nothing fancy.
so you say your heater/ac panel is different than mine? i peeled mine off. take it real slow and you'll be ok. if your panel is similar, there will be an open space where the blub goes into for illumination. the bulb is usually accessed by removing the entire panel, but if you peel the panel off, you can get to the bulb. my OEM overlay had a rectangular, clear piece of plastic glued to the back of it. this provided a rigid base so that a person can't push the overlay into the light bulb area. you can carefully peel the clear plastic piece from the back of the OEM overlay. i just superglued it where it goes (there are indents to you can't mess up). it is important to put that plastic piece back on because as you know, our new overlays are much thinner and less rigid than the OEM ones.
i was thinking of trying to do my own overlays but dont have the time or knowledge on Photoshop. if you do anything, let me know. i'd love to see what you do. i'm glad to have someone to talk to about these gauges. i've been obsessed with these darn things since i sent my cluster off to have them done.
keep me posted.
oh, by the way. whitegaugeguy is now selling a FLAME version. they're on EBAY.
keep in touch

 

I don't think my Heater/AC panel even has illumination. I could be wrong. I'll post a picture of it. I thought I'd scan it in to reference the slots then whip up something in Photoshop that matches the white gauges font/style and use a little rubber cement to hold it in place over the original panel. I don't think I'll have to peel the original off. Maybe I'll snaz it up a little while I'm at it.

I'm not into flames that much. Inside or out. They're ok to look at, but flames are just too 'flam"boyant for me. I like to be notice for the little details.

The divider thingy I'm talking about is the metal piece that lies between the gauge face and the surround piece under the clear cover. It covers the gap between each gauge section.

 

I have been looking for white overlays for a long time! Thanks alot for the link!! I bought the whole guage cluster and all the other little lights just today. I can't wait for them to get here! What color of light bulb did you use on yours?

 

Glad to hear you bought some! i used blue bulbs. they are type-194's. it's a standard bulb used in many applications. did you get the regular bulbs (incandecant) or LED's. if you got LED's, you will have to get the polarity right for the LED's to work. it's not hard, if they don't work one way, they'll work the other. as you can tell from our posts, the Night look is nothing to write home about; but they are sharp in the day.
check out my gallery. did you get whitegaugeguy to sell you the heater/ac and other little overlays? those will really make the dash look good. if you try using the translucent sheets under the overlays to "better" the night look, let us know how they look in your gallery.
good luck and don't forget to post an update with pics.

 

oh, i forgot. you only need to put colored bulbs in the cluster sockets that say "illumination" or "illum". the others are for indicators and should be left white. if i remember right, you should only need 3 colored bulbs. i also put a colored bulb behind the heater/ac panel and behind the light/wiper/fuel switch.

 

I haven't gotten the bulbs yet, but I will go with 194LL's because they are brighter than 194's. I'll get them from Advance or somewhere. I DID get all of the other various overlays also! Do you know what type of translucent sheeting I should use? And where could I find it? I will be sure to put some pictures in my gallery.

I am also debating wether or not I should paint the wood trim flat black. Any input on that would be appreciated! I think it would look better, but I don't know..wouldn't want to get it painted and then not like it. My interior is the Lt. brown/chesnut color.

Thanks.

 

Sure enough the AC panel is backlit.

 

I never heard of the 194LL's. i might pick some up before i put my dash back together.
Did whitegaugeguy include the other overlays, or did you have to ask for them? and what did he charge you (just curious). NOTE: on the "FUEL" overlay: the overlay that says "FUEL" is a hair longer than the others. if you cut on the line when trimming, you will come up short. in my gallery, you will see what the sheet looks like with the other overlays. just cut the fuel overlay on the top,bottom, and left sides, and the excess on the right will be enough to fill the spot. (hope that made sense). i told whitegaugeguy about this and he said he was going to modify his overlay to adjust for the extra length, so you might not have a problem. be sure to use a VERY sharp Xacto knife when trimming.

i can't comment on painting because i've accepted the wood grain since i found out how much i would cost to "dip" them in carbon fiber. i do, however, like the idea of painting the gauge dividers white.

 

The 194LL is just a Silvania Long-Life bulb. But I will have to check and see if they come in different colors. I asked him for the extra overlays. The total including shipping was $25.00. Thanks for the tip on the fuel gauge!