White Face Gauges
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From: Globe
White Face Gauges
hey y'all i've got an 81 f250 (Pictures are in my gallery) and i am about to embark on a series of customizations. now being who i am i would much rather do something myself over and over again until i get it right than pay someone else to do it. my first project is whiting out the faces of all my gauges with flat white appliance paint via a rattle can and then color the upraised portions with a sharpie marker or some black paint on one of the million paintbrushes i have running around my house (that is until i actually need one lol)
my question for you is what other colors would all y'all like to see? the exterior of the truck is black and the interior is red. any ideas would be great, i would love to try something else out.
my question for you is what other colors would all y'all like to see? the exterior of the truck is black and the interior is red. any ideas would be great, i would love to try something else out.
Moderator
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 22,415
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From: Denver Metro Area, CO
Try something much lighter instead of black on the numbers, I'm finding that the black doesn't
light up well at night and am thinking of trying something different that might work better.
light up well at night and am thinking of trying something different that might work better.
Moderator
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 22,415
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From: Denver Metro Area, CO
I have a silver background & red backlights, black lettering is hard to see at night.
have you looked at the Sticky at the top of this forum? There's quite a thread on these painted
gauges in it.
have you looked at the Sticky at the top of this forum? There's quite a thread on these painted
gauges in it.
Tuned
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 284
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From: Enterprise, AL
Black doesn't show up well at all, just did mine a week or so ago. Redoing the letters/numbers. Search this forum and you will find a huge thread on white face gauges. Good luck.
Logistics Pro
Joined: Jun 2008
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From: Florida
Make sure you are absolutely sure you want to do this. I did my gauges white with blue numbers. It looked good, but I grew sick of it. Luckily, I found another cluster and swapped it in. I personally like the black better.
Posting Guru
Joined: Aug 2009
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From: Mexia, TX
I swapped out the colored lenses and clear bulbs in my factory, stock-color gauges, and put in red colored bulbs. It actually looks very good and is really easy to see at night. Plus it's like a 30-minute job, an hour if you take your time.
I used two red 194s to the left of the speedometer, 168s on each side of the tach, and to remedy the dark spot near the oil and ammeter gauges (I had a 194 lighting those when I took those pics, if I recall), a 168 in the socket nearest to those gauges.
You could also experiment and try different colors too. But red makes the factory gauges really pop at night.
I used two red 194s to the left of the speedometer, 168s on each side of the tach, and to remedy the dark spot near the oil and ammeter gauges (I had a 194 lighting those when I took those pics, if I recall), a 168 in the socket nearest to those gauges.
You could also experiment and try different colors too. But red makes the factory gauges really pop at night.
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hey y'all i've got an 81 f250 (Pictures are in my gallery) and i am about to embark on a series of customizations. now being who i am i would much rather do something myself over and over again until i get it right than pay someone else to do it. my first project is whiting out the faces of all my gauges with flat white appliance paint via a rattle can and then color the upraised portions with a sharpie marker or some black paint on one of the million paintbrushes i have running around my house (that is until i actually need one lol)
my question for you is what other colors would all y'all like to see? the exterior of the truck is black and the interior is red. any ideas would be great, i would love to try something else out.
my question for you is what other colors would all y'all like to see? the exterior of the truck is black and the interior is red. any ideas would be great, i would love to try something else out.
Hmmm, interesting. Do you think a white background with black letters would be easier to see at night? Also, I was planning on either keeping the factory "green" colored light or removing the green and going with just the plain bulb.
Posting Guru
Joined: Aug 2009
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From: Mexia, TX
I got mine from Autozone, but you can probably find them other places too. You could use LEDs since the cluster uses a common #194 bulb, but you might not be happy with the results. Single-LED bulbs tend to focus the lights more in certain areas, whereas the glass bulbs send light in every direction. They do sell multi-LED bulbs that spread the light out better though.
I think you would be completely satisfied with using non-LED, colored bulbs.
I think you would be completely satisfied with using non-LED, colored bulbs.
Posting Guru
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 2,271
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From: Mexia, TX
Thanks!
At some point I'm going to be making a custom panel to mount some Autometer ES Series gauges in to replace the factory units, but that's later on, so I'll have these for a while.
The ES Series gauges light are black with white graphics in the daytime, black with red graphics at night.
At some point I'm going to be making a custom panel to mount some Autometer ES Series gauges in to replace the factory units, but that's later on, so I'll have these for a while.
The ES Series gauges light are black with white graphics in the daytime, black with red graphics at night.
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