[Mk2] [Generic] The speedhut look for a fraction of the cost

[Ryan S]

yasss!!!

thanks a lot for this mate, totally makes sense now, it does look ver fiddly, especially cutting out those wee squares!!

[shinny]

yasss!!!

thanks a lot for this mate, totally makes sense now, it does look ver fiddly, especially cutting out those wee squares!!

The squares were pretty fiddly - I used a spare tacho dial as a template. Everything else was pretty simple tho

[Ryan S]

i don't think i'll bother cutting out the squares, or i might just cout out a whole strip, so the red part is red and the dashes are white

[shinny]

i don't think i'll bother cutting out the squares, or i might just cout out a whole strip, so the red part is red and the dashes are white

Start simple - you can always modify things again later

[Ryan S]

i don't think i'll bother cutting out the squares, or i might just cout out a whole strip, so the red part is red and the dashes are white

Start simple - you can always modify things again later

yeah this is true, i take it getting the cluster out is fairly simple?? it has to come out anyway to sort the (aftermarket) boost gauge.

[shinny]

I wrote some instructions for getting to the cluster here:

http://www.speedview.co/forum/Thread-In ... prox-92-99

These are the locations of the tabs to release the black front from the housing. You want the tabs pointed to by the red arrows:

[Ryan S]

cheers man, you've been a great help, this should get put in the knowledge base

[uglee]

I can't emphasise how much you don't want to pop the needles off. It's not so bad when the tach pops as it's a case of waiting to idle and place it roughly 900rpm etc.
It's not so easy trying the same thing with the GPS at 30mph and driving. In the end it's safer to get the rear wheels in the air and match the speedo to the revs the car does in 2nd at say 1000rpm. It took me AGES to get mine back something decent after doing the swap

[alan_uk]

i had that trouble thought it was a case of popping the needles off when at bottom then re fitting in the same position lol

boy was i wrong either that or i was really getting 178mph from a k reg n/a lmao

[Ryan S]

yeah i'll try and avoid that, i've heard it's a pain

[Ryan S]

had the clocks out today to try and sort out my boost gauge, still waiting on my LED's to arrive, i cannot believe how simple it is,

[chrisrev2gt]

Very smart.

[Ryan S]

what did you do about the clock?? i'd like it a bit darker to match the dials, is there anyway to get a piece of film over it??

[rs007]

Great thread this, I hate my clocks currently - this looks far better in my personal opinion, will be doing to my bus

[shinny]

there is self adhesive types as well, i don;t know if this would make it easier or not, since i don't know how it all works until i take the clocks apart.

You know, I was thinking about this... self adhesive tint might have worked very nicely for those intricate cut-outs. Instead of sliding a large sheet into an exact place, you could cut small chunks of the self adhesive stuff and stick them in place for a few numbers / ticks at a time. The section where mine goes blue-red-blue-red etc could easily be achieved by cutting thin slithers of the tint and sticking them individually over each blue tick. It would also allow you place a red tint under the red part to make them 'redder'

Dunno whether I'll bother trying it, but I can't see why it wouldn't work and might make the entire thing even easier to achieve.

Got any pics of your final result, sheppy?

[shinny]

what did you do about the clock?? i'd like it a bit darker to match the dials, is there anyway to get a piece of film over it??

You can dismantle the clock, punch out the standard tint and replace it with whatever you like. I've currently got two layers of the same blue tint I used on the dials in there. However I've not so keen on that as the blue tint is quite obvious in daylight... some day I may revert back to the standard green so something matches my HUD.

[rs007]

Silly question - and apologies if you have already addressed - but did you change out the bulbs for all the warning lights too? or are those left stock?

I'm assuming exact same principal can be used to spruce up the heater panel, sure I've seen that done somewhere?

[Ryan S]

yeah, my point about the self adhesive was (bearing in mind you'd HAVE to take the needles off) that you could stick it to the back of the face, then use a lightbox (like in art class at school) and use a craft knife to cut out the intricate parts, yeah i have a pic but it from my phone but it looks crap they actually look great in the flesh




the boost gauge looks like you can't see it but it is in fact very visible, the clocks are really bright as well


EDIT: annoyingly, i HAD to cut the wee tubes behind the indicators down to get the boost gauge in, so the green shows up now, i might paint the green plastic or something, not sure yet.

[Ryan S]

Silly question - and apologies if you have already addressed - but did you change out the bulbs for all the warning lights too? or are those left stock?

I'm assuming exact same principal can be used to spruce up the heater panel, sure I've seen that done somewhere?

i personally left all the warning lights, they are just white, coloured by the piece of card (with the symbols).

[shinny]

Silly question - and apologies if you have already addressed - but did you change out the bulbs for all the warning lights too? or are those left stock?

Not really worth the bother of changing them IMHO

I'm assuming exact same principal can be used to spruce up the heater panel, sure I've seen that done somewhere?

From my experience, no. The heater controls don't take 501s and even when I did mod a couple of the same LED 501s in place the light spread was very patchy. After a few minutes fiddling I gave up on the idea of using the same principle on the HVAC unit

As it happens I finished them yesterday night (well, 2am this morning), but I did them completely differently. I removed the perspex light channels inside and and fitted a number of individual LEDs plus two LED strips have been carefully placed to light everything up adequately. The A/C controls were a real PITA to get lit up well with the blue.





Not the simplest mod I've ever done...