Topic: Gauge needle - Testor international orange substitute/gauge housing colors

[jlh3rd]

The original Honda faceplates are made of green translucent plastic.
The aftermarket ones…at least from Marcel in the UK are made of white plastic.
So at night the back lighting was too bright as I read on this site. So the fix was to use different bulbs.
Because I was lucky to read that before I reassembled the tach I was redoing, I figured out a different solution.
I found green,translucent,sticky back film. By holding up the original Honda faceplate and the aftermarket one to a light at the same time, dark room, I found it took two cutouts of that film to equal the backlighting of the original.
I have an NOS speedometer mounted with the redone tach, but not on a bike and haven’t tried them. Pretty sure it’ll work.
I’m not saying do this. I’m just pointing out the issue with a possible better solution than trying to work around bulbs.

[jlh3rd]

Hope this helps.

[BenelliSEI]

Nice detail! Thanks for sharing. Where did you find that material?

[jlh3rd]

I don’t remember where I got it. Says Orefol.com on the back. Oracal transparent Cal, 8300.

[willbird]

I don’t remember where I got it. Says Orefol.com on the back. Oracal transparent Cal, 8300.

https://www.orafol.com/en/americas/products/oracal-8300-transparent-cal

I would think it must be the dark green here ??

available on the zon of am :-).
https://a.co/d/71A1HuA

[PeWe]

I painted my K2 faces rear sides with a blue-green metallic. I have not assembled the gauges yet. But lamp test looked ok.

I found NOS gauges to that bike.

I have a rebuilt tacho by Marcel. I tried very weak lamps, still shining thru the face.
Stock has a very nice illumination.

That tacho irritated me that much so I replaced it with an old not that good looking one. Face color almost match, red area awful.

It look much better when riding in darkness though. No blinding light.

I have to open the tacho and paint the rear side of face plate.

[jlh3rd]

I don’t remember where I got it. Says Orefol.com on the back. Oracal transparent Cal, 8300.

https://www.orafol.com/en/americas/products/oracal-8300-transparent-cal

I would think it must be the dark green here ??

available on the zon of am :-).
https://a.co/d/71A1HuA

Certainly looks like it.

[jlh3rd]

I painted my K2 faces rear sides with a blue-green metallic. I have not assembled the gauges yet. But lamp test looked ok.

I found NOS gauges to that bike.

I have a rebuilt tacho by Marcel. I tried very weak lamps, still shining thru the face.
Stock has a very nice illumination.

That tacho irritated me that much so I replaced it with an old not that good looking one. Face color almost match, red area awful.

It look much better when riding in darkness though. No blinding light.

I have to open the tacho and paint the rear side of face plate.

I thought about some type of paint but was thinking it might block the light totally, would be hard to remove if it did, and more difficult to “adjust.
At least you can remove the stick on. Plus, you just hold whatever # of layers of the stick on you think you need without sticking it on until you’re satisfied.

[PeWe]

Here my K2 gauges. NOS early 2019.
No illumination thru the faces. Light reflected via the sides.

I have old gauges and parts. One with broken face. It is darkgreen all thru. Old K2.

[zabzob]

@willbird I think it's this 8300 transparent:

ORACAL 8300 Transparent Green https://a.co/d/j3hbX84

Wouldn't like for somebody to buy the opaque and not be able to see anything!

[willbird]

@willbird I think it's this 8300 transparent:

ORACAL 8300 Transparent Green https://a.co/d/j3hbX84

Wouldn't like for somebody to buy the opaque and not be able to see anything!

OK so I ordered this one...

https://a.co/d/igtQyW1

Which says ""dark green transparent"

Bill

[jlh3rd]

Here my K2 gauges. NOS early 2019.
No illumination thru the faces. Light reflected via the sides.

I have old gauges and parts. One with broken face. It is darkgreen all thru. Old K2.

The light passes through the plate…and around the edge.
The first pic is my original tach.
Second pic is a Marcel speedometer plate.
Light is a cell phone. You can see the difference.
Furthermore, Honda painted the side of their faceplates white. I guess it’s translucent. I don’t know but the aftermarket is already white.

[zabzob]

Custom blend of fluorescent red and international orange equivalent. Not exact, but close enough! Also picked up some UV blocker from the hobby store because I hear the colors fade pretty quick in the sun.

[grcamna2]

subscribed

[PeWe]

A good tool that can crimp new rings from Marcel together would be fine.

[Kimmo]

What do you people think about RAL 2005 luminous orange colour used in needle tip. Until now I have used RAL 2002 blood orange but I think it is too red when compared to original colour. Maybe this RAL 2005 would be better. As we know nowadays it is nearly impossible to find Testor international orange.

[SanDogDewey]

A little off topic, but still in line with gauge restoration. Repainting the sleeve inside the gauge will restore the “glow”. I used this paint from Krylon. You can see in the second picture, it matches pretty well with the original color.

[grcamna2]

A little off topic, but still in line with gauge restoration. Repainting the sleeve inside the gauge will restore the “glow”. I used this paint from Krylon. You can see in the second picture, it matches pretty well with the original color.

I 'dig'  it;to renew that part also