Topic: Gauges on the K5 Before and After

[ElCheapo]

I figured it was pretty dumb that I was still running around with crappy gauge faces when I am the guy who designed replacement faces. Anyway here are some pics.

As you can see in the photos I also took the time to super glue a silica gel bag into each of the gauges to keep moisture down.

Keep in mind the speedo face was a loss after I overheated it and destroyed it. I made a new face from 1/8 plexi glass. 

[ElCheapo]

Another shot

Ill post better ones in the morning.

[ElCheapo]

Heres the new finished photos. I think the whole deal turned out nicely. Was a bit of a pain in the ass to get the rings back on. But it all turned out ok.

[Daves_76_SS]

Awesome!  How do I get some?

[ElCheapo]

I have them for sale on eBay on well anyone here that wants in on a set of these you can send payment via paypal to tneubauer@charter.net and type Black letter white face pro comp K5 in the subject, and I will get them shipped out as fast as possible.

[GroovieGhoulie]

Quick question:

Is that an original K5 tach?  I thought the K1-K6 had 8000 RPM redlines, but yours has the 8500 redline of the K0, but it doesn't have the lights in the gauge face and the redline size is different.  Is that a K7 tach?

[ElCheapo]

Nope, as far as I know it is a K5 tach original.

No one noticed that the speedo face is different. I destroyed the original to junk so I had to make one out of 1/8" plexiglass.

[glendaler]

can this be done with the gauges still on the bike? just pop the face off pop the needle off and replace? or am i completely wrong? i don't really know how these gauges work but i want to do something similar to my 650. i read somewhere about scanning them on a computer and just change the colors and such so you still have the exact size and line placement.

[ElCheapo]

The gauges must be removed and the gauges disassembled. Just scanning it is not all it is cracked up to be. The face must be drawn in some software that will allow you to render it in vectored artwork rather than rasterized. Simply scanning and changing colors will result in a fuzzy graphic that will be of lesser quality.

[glendaler]

alright thanks for the info, i'll see what i can do, we have a pretty high tech computer lab at school. worst case they do'nt turn out and i put the stockers back on, no biggy. yours look great by the way!

[ElCheapo]

alright thanks for the info, i'll see what i can do, we have a pretty high tech computer lab at school. worst case they do'nt turn out and i put the stockers back on, no biggy. yours look great by the way!

Better have a spare set of faces, doing this alteration is rather permanent. Or be ready to sit down and custom cut a replacement face to use your decals on.

[glendaler]

i'm not completely sure were talking about the same thing. my stock faces wont be altered at all, they'll just be scanned on to the computer, and i'll make completely new ones, print them out on real think paper, and put those in. in theory of course, i don't even know what the current faces are made of, but the way i'm doing it doesn't alter the stock faces at all.

[ElCheapo]

Stock faces are 1/8" rock hard plastic with a blue reflective back side. Thick paper simply wont do it. It wont hold up for very long. First off, ink colors on any type of paper will fade to almost no color in a very short period of time and the first time the gauge gets damp the paper will take a hike as it will soak up any moisture in the gauge and warp or fall apart.

Think of it this way, that 1/8" plastic gauge face is tough but about 2 in 20 I find are warped bad. To the point of unuseable. To get and idea about how well a non UV protected Non SIgn quality vinyl will hold up, just print your image on any paper, then put it in the back window of your car. Within 3-4 days the image will just about be gone.

[glendaler]

oh i see, i didn't realize what material it was made of, come to think of it, it may have been a car gague article i was reading. thanks for clearing it up!

[mb3000gt]

Those look real nice. does anyone know where I can get replacemtn gauge faces for a 400f? i havent been able to find anything, thanks

[ElCheapo]

oh i see, i didn't realize what material it was made of, come to think of it, it may have been a car gauge article i was reading. thanks for clearing it up!

Yea, on some of the cars, WAY back (around the time of the last ice age  ) - some of the faces were a hard card stock. But in a car it is not subject to direct sun all the time and for the most part lives a rather protected life inside a car. So here, yeq you could get away with a hard card stock replacement.

Those look real nice. does anyone know where I can get replacemtn gauge faces for a 400f? i havent been able to find anything, thanks

I would love to know. If you are willing to pull apart a set of 400 gauges and scan the face at about 300 DPI or better I would be more than willing to take a look and see how close they are. Email me the file and I will see what I can do. Also I will need the exact measurement of the outer diameter of the face. This is just to make sure that we end up with a face that will fit properly.

PLUS WE ARE WORKING ON KPH SPEEDO FACES for our metric friends around the globe. Here is an example of the work we have done on it as of yet. Stock colors are hard to nail unless you can get the gauge next to a pantone comparision chart. I think these will do well in the Pro Comp look. Needs a little tweaking as it looks off at the 120KPH increment. ?

[carpy]

I too make guage faces for the SOHC's.
As I was fed up with crappy ones.
These are a non fade material and I have had mine 5 years with no worries.

These are easy to apply and do not moisten up.
They come in a range of designs too.






I also have the New Ton up design that dresses up the gauges for the Cafe or custom 750 in your life.

These are a great product and I shall be designing more soon, you can purchase these on my website at www.cb750cafe.com


Also there is a guy that will completly restore you gauges for about $400, great for the restorer, he also chromes the bottom cover as well as fits the original band, as he has a crimping machine, the best out there for restoration.

Carpy

[Zane]

When I bought my first bike - last year - the gauges were bad (looks and function).  Carpy probably doesn't recall, but he took the time to inspire me somewhat - towards making some for myself.

Mine are definitely an amateur job, and I wouldn't consider selling them unless I figured out a far better way to make them.  But for me this combination of a hi-res scan, and some very elementary photoshop work works well enough.

Yeah, it would sure be nice to get the resto done by a pro - and maybe I will someday (on this bike or a different one).  I'm pretty sure that as I gain experience I'll become more attracted by more of an original restorative type look - a look like the bike had when it was new.

Ultimately, the reason I did this though, was the original speedo was in MPH.  In a car that wouldn't bother me, but as a beginner bike guy, I really needed to have the thing in KPH.  At the beginning for sure, I had just too much on my mind to need to be worried about how fast I was going too.

[ElCheapo]

Seeing that the gauge faces I bothered to put 3 months of proper R&D into are now worthless I think we'll dump'em on the BBQ. I think people were just waiting to see if it could be done. Getting sorry that I wasted my time.

Maybe next time I should make gauge faces that look good and sorry like the faded ones most of us have.

[GroovieGhoulie]

Don't get discouraged ElCheapo.  My tach could use a new face because of the faded redline.  My only issue is that there is no way to easily take the gauges apart without cutting things and since 400 gauges are nearly unobtainable, I don't want to go cutting into mine.

Now if there was a professional service where I could send them (with new faces) and they come back looking like the day they came out of Japan, (no cutting) then I would do it.

[ElCheapo]

Don't get discouraged ElCheapo.  My tach could use a new face because of the faded redline.  My only issue is that there is no way to easily take the gauges apart without cutting things and since 400 gauges are nearly unobtainable, I don't want to go cutting into mine.

Now if there was a professional service where I could send them (with new faces) and they come back looking like the day they came out of Japan, (no cutting) then I would do it.

I follow on this. The crimper will be the next tool we will be getting so that we can do exactly what you are looking for.

[mbrock307]

how do you deal with the problem of resealing the gauges after opening them???

[ElCheapo]

This is done fairly easily with a very thin smear of black silicone. I am not so sure this is needed but I do it any way when I do a set. Then it is 5 min 5 ton epoxy at the cut on the ring to make sure she stays.

[6pkrunner]

El - any progress/word on the standard K2 and K3 faces?

[ElCheapo]

El - any progress/word on the standard K2 and K3 faces?

The work is done already. I just need to print them. They are not all that different from the K5 gauges.