Thanks for all the compliments guys!
I was trying to get an OEM look that would blend with the look of my bike, and keeping it classic/classy/sporty. So countless hours were spent trying to even find the right font for the numbers. Am excited to hopefully install them tonight. Too bad it's gonna be raining until Wednesday and I will just have to stare at them in the garage. Here is what I was trying to match...
I should have documented the gauges step by step. Maybe I can still take them apart and contribute to the FAQs. Lord knows this forum has been super helpful throughout my newbieness and I owe you guys. I'll at least try to answer all your questions for now... maybe it will help if someone wants to learn from my research
The gauges are essentially stickers I had printed on a vinyl cutter/printer. This is the kind of printer that was used:
Silkscreening would have been the best way to go as far as longevity goes, but much more expensive, especially because the faces are essentially 3 colors (4 if you count white) and each color would need its own silkscreen. And the actual process is a PIA. So I chose to go this route. The company that printed them for me makes signs and the material should hold up to direct exposure to the elements. I figure the better they are behind glass. Reds are usually the first color to fade and I was told this one should hold up to 10 years of UV exposure. Hope they're right, but my bike gets garaged anyway, so the exposure is essentially 10 years of riding days.
My tank badges were done the same way (in my avatar), and thus far no fading. If someone decides to have their gauges printed, make sure they use UV resistant (outdoor) inks. Generally used for car wraps etc. Keeping my fingers crossed!
I found several websites on how to take the gauges apart. The toughest and most time consuming part is taking the little chrome seal ring off that holds the black trim at the top of the gauge to the metal lower part (that holds the guts). I pried the underside of it with a screwdriver, though now I think cutting it with a dremel tool and then welding it might be easier. After that it all just comes apart. I used two spoons to pry the needles off. Come to think of it, maybe I will do a write up
and try to find the links to the disassembly web pages when I get home from work. The vinyl itself has a silver liner under the white to block transparency so I stuck them right over the green OEM faces after cleaning them with acetone. Lining them up is tricky.
To my metric counterparts... in Illustrator. I think one of the biggest challenges was converting the faces to Km/h and aligning the hash marks to where they should be since the lines are not always the same amount of degrees from each other. The most useful trick was to draw a line the right size, copying it, and then positioning the rotation crosshairs (in Illustrator) to the center of the gauge and rotating it that way. For those wanting to stay in miles, you are saving yourself a TON of gray hair
I think I have my illustrator file somewhere... I'll have to dig through my hard drive. It would be in Km/h though.
Next step, vinyl cut 550Four stickers for my side covers and Honda + "Super Sport" for my gas tank... having that cut from flat black vinyl. And polishing the motor. And then... more staring at it. Do you guys do that too? Stand in the driveway and stare at your bike? Or is it just me?
Mike