Author Topic: My new white face gauges  (Read 3020 times)

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Offline mikethejeepguy

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My new white face gauges
« on: April 19, 2009, 06:31:39 pm »
Ok, after checking out many gauges on cars and bikes and playing some time on Illustrator, this is what I came up with.



Finally assembled, greased, cleaned with never-fog, and mileage changed to match original gauges, they are ready to go on.  Though I have to admit, at first I thought my OEM green gauges were ugly, and now am sad to see them go.  Good thing I'm keeping them unaltered. Maybe I'll switch back eventually.

Some detail shots...





Maybe tomorrow I'll do the swap and post more pics...



'76 Honda CB550F, Dana-S'd, Uni filtered, HID'd, LED'd, and mildly cafe'd with many plans still.

Offline GammaFlat

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2009, 06:57:19 pm »
Those look great!

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Offline andy750

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2009, 06:59:14 pm »
Very nice work!

Andy
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Offline Sheik Yerbouti

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2009, 07:48:08 pm »
Mind posting the illustrator file for those of us interested in using it?

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2009, 08:17:12 pm »
Nice looking gauges.  Very sharp-looking -- from the faces, to the needles to the screws.  Great job!
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luckydevil

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2009, 09:02:34 pm »
Mind posting the illustrator file for those of us interested in using it?

+1

Great looking guages.

Offline Steve F

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2009, 02:26:29 am »
REALLY NICE!  Question: what do you use (material) for those faces?  Did you do a "how to" or any documentation while you were doing this?  I was also wondering what technique you used to get the gages apart and back together.
Nice job, looking forward to some more info.
Steve F

Offline Toxic

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2009, 04:15:40 am »
awesome job

Post more details of how you did it.

Offline KB02

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2009, 05:05:10 am »
awesome job

Post more details of how you did it.

+1  And do you hire out? I have been playing around with new gauge faces for my bike, but everything that I come up with tends to look like crap.
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Offline spdiii

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2009, 05:08:25 am »
Man those look great! I can't see any sign that you took them apart, other than the new faces. Good job!
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Offline bert96

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2009, 05:24:53 am »
nnnnniiiiiiceeeee  ;)
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Offline Johnny5

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2009, 05:59:43 am »
Those look fantastic! Well done.
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Offline burmashave

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2009, 06:38:51 am »
I think elegant is the word. Very understated.

Just an FYI about materials, inks and printers for faces, there was a thread sometime back with a discussion about that. I'm sure it could be found, although I'm guessing the discussion was buried in a thread like this one about specific faces. The important info as I read it was what type of printing to use in order to avoid fading.
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Offline mikethejeepguy

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2009, 08:27:42 am »
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  ;D

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


'76 Honda CB550F, Dana-S'd, Uni filtered, HID'd, LED'd, and mildly cafe'd with many plans still.

Offline imamotohead

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2009, 03:24:46 pm »
Awesome!  I probably should know this but - what kind of program is Illustrator? ???
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Offline cleveland

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #15 on: April 20, 2009, 03:30:28 pm »
Quote from: mikethejeepguy link=topic=49979.msg528897#msg528897
  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?

Yep, sure do.  A lot in fact.   ;D

How much are you going to charge me for a set?  Really, I'd like a set. 
« Last Edit: April 21, 2009, 08:27:48 am by cleveland »

luckydevil

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #16 on: April 20, 2009, 09:30:45 pm »
I think I have my illustrator file somewhere... I'll have to dig through my hard drive. It would be in Km/h though.


That's Ok, it'll give us Yanks the illusion we are going faster than we really are.   ;D

Offline anparkinson

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #17 on: April 21, 2009, 08:02:22 am »
Would you print more to sell?

Andy

Offline burmashave

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #18 on: April 21, 2009, 08:12:15 am »
Awesome!  I probably should know this but - what kind of program is Illustrator? ???

I'll try to do this on the short. As far as image manipulation programs go, there are two types (that I know of): bitmap and vector. Bitmap programs do just what the name implies. They create files in which eat pixel (essentially) is mapped to a color in order to create an image. One uses programs, such as Photoshop or Microsoft Paint/Photo Editor, to create an edit bitmap images. The image formats for the Web, such as jpeg, gif and png, are bitmap formats, as is the older bmp (bitmap) format. One of the problems with bitmap formats is that the images do not scale well, especially as they get larger.

Vector formats, such as ai (Illustrator), eps or svg, do not map individual pixels. Instead, they create mathematical relationships between all of the elements. When one uses a program like Illustrator to create a drawing, the resulting file can easily be scaled to any size without loss of clarity. Think of vector as in a very complicated X Y system. There are other differences, and reasons for choosing one over the other; however, diagrams, in my opinion, are most easily done in a vector format.

By the way, Inkscape is a very good open source, as in free, vector drawing program, although it does not have the power of Illustrator. I used Inkscape almost entirely to create a vector format wiring diagram for the '77 750K.

Similarly, The Gimp is a superb photo editing (as in bitmap) program. It is open source and free as well. I have used Adobe Photoshop extensively; however, I still prefer The Gimp for many tasks.
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Offline Lights Out

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #19 on: April 21, 2009, 09:19:24 am »
good post, I too am interested in your Illustrator file. Love the white! And I stare at my bike all the time!
1976 CB750K

Offline Sheik Yerbouti

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #20 on: April 21, 2009, 10:30:03 am »
I work a lot in illustrator, so I may take a stab at converting the faces to mph.

Offline mikethejeepguy

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Re: My new white face gauges
« Reply #21 on: April 30, 2009, 09:58:19 am »
A little update... the gauges are now installed and I love how much brighter they are now that the inner rings are white vs. green and with the more reflective surface. Loves it! Here are a few pics of them installed.

Here they are after being caught in the rain, hail, and 70mph winds last week ... that sucked!



And a close up...



Besides my tach needle jumping around now, am really happy. A lesson would be: if you buy a tach off eBay, hook it up first to see if it works properly before you crack it open and then put back together. Am working on piecing together a step by step guide.
'76 Honda CB550F, Dana-S'd, Uni filtered, HID'd, LED'd, and mildly cafe'd with many plans still.