Gauge face overlay: paint needles?
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Yorb
- Posts: 323
- Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2002 7:29 am
- Car: 1992 Nissan 240SX SE Fastback
- Location: Raleigh, NC
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Gauge face overlay: paint needles?
I was just wondering, out of those of you with white gauge faces, did you paint your original white needles? If so, what kind of paint did you use? I know they light up, and I don't want to make them opaque with the wrong kind of paint.Thanks!
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Yorb
- Posts: 323
- Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2002 7:29 am
- Car: 1992 Nissan 240SX SE Fastback
- Location: Raleigh, NC
- Contact:
Thanks for the responses, sorry I didn't reply sooner.Bandit240 - You painted them silver? Of course you couldn't see them on white gauge faces... As for painting the bulbs, that's not going to help me in the daytime, which is what I really need. It's hard to see white needles on white gauges.JeromeS13 - Mark the underside of the needle? So it still glows white at night, but it looks red in the day? Can you tell me what you mean, 'cause it sounds like just the easy way out of this I'm looking for. =)
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jmillheiser
- Posts: 255
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2003 7:45 pm
instead of painting the blubs you can just buy colored bulbs. they are pretty cheap.
if i remember correctly dont the stock gauges have white backlighting at night like most nissans? if they are white its easy. if they backlight some other color like green then its gonna look weird.
ive found that using super white bulbs on white faced aftermarket gauges (ones with side lighting like autometers and VDOs) produces a nice effect. i have a super white bulb on my aftermarket tach and it lights up HID white and makes the face and pointer show up really bright (and its not a lighter pointer). i tried red and blue also. the red looked pretty cool but could be hard to read with the orange pointer. and the blue was unreadable. the bulb i am using now is an APC super white 194 blub. should be able to use those in an instrument cluster as well (194s are commonly used on instrument lamps).
so does marking the underside of the pointer make it show up red when lit?
if i remember correctly dont the stock gauges have white backlighting at night like most nissans? if they are white its easy. if they backlight some other color like green then its gonna look weird.
ive found that using super white bulbs on white faced aftermarket gauges (ones with side lighting like autometers and VDOs) produces a nice effect. i have a super white bulb on my aftermarket tach and it lights up HID white and makes the face and pointer show up really bright (and its not a lighter pointer). i tried red and blue also. the red looked pretty cool but could be hard to read with the orange pointer. and the blue was unreadable. the bulb i am using now is an APC super white 194 blub. should be able to use those in an instrument cluster as well (194s are commonly used on instrument lamps).
so does marking the underside of the pointer make it show up red when lit?
And it SUX LOL 
yorb try this instead of using a sharpie go to your local hobby shop and buy some Tamiya Acrylic paint Tamiya makes clear paints that are supposed to be used when paintint things like tail lights, so naturally they will have red. the color code for clear red is X-27. it will work better on the needles because it is designed for use on plastics while sharpies are made for use on paper.-jake
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iliketocrash
- Posts: 1109
- Joined: Sat May 31, 2003 5:58 am