I think you have to print them on some kind of foil, but not transparent. Semi-transparent, white would be the best. As well, the foil as well as the printing ink must me heat-resistent, due the heat of the dashboard illumination. But it looks great!
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I forgot, if I remeber correctly, the original diplays are made of some kind of glass. Has anyone already diassambled the meters, and knows how thik they are? I think it wonīt be a problem getting such pastic glasses, and to cut them out.
CU
Andy
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The dial panels themselves are made of fully transparent acrylic (=plastic) sheet, about 3 mm thick. Also known as plexi, plexiglass or perspex depending on country.
The newer-type gauges like in those scans (as also used in R21/Clio 1/Super 5/ R19 etc.) have separate thin foils in front of them, onto which the dials (=lines&numbers) are printed. These foils are clamped in place only by the pressure of the instrument frame panel, they're not glued on in anyway. So it's relatively easy to remove them, after you've disassembled the instrument cluster (take care not to crack the clear cover!!) and removed the needles (take care not to bend the delicate needle axles!!). The warning lights "faces" are executed in the same way using thin foils.
So you could print your own dials, remove the old foils and fit your new ones instead. But there are a few practical problems, which we can discuss in more detail if you like. Trust me, I've spend sleepless hours with this dilemma!
I think you should definitely use a laser printer, as (in my experience) the ink of inkjet printers - no matter what manufacturer - won't stand the humidity it gets exposed to in a car, and you could end up with blurry, soaked numbers before too long. Even if you use a laser printer, it's good to spray some UV-protective product onto the dials before assembling, as otherwise sunlight soon fades them unreadable.
The old-types instrument panels (like R9 1983 e.g.) have the dials printed directly onto the panel faces, there's no separate, removable foil, so you'd have to stick the new foil on top of the existing dials. This, of course, means that the numbers would have to be positioned EXACTLY on top of the old numbers, otherwise the result will look odd with lights on....
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If you put a foil on top of the existing dials of an older one, there are some more problems:
First, if you use semi-transparent foil, the black original will shine though, thatīll make the instruments grey instead of white. Maybe the effect will not be as wished. But, with a semi-transparent foil, you aviod (partly) the second problem:
the lamps that lie underneath, e.g. the minimum fuel lamp, or the lamp that goes on when the oil level gauge is engaged, wonīt shine through a non-transparent foil. In the case of the oil-level gauge, thereīs no major problem, because the gauge itself works as usual. But you wonīt see the minimum fuel warning lamp anymore, especially at daylight, so eventually you could end up with an empty fuel tank desperatly looking for a gas station
BTW, it looks like the original instruments are illuminated from the inside (from below, not from above the instruments), using some kind of light transportation transparent plastic thing. If so, the numbers on the original instrument would be illuminated, but thatīs exactly the part which is black on the new, white ones. So, finally, Iīm not quote sure if you could see ANYTHING... apart from the hands.
Some more problems to solve?
CU
Andy
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those are some of the problems I've been trying to solve myself.
Furthermore, there is a variable-density rasterizing printed on the backside of the faces. The rasters are denser near the bulbs, so that those parts wouldn't appear brighter than the rest of the dials.
BTW, if you take a print and look at it against a bright light, you'll notice that even the black is a little transparent. But you're right Andy, the numbers and warning lights would still be very hard to see in the daylight.
Talking about the newer instruments: If you take away the original foil you get a clear transparent base for the new foils. But since you'd have to use a semi-transparent (white) foil to get some light to show through the lines and numbers, you'd face another problem: The idea is that only the numbers illuminate, but in this case the white background as a whole would be illuminated, probably showing the internal structures through. And those bulb places probably showed through brighter as well, as there would be no rasterizing behind.
So ideally, we'd need a fully transparent, clear foil to start with. Then we'd need to print the numbers in transparent colour and the white in opaque. And, as we know, printing opaque (white) isn't possible with ordinary printers. We'd have to use serigraphy (=silk-screen printing) to achieve this. And that would require the help of pros, which would make it expensive.
Fortunately, you can get white dials for the newer instrument panel factory-made. An Italian company Birba makes them, and they're distributed through Sparco car equipment outlets, so shouldn't be a problem finding a place to get them from. I've seen them sold for around 50-70 euros, depending on place. Of course, the choice of colours isn't probably too great plus you'd miss the fun of DIY!
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maybe it would be a nice idea to create your own style Instrument Panel? Letīs say, like the skin of winamp, for example. Starting with the bitmaps given, there could be moon and stars, or the face of Elvis in the tacho, flowers or psychodelic designs... and, you could leave the numbers white, with a surrounding line... Letīs talk facts, white intruments arenīt that interesting anymore when talking about making your car REALLY INDIVIDUAL...
OK, I stop now, and I should go to bed, maybe this idea isnīt that good anymore tomorrow morning...
Laughing,
Andy
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