Anyone know anything about making gauge faces from EL sheets?

[Samckitt]

EL Sheets are paper like thin material that can be cut to shape & when a small current is applied to it, it lights up.


Since the gauges of an 86 Monte are poorly lit, not lit through from the back, but by light reflecting from the sides onto the gauge. Anyway I was thinking of possibly making a gauge face from this EL Sheet . Anyone have any experience with it?



Here are some examples I found.

[WS6]

No clue but I think it would be cool looking.

Of course, there's always Autometer. They make gauges with those type faces.

Good luck if you can pull it off Scot.

[MuscleRodz]

I think Killer Customs does it

[Samckitt]

I want something that fits all gauges in the factory gauge space provided. Not putting some in front of the passenger, down below the radio, or on the A pillar. Autometer doesn't make the fuel, alt, oil & temp gauges to fit them in the stock location. So I think I am going to find some EL sheets and see what I can do.

[Ash]

Found this site a little while back.... They sell El sheets. The website has a little tutorial. http://www.beingseen.com/sheets.html

If you want it to look like the last two pictures (basic indiglo), with no reverse lighting, Id just buy a sheet & cut it to fit the cluster. Then get a sign shop to cut you a identical overlay of the gauge face in vinyl (anything not glowing..numbers,letter, redline, etc) . then lay it over the indiglo sheet. The look wont be near as modern as the reverse indiglo in the top two pics.

For the reverse indiglo look, Speed-Hut is the only company that comes to mind www.speedhut.com

EDIT: The 80's MC's are not offered by speedhut...BUT they do have a request page, and it appears they'll do the tooling in "ANY" style they offer (and they have some pretty bad a$$ styles) if a group buy of 25 can be reached


On a side not, if the electronic vinyl sign cutters could work on this material, you could easilly get the layered colors of the reverse indiglo

[Samckitt]

I want the opposite, the face black with the letters/numbers & tick marks lit up. I'm wondering if I could just design the face in something like photoshop & put the EL sheet in the printer & print the black, red, blue (whatever) on it & then cut it out. Of course I would try it first on clear to make sure it lights through where needed & blacked out where needed.

[Ash]

I'm pretty stoked I found the thread linked below, as I've been stumped on a way to get the acurate reverse glow look (without looking bobo). You get a white EL sheet (not the green indiglo color), then you design your overlay and print it on transparent acetate sheet. Do two (maybe even three) identical layers as so minimal light shines through the black part...Heres the build.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3D40%26um%3D1

[shep]

I would think you could have the vinyl shop make a mask with the ticks and numbers removed and just put that over the EL sheet .

[Samckitt]

I am going to order a small piece of the EL sheet & get some colored transparencies (red & blue & clear), design the gauge & print on the clear sheet where I want the light to be blacked out & arrange the red/blue under it to shine through that color where there is no black on the top layer.

[EFI69Cam]

I had my speedo converted to electronic and refaced to 160mph by redline gauges. They did a really nice job, and cost less than I expected. You might want to talk to them about refacing with the EL sheets.

[Bigblue73]

The EL's are an excellent choice in lighting. You may need a temperature compensation circuit to deal with heat from the interior. My only dealing with them was in the LCD business in which we used them as the backlight for many products. At the time, 1990, the cost was really expensive but on the other hand the installation was so easy and they provided not "hot spots" (brite segments) in the displays. Now being almost 20 years later, I'm sure the cost has come down and manufacturing has been "figured out". Laugh at the last statement, there was a time that the company I was working was happy with 10 modules a day! Go for it.

I've always wanted to my tail lights in an EL on my '70 Challenger. Nice and long with a mysterious glow....Thats the ticket!