Custom Gauges

[PhillipM]

So after seeing a set of the Moal Aircraft gauges I was completely in love with them.... But decided to do it my self. So, bellow are some pictures of my Autometers that I redid with with that feel to them. The logo I designed myself and is inspired by the Moal one as well; it stands for my laser engraving business "McKee Markings". It was a fun little project and I will post up a couple more photos once I have them back in the car.

[Flash68]

Man, those look bad ass! Nice work!

[pokey64]

Those are slick!

[Later-A-body]

Wow...you did a great job on those. I would be real interested in finding out more details on how you modified them.

[NOT A TA]

Very nice! More details please.

[Bryce]

very cool.

[PhillipM]

The hardest part is being patient enough to pull the front covers off of the gauges. The large 5" gauges arent too difficult but the smaller the gauge the more time it takes. I know, sounds wierd. After that it is a matter of marking the at rest location of the needle on the body of the gauge. Then I have a little trick for popping off the needle. It is important not to move the needle once you have marked the location. Once the needle is off it is just two screws and the rest of the face comes off. Then I scan the face and begin my new design. A lot of the time I will get rid of some hash markes to clean it up a bit.

After the design is finished I pop some plastic into my Universal Laser System and engrave and cut them out. Next I paint the needle (becuase I can't stand the orange they use) and reinstall the parts. Finally I clean the windows one last time and snap the trim rings back on and use a small punch and a hammer to re-crimp the back sides. Afterwards you can definately see on the back sides that they have been opened up but if done correctly no evidence will be seen from the front of the gauge... which is all we ever see anyways.

[PhillipM]

Here is another gauge that I did... Very hard to get a good picture of it.

[Samckitt]

Are they illumined through the face from the back?

[PhillipM]

They are standard Autometer's so the illumination is "around" the dial.

[PhillipM]

Letting the needles dry. Painted them white but am thinking of adding some black on there. We'll see.



The color on the Oldsmobile gauge needle is Krylon Barn Red. I like that color as well but wanted to experiment on these.

[NOT A TA]

Thanks for the explanation. I've changed the pointers to white on some before also to match existing gauges. Nice job on the fonts and hash marks. The speedo looks much cleaner without the odd numbered 10's numerals. You've got a good eye, nice work!

[texasdvldog]

wow that's amazing how you can "personalize" your gauges like that!

[PhillipM]

Okay guys... finished them up last night. I'm jazzed!

[neki67]

Then I have a little trick for popping off the needle.

2 teaspoons?

[PhillipM]

No, but man, that sounds like a good way to do it also!

You actually can just grab a hold of the needle and yank it off but sometimes it bends them. Mine just involves using a butter knife to get down there and pop it off.

[DEIGuy38]

The gauges look great. Nice job

[jon72vega]

Excellent!
They look nice!

[PhillipM]

Thanks guys! It has been really great hearing all of the the positive feedback.

[gui67]

Very nice Job, fantastic.
would it be possible to copy the original gauge look of my camaro dash instead of the siler face of the Pro-comp ultra light (only one available in Metric: km/h)


Is it possible to add transparent parts for idiot lights for turn signal? (it would require to be able to put a light behind if there is enough place in the Autometer case)