black out the gauges???

[jcrabb13]

Yea it just doesnt work well unless it was done from the factory. The only way you would pull it off would be with some electroluminescent panels for back lighting (you need these to achieve a bright enough light for daytime driving, normal bulbs wont be bright enough) and clearing then blacking all of the painted parts on the cluster leaving nothing but black.

See how you can still see everything on the cluster if you look closely. What you can see is the clear sections where the light shines through. So to see anything the cluster must always be illuminated when the car is on.

All in all, alot of work and just not worth it. Enjoy what you have.

that looks soooo badass. jealousy

 

[dreamofjdm]

nevermind.. i like the oem look.

i'll just paint gauge bezel white...

you can use the stain glass paint, that would be cool .

 

[Whiteman51x]

what i would do

-buy a 2nd guage cluster
-get the tail tint
-open her up
-spray a THIN, VERY THIN layer over the numbers and junk (they are transparent anyways for the light to get through i think)

so in essence you will be doing what you are doing to your tail lights - tinting over the transparency

i think that if you did the plastic case, it would look really plain and like it was missing something, if you do the guages, it will still have the round circles and look like a cluster just blank haha

i understand you wanna black ur car out and whatnot, but i dont think anyones going to look at ur cluster and say, WAIT A SECOND! UR CLUSTERS NOT BLACK.... -5 STYLE POINTS FOR YOU haha

i just think that your eyes would get tired from looking at the bright outside and then trying to adjust to the dimly lit cluster = speeding ticket IMO.

but i understand you wanna be unique and im just like you are, ill take 10 hours to do something cool like you will

thats actually pretty cool, if it turns out, let us know!

 

[mirrorimg]

Our clusters do not light up like Marks, which is why you probably wont get the visibility out of it, and why I said no.

You can try, but I suggest you have a spare cluster on hand in case it doesn't work out very well.

 

[dreamofjdm]

k.....spare cluster, good idea my car will be stiing for up 2 months, i know it sucks, ill make a thread, about it later

 

[speedin]

Our clusters do not light up like Marks, which is why you probably wont get the visibility out of it, and why I said no.

You can try, but I suggest you have a spare cluster on hand in case it doesn't work out very well.

Your going to NEED electroluminescent sheets for back lighting.

http://electroluminescence-inc.com/ELsheets.htm something like that. But in whatever color you want.

That is the only way to get enough back lighting to pull it off during the day. It will require quite a bit of fabrication to the stock cluster to get those panels in there.

But aside from that, something like rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover should be able st strip off all the white paint on the cluster. With the paint gone it will either be clear or look dark enough to be blacked out. If its not dark enough, thats when you will want to put a tint sheet OVER the electroluminescent sheet UNDER the cluster. That way from the very outside it still looks good and matt black. If you put the tint sheet on the outside the whole circle area of the gauge will look black, but also shiny, and thus not that good. But if mounted underneath you will get a look just like the oem units.

This can be done, ive seen it. I even thought about doing it to my old WRX cluster for fun, but thats just a waste when I already have one that is better in many many ways.