Gauge Illumination

[Zed]

There is always the http://www.speedhut.com/ option.

And for those of you that worry about the "ricer" factor, know that you can order gauge faces that look very much like the original but with the added advantage of being very easy to read at night.

CLICK below.

[Zed]

For those of you that want something that is very close

to the original look, but with the "Indaglow" advantage

Click below. (4 second looped animation)

These are Black-faced / White font "Reverse EL-Glow" (aka Font-Glow)

[Gav240z]

I would order those speed hut ones straight away if it was based in Australia. I will probably have to pay double for US ones since our exchange rate sux. Plus shipping but without dismissing the idea how much are they?:classic:

[Zed]

Total Price $119.95 USD + $8.00 USD shipping. (187.92 AUD + 12.53 AUD)

A custom logo (you send them the drawing) is an additional $32.00 USD (50.13 AUD)

[Inf]

Hey Zed,

I might be interested, but I have a few questions.

I poked around their site some, and some of the samples had a little speedhut logo underneath the RPM on the tach.

Would the 240Z gauge faces have the speedhut logo or would we have an option on this?

Do these units generate a lot (if any) heat when in operation?

Would it be possible to have a gaugeface that looks identical to the stock guage (lettering, etc) but have the lettering light up at night like the fontglow setup they have? i.e. could they produce one with a custom font, like the ones on our stock gauges?

How hard do you guys think it would be to install? I haven't yet had to mess around with any of the instruments or remove the dash yet, but I figure I will need to eventually for one reason or another.

Thanks,

Andrew

[Zed]

Originally posted by Inf

Hey Zed,

I might be interested, but I have a few questions.

I poked around their site some, and some of the samples had a little speedhut logo underneath the RPM on the tach.

Would the 240Z gauge faces have the speedhut logo or would we have an option on this?

Do these units generate a lot (if any) heat when in operation?

Would it be possible to have a gaugeface that looks identical to the stock guage (lettering, etc) but have the lettering light up at night like the fontglow setup they have? i.e. could they produce one with a custom font, like the ones on our stock gauges?

How hard do you guys think it would be to install? I haven't yet had to mess around with any of the instruments or remove the dash yet, but I figure I will need to eventually for one reason or another.

Thanks,

Andrew

1. Will the gaugres sport the Speedhut Logo?

A. I don't know, but I will Email them and ask. I let you guys know when I get a response.

2. Would it be possible to have a gaugeface that looks identical to the stock guage (lettering, etc) but have the lettering light up at night?

A. I think with either the "Swis" or "Eurostyle" font and black gauge faces with a white font the gauge will look very much like the orignals, but not 100%.

3. Could they produce one with a custom font, like the ones on our stock gauges?

A. Well they don't mention anything like that, but money may be answer. How much do you wanna pay? I personally think the font choices are enough, and close enough to the originals to not worry about it.

4. How hard to install?

A. I think they would be just a tad more difficult to install than the white vinly gauges manhy people here have already installed.

The extra difficulty being the electrical portion.

5. How much heat do they genrerate.

A. My guess would be very little, as they use the same technology as "Indiglow" watches. I certainly believe they would generate far less heat than the incadesant bulbs your gauges use now.

[Mr Camouflage]

There was a whole discussion about this a year ago. Someone was trying to get together 100 or 200 orders so they would actually produce a run of indiglo gauges for the 240z.

search for indiglo gauges and you should find the thread(s).

[Zed]

Only 20 orders are needed for Speedhut to begin tooling-up.

So far we have 8.

[Zed@Work]

Originally posted by Inf

Hey Zed,

I might be interested, but I have a few questions.

I poked around their site some, and some of the samples had a little speedhut logo underneath the RPM on the tach.

Would the 240Z gauge faces have the speedhut logo or would we have an option on this?

Do these units generate a lot (if any) heat when in operation?

Would it be possible to have a gaugeface that looks identical to the stock guage (lettering, etc) but have the lettering light up at night like the fontglow setup they have? i.e. could they produce one with a custom font, like the ones on our stock gauges?

How hard do you guys think it would be to install? I haven't yet had to mess around with any of the instruments or remove the dash yet, but I figure I will need to eventually for one reason or another.

Thanks,

Andrew

I've received a response to the email I sent.

My questions to Speedhut & Speedhut's answers:

1. Will the "Speedhut" logo seen at the bottom of RPM gauge on your website be present

on any gauge faces I order? I would prefer that they did not.

SpeedHut: The Logo is visible on your dials. We can remove this Logo for an additional $10.00.

2. Is it possible to exactly match the font of my original gauges, and if so, what would

the additional cost be, if any?

SpeedHut: We would charge $40.00 to match the font of your cluster exactly. We would also need

you to locate the font and send it to us. We have a few different font styles that may

be similar to your stock cluster.

3. Do 'El' gauge faces generate any more heat than stock gauge lighting?

SpeedHut: There is no heat generated from the EL Gauges. Your stock lighting generates heat.

I later received a second Email...

Roger,

We don't currently have EL GLO Gauges for your Datsun. However, we will be introducing a

Brand NEW Custom Product line to Speedhut.com in approx. 2-3 weeks! Please check back

at www.Speedhut.com!

I'm not sure what this "NEW Custom product line" will be, but I'm hoping it will be that

they will no longer require 20 pre-orders, and for Little extra cost they will make gauge

faces for any vehicle. I have no basis for this idea, I'm just dreaming.

[Mr Camouflage]

Heres what your gauges look like on the inside, and the reason they are green at night. Putting coloured globes in wont have any effect unless you remove the green lense thing. Why, because it only lets green light through.

[Zed]

I have found another place that offers Indiglo gauges. They don't have Datsun 240Z, 260Z, and 280Z (1969-1978) gauges,

but they do have a Model Developement Program like Speedhut. The difference being that they only require 10 pre-orders

to begin production rather than Speedhut's 20 pre-orders.

They don't offer the cutomization that Speedhut offers (Varity of colors, fonts, & graphics), but do offer straight-forward

white-faced / Reverse (or Standard) Indiglo gauge faces. they are also cheaper by about half ($60.00 as opposed to $120.00).

They don't have a "Model Developement Program" set up for "Z" cars yet, but I have Emailed them asking them to set it up.

I'll keep you posted.

http://www.streetracerparts.com/Indiglow_gauges/reverse_style.htm

Indiglo: (White-Face)

Reverse Indiglo: (White-Face)

[Zed]

Nevermind. Here's the Email response from StreetRacerParts.com

Sorry, as we do not currently make gauges for this vehicle. If you can get together 10 people for standard 2-color (you can switch between blue and green) to pay $59.99 or 10 people for reverse (only numbers and logos glow) to pay $69.99, we will put it in our model development program. After the 10 people are met we will make the gauge. It is best if you promote this through web forums, as this usually does very well for a new vehicle. You will also be in charge of getting a gauge cluster for the vehicle, we will need the whole cluster to do the art and to figure out the best placement for the wires that come out of each face. It is best to send a junk cluster out of a wrecked vehicle as we can not guarantee that the calibration will be the same as we would have to remove the needle to do the art. The indiglo gauges will slip over the stock faces and will not require the removal of the needles on all other installs. Please let us know you can do your part, and we will add these to the development.

Thanks,

Customer Service

S/R Motorsports

www.StreetRacerParts.com

There's no way I can get them a whole gauge cluster. Well, no way am I going to pay for them and shipping.

More good news: The Speedhut pre-orders have dropped from 8 to 7. :mad: