[Steve]

Hello! I have a 1989 Escort LX, and It has the special gauges [the ones that were and option with the Tach and stuff. The problem is, at night i cannot see the gauges at all. If i squint, and lean closer, i can see greenish scribble, but i cannot read them well at all. Is there any way to make that light brighter? I know turning the headlights knob works for adjusting the interior lights brightness, but i dont know how to make them BRIGHTER. Thanks in advance --Steve

 

[91scortgtboy]

sure you don´t need glasses? I would try replacing the bulbs to be honest. I know it migh tbe a bitch to rip apart but it just sound slike the bulbs are getting old.

 

[Trashknight]

yeah, i would replace the bulbs. When i got my 92 egt the dash was all dim and hard to see the numbers at night and when i went to replace the bulbs i had like 5 that were burnt out.

 

[Steve]

I swear i don´t need glasses. Well maybe they would help to see the gauges but... I can see the gauges fine in my Dad´s Ranger, as well as in my Mom´s Caravan. I think you all are right. What kind of bulbs are they? I´d hate to tear the dash apart and find out the bulbs are soldered on. I guess if i do change them I might as well tweed the dash, change the steering wheel and put on white face gauges all at once. Thanks for the help...

 

[91scortgtboy]

Yeah what the hell go for the gold with it. That dash is a bitch to get apart so do it all at one shot. I am sure that the bulbs are just plug ins.

 

[TheBlade]

ScortGT and I put white ones in my egt tonight. Good thing he had done it before tearing that thing apart was a pain in the arse. You want bright...here´s my advice. Print out gauges on some paper, then double up the paper behind the gauge face. Put them in place of the OEM faces. So then you´ll get cool white gauge faces that at night can blind you.

here´s a link to the faces I altered and used:

<img src=http://mercury.pr.erau.edu/~bladej/speedtachflame.GIF>

<img src=http://mercury.pr.erau.edu/~bladej/tempfuel.GIF>

_________________

Jason Blade
93´ Escort GT (Special SLO model)

[ Edited by TheBlade On Date 11-07-2002 ]

 

[spooki]

hay steve.......this doesnt have to do with your problem, but i thought it was odd that my dad drives a ranger and my mom a caravan too...........wierd

 

[Steve]

Are there gauges like those that have 0-85 Mph. That is what I want. lol, I wonder if i pushed my car, if it would hit 88 MPH and i could go back to the future. heh heh heh. I will try to do it all at once. I am trying to decide whether i want to use the air dam that i bought, or whether i want to just buy an EGT bumper. I want to paint the whole car the same color as that Adam Patzner guy [U.P.R. Auto] I like that color. I bought a steering wheel out of an 1989 EGT, and it has tilt steering, Can i put that wheel in my car? Can I use the column off of that wheel, and use my regular rubber wheel? Thanks in advance.

P.S. Spooki, My dad is on his second ranger and my mom her second caravan. I want my dad to get the SVT F-150 or the harley truck though....but he likes his lil pick-up

 

[TheBlade]

All I did was find those gauges and recolored them and added some stuff. Since I´ll be running a little turbo-blue or higher octane fuel at the track I thought the "racing fuel only" was cool. And the flaming escort on the tach looks pretty cool too.

Ask ScortGT he helped me with the whole thing. I´m sure you could pull your gauges out and scan them. Then recolor them and you´d have what you want.

 

[Steve]

Well today I opened up my instrument cluster to replace a few light bulbs that had blown at some point before I even got the car. There was one of four bulbs remaining. [sarcasm] and luckily for me it was next to the tach, instead of next to the speedometer[/sarcasm]

I will post more pictures later on of the new bulbs. I tried to take a picture before with the bulbs that were in there, but it was a blank picture.

Notice that in the pictures with the blue dome light covers they had melted and actually burnt to a crisp in spots.

http://007sdomain.com/escort/Escort/Gauges/

 

[2redscorts]

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On 2003-01-03 15:31, Steve wrote:

Notice that in the pictures with the blue dome light covers they had melted and actually burnt to a crisp in spots.

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Steve, I was curious about just what those blue things are. Are they over the white light bulbs that illuminate the dash to make the gages light up blue? I know my 2g lights up green, and am wondering if it has the same setup. I miss the red/purplish blue illumination of my GTI! Everyone who got in the car commented on it, and it was totally stock too.

 

[MadBrad]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%>[TR][TD]Quote:

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On 2003-01-04 08:57, 2redscorts wrote:
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On 2003-01-03 15:31, Steve wrote:

Notice that in the pictures with the blue dome light covers they had melted and actually burnt to a crisp in spots.

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[/TD][/TR][/TABLE]

Steve, I was curious about just what those blue things are. Are they over the white light bulbs that illuminate the dash to make the gages light up blue? I know my 2g lights up green, and am wondering if it has the same setup. I miss the red/purplish blue illumination of my GTI! Everyone who got in the car commented on it, and it was totally stock too.

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Hey 2reds
The older cars have metal guage faces that light does not come through. My Topaz was like that. So was my 79 Mustang. The bulbs are surrounded by the coloured baloons, and the light bounces off the back of the instrument bezel and onto the front of the guages. The 2gen is like your GTI in that the guage is made of clear plastic and the face is a transparent green tinted plastic that is adhered to the guage. Light comes through the areas where there is no black ink. You might try using colored bulbs on the 2gen. I did it with my NR white faces but it came out too dark and I couldn´t read the odo. I never tried it with the factory faces, it might be better. BTW, you don´t need to get to the back of the instrument tub, you just need to get into the tub from th efront and pull out the bulbs with needlenosers.

 

[91scortgtboy]

So blade are you saying instead of buying whait face gauges you ccan make your own by pulling the gauge face and replacing it with the paper ones?? I didn´t think the gauge face came out of the cluster. So if that is the case, could you like put coloerd bulbs behind it and make like ghetto indiglos???

 

[Steve]

they are just solid blue domes [about twice as thick as the containers that those mini-toy machines have inside at the super-market] they are not painted on. they are just solid blue.

Now, If I remove those domes, can I get coloured bulbs, or are they even sold coloured? The bulbs are numbered T168

 

[MadBrad]

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On 2003-01-04 18:50, Steve wrote:
they are just solid blue domes [about twice as thick as the containers that those mini-toy machines have inside at the super-market] they are not painted on. they are just solid blue.

Now, If I remove those domes, can I get coloured bulbs, or are they even sold coloured? The bulbs are numbered T168

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[/TD][/TR][/TABLE]

Yes that´s perfect. That older design(with the metal face and the light bouncing off the bezel) is well suited to doing exactly that . I have bought red 168s or 195(or is it 194?) at Canadian Tire, so they must be easy to get.

 

[MadBrad]

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On 2003-01-04 14:03, 91scortgtboy wrote:
So blade are you saying instead of buying whait face gauges you ccan make your own by pulling the gauge face and replacing it with the paper ones?? I didn´t think the gauge face came out of the cluster. So if that is the case, could you like put coloerd bulbs behind it and make like ghetto indiglos???

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[/TD][/TR][/TABLE]
Scortboy, the faces do peel off. You have to peel them off to put on the NR white faces. If you try to make translucent faces, however, it´ll look real crappy because the light is not spread evenly and all the guts of the guages will cast shadows on the face material. The NR faces I had were transparent but the white ink was opaque. Indigos produce thier light IN the face, which is in front of the guage guts, so no shadow problem. By the way, NR Auto has cut the price of the Escort GT White faces to $US99. Not bad! See nrauto.com it fits any escort 2gen but the redline is for a GT.

 

[sal_93egt]

hey Blade do u have any pics of your custom gages in ur car to see how they look in thier.

 

[Steve]

I wanted to do the replacment´s but I didnt understand how they go in since the black colour is painted onto the actual gauge piece. I dont´ have photoshop either, Do any templates exist that are gauges that go up to 85 miles per hour and the corisponding Tach and gas etc.

 

[siragan]

I haven´t read the thread, but have you checked the dimmer switch (the rheostat, located where the rear windshield wiper would be, on the housing underneath the steering column, on teh far left, above the fuse box? I accidentally moved this switch down and dimmed my lights and had the same problem and started freakin out and it was a simple fix. maybe this is your problem, I dunno.