My dash/console mod

[ryland]

I had done this mod before w/out removing the film, and went the acetone route today. It works fine, did the fuel/temp side perfectly but cracked the gauge face in a few places on the speedo/tach when trying to get the q-tip under there. So I gave up for today until I have a bit more patience.

[beaumont]

Nice! I'm glad it worked for you. A word of caution to anyone reading this before I do a write up. •••• The odometer screen green CAN be removed with the acetone/long Q tip technique, HOWEVER, I battled with what seems to be adhesive last night not wanting to come off and it appears as though it may make the color of the screen a little murky. I got the bulb covers today so I will probably be getting a final result of that tonight.

Till then...

[IRev]

well i got my needles to work! I was reading in another forum to just take the needles off and put them on lightly maybe 1/8 inch down. And tada it workd fine now! ... with alittle fine tunning.



going to order white leds soon...
has anyone used white leds?

[GetawayInBouldr]

Originally posted by IRev
well i got my needles to work! I was reading in another forum to just take the needles off and put them on lightly maybe 1/8 inch down. And tada it workd fine now! ... with alittle fine tunning.

Can you post the link to this thread. I've got the skipping action too on my tach and really want to fix this.

[BongMonster]

very nice! kudos!

[ma1ade]

Originally posted by IRev
well i got my needles to work! I was reading in another forum to just take the needles off and put them on lightly maybe 1/8 inch down. And tada it workd fine now! ... with alittle fine tunning.

How do you go about doing this exactly? My speedo needle is all focked up

[IRev]

It worked for me but not saying this is the right way to do it.

Well I messed up my tach and my speedo... I was freeking out for awhile. This is what i Did.

I took the needles right off using a frok. They pop right off.

The tach... have the needle off and start the car. Place the needle on lightly facing the 1 ( thats about where idle is when the car is running). push the needle down until you feel a click. Then pull it up abit to loosen it. rev the engine and it should be a smooth. to make sure it's all good go for a spin and redline it you should know where you fuel cut off is and feel it. (mines @ 6500).
The speedo... pop it on right at 0 and to the same. Remember do this while the car is running. For some reason it helps. Well it did for me.


THIS IS JUST WHAT I DID. I'M NOT SAYING THIS IS THE RIGHT WAY TO DO IT. BUT IT WORKED FOR ME. HOPE IT HELPS YPU GUYS OUT. GOOD LUCK!

[ma1ade]

anybody fix the stickiness without removing the needle? I'd rather not have a so-so calibrated speedo...

[ryland]

Originally posted by IRev
It worked for me but not saying this is the right way to do it.

Well I messed up my tach and my speedo... I was freeking out for awhile. This is what i Did.

I took the needles right off using a frok. They pop right off.

The tach... have the needle off and start the car. Place the needle on lightly facing the 1 ( thats about where idle is when the car is running). push the needle down until you feel a click. Then pull it up abit to loosen it. rev the engine and it should be a smooth. to make sure it's all good go for a spin and redline it you should know where you fuel cut off is and feel it. (mines @ 6500).
The speedo... pop it on right at 0 and to the same. Remember do this while the car is running. For some reason it helps. Well it did for me.


THIS IS JUST WHAT I DID. I'M NOT SAYING THIS IS THE RIGHT WAY TO DO IT. BUT IT WORKED FOR ME. HOPE IT HELPS YPU GUYS OUT. GOOD LUCK!

You should recalibrate your tachometer. The idle on a WRX when warm should be between 750-800 rpm or so. Fuel cut should be around 7100-7200 rpm or so. Fuel cut should definitely not occur at 6500...

For those of you that remove the needles, its not hard to calibrate them.

1. Remove clear plastic face over the cluster, and leave everything plugged in.
2. Remove needles if they are on and all messed up.
3. Turn key to on position, this resets the gauges to the bottom position
4. Line speedometer needle up with the stopper at the bottom and push it on very very lightly until it clicks.
5. Start engine and make wait for the idle to drop to normal (easier if you just drive the car for 10 minutes before doing this whole thing).
6. Line tachometer up with ~800rpm (where mine has always been at since I got it) and stick it in lightly.
7. Put cover back on.

Thats what I did and it worked fine.

[GetawayInBouldr]

Originally posted by ryland
For those of you that remove the needles, its not hard to calibrate them.

1. Remove clear plastic face over the cluster, and leave everything plugged in.
2. Remove needles if they are on and all messed up.
3. Turn key to on position, this resets the gauges to the bottom position
4. Line speedometer needle up with the stopper at the bottom and push it on very very lightly until it clicks.
5. Start engine and make wait for the idle to drop to normal (easier if you just drive the car for 10 minutes before doing this whole thing).
6. Line tachometer up with ~800rpm (where mine has always been at since I got it) and stick it in lightly.
7. Put cover back on.

Thats what I did and it worked fine.

Awesome Write-Up!!!! I'll give it a shot as soon as i get my ride back from the body shop.

Thanks Ryland!

[ryland]

Originally posted by GetawayInBouldr
Awesome Write-Up!!!! I'll give it a shot as soon as i get my ride back from the body shop.

Thanks Ryland!

No problem, I might write-up a full tutorial on how to use acetone and how to completely disassemble the thing. I broke mine a little in the process, but I could do it again in half the time and not break anything.

[blarg]

I'm waiting for the writeup...with lot of pictures, right?

I wasn't crazy about scraping my gauges with a screwdriver or dremel, but acetone sounds doable to me...so what happens the black background? its on the other side of the gauge?? what about the red pain for the redline?

[beaumont]

Okay, it took me long enough to get finished, but life happens.

I used acetone + long Q tip to remove the green film from the back of the gauges. Its not fun or easy. It take patience and a steady hand. Im dumb and kinda tore the gauge film in 2 places. Luckily its not super obvious. The odometer is a little cloudy too. Over all its not bad but I am more satisfied with the radio/HVAC/cruise and fog light changes.

Anyway, I put some photos up here:

http://homepage.mac.com/mhardca/WRX_...otoAlbum3.html


I had an idea on changing the color of the clock as it stood out with everything else red.

I also took out the headliner and sound deadened it while adding a roof mounted powered antenna. It works just as well as the OEM on IMO. Maybe a little better or worse. Negligible.

[GetawayInBouldr]

Wow, you did an overhaul on the rex!!

The gauge cluster looks pretty good What are you using to light up the cluster? LED's, red incandescents, or stock incandescents painted red with a sharpee?

Also, how did you make your clock red? It looks great. Good job with the stock stereo too.

[beaumont]

Thanks dude. Next is sound deadening the floor and probably some audio. I feel some serious searching coming on...


Here is a quick and dirty little tutorial:

1. Remove the clock cluster from dash

2. Disconnect the wires from the back of the clock.

3. Using a small flat head screw driver lift the little tabs that hold the clock together in order to separate it.

4. Once you have it separated it will be pretty apparent.


From there I sort of eyeballed the size of the area that needed to be colored while making sure to leave a bit of room for the tape to stick to. Then I cut a few pieces of scotch tape and taped the lighting gel to the clock.

Im really happy with the way that it looks at night or in the underground parking garage at work but outside in the day light it is quiet hard to see. On top of that, if its bright out I have sunglasses on so that doesn't help. I think that I may have some pink lighting gel somewhere and may give that a shot.