Maxim Speedo Mod - 140 mph!

[HobbyMan]

I wanted to swap out my 80 mph spedo with a 140 spedo. I set the milage correctly and then I noticed a good amount of light leaking thought the black paint. I kinda want to make a custom guage plate. It seems that there is a white paint on the plastic with the black put on everywhere else but the numbers. What kind of paint should I use to remake the speed indicator, or would any paint work?

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Andrew,

Did you see my little tech tip on fixing the broken needle on my Tach, I used my computer and PRINTED a stick on label using a CD label that has the SMALLER hole section=full coverage style, worked well. You might look into some other type of printer ink. though, for even black will fade if left in the sun! But come to think of it, so did the PAINT on the OEM gauge!!
T.C.

[HobbyMan]

I saw that but I don't have that type of paper. I did scan it and make a digital copy just in case I screwed it up. I Think this will be really cool when it is done. I am going to keep the same text style for the numbers but I think I am going to put my name in cursive on there. Maby a few other things. I just picked up some white window paint. It takes a full week to dry and then I will paint black over it. I will take some photos when I am done. I just got really tired of having my spedo only go to 80. Then with the 140 spedo, I hated the faded black causing light to escape. I should of probalby done the cd lable thing but this should work in the end.

[TopCatGr58]

Well, hope your hand painting is better than mine! BTW, the CD labels quite often has the material going down to the very small hole, just that it's precut with the larger hole, but the printing program can print down to the small hole size, then you just paste the center section and then the outer section around it.

Good Luck with your technique! The faceplate is transluscent. The white paint ?might? allow light to shine thru it, however it'll be tricky painting around the shape of numbers, indicator bars, etc., with the black paint, cause IF you put the black on first, then the light won't be able to shine thru the plate to light up the white lettering/numbering!?
T.C.

[50gary]

For record, the national 55 speed limit was a response to the OPEC oil embargo of 1974 and was enacted 1/1/75 under the Nixon/ Ford administration. Carter wasn't elected until 1976, no comment on J.C.
Cheers, 50gary

[HobbyMan]

I just thought it was because of the 70's energy crisis. cool. Anyway, I have the transparent white down well. I tried a number of techniques to put on the black with no success yet. I am thingin of making a balsa wood set of numbers with a toothpick glued to it, Kinda like a branding iron. That way I could put the number down, paint around it, and pull it right off. I hope that works. I just thought that red numbers would be cool, but it is a little late and I don't feel like pulling off the tacho.

[mro]

if you got the time

Could print out correct size.
Use exacto knife to cut out numbers etc...
Use as a template for paint

tedious


mro

[MAXIMAN]

Originally posted by 50gary
For record, the national 55 speed limit was a response to the OPEC oil embargo of 1974 and was enacted 1/1/75 under the Nixon/ Ford administration. Carter wasn't elected until 1976, no comment on J.C.
Cheers, 50gary

FOR THE RECORD...the 85 mph speedo WAS a Jimmy Carter deal.

While it is true the 55 mph limit was set years before...The Carter administration was instrumental in forcing manufactures to limit indicators to 85. The fools actually thought if people didn't know how fast they were going they'd slow down.

This attitude is typical of a "statist" like Carter. Jimmy Carter was one of those far left kooks that thought (and still does) the government was the solution to ALL problems. This is no better evidenced than by his vain attempt to force gasoline prices down in the late 70's with price controls. Of course any of us old enough to recall (or with more than crap for brains) knows what this actually did....PRICES SOARED!

Nay nay...W is NOT the Worst President ever. That titled belongs to none other than James Earl (Bubba Control Freak ) Carter.

[HobbyMan]

Here's what I got. I have the white glass paint on the fiber optic plastic. I tried painting on the black leaving the numbers white, but I scraped that idea. I got it to look really good from about 3 ft, but any closer than that it looked bad. So, I have picked up some full page sticky labels. CD labels are too small for standard gauges. I took my scanned image and edited it with gimp to clean up the edges. So I now have the correct digital image and I just need to add all the text. After I have tested it enough on paper and I like the look, I will print it out on the label paper and cut out the letters. That will leave the white window paint underneath to glow at night and be white in the day. That leaves me plenty of room to put a custom message near the bottom. I hope looks nice when I am done.

[HobbyMan]

OK finally finished. I am very very pleased with the results. It looks much better than oem except the numbers are a tad bit too small. I will fix that, and the next time my bike is out for service for a few days, I will put the new label on. I did not cut out the label where the numbers are because enough light travels through it already. I just put my name very small underneath MPH and it look soo cool. I have a personalized gauge. I am glad that I have a few spare bulbs because out of my original and the replacement 160, I only had 2 good bulbs. Now with my thoroughly cleaned carbs, I might just get closer to 160mph Thanks for the tips about the label paper. Now I just have to get used to riding a standard and not the special. Here is the digital image that I was working with. Excuse the extra colours, I had to use a cardboard background and my scanner picks up a lot of noise.

I used the red dots when testing so that I could have something to compare the number location to so that I could move them to the correct location. They were later removed. The blue was taking the place of shadow picked up by the scanner. I couldn't have any extra black or white.

[MAXIMAN]

I did this about 3 years ago to my Maxim 750. The cluster had faded so I re-finished it with computer graphics.

I used an adhesive mylar because it is translucent.

However there is a place in California that will refinish your instruments like OEM new. For sticklers this is the ticket because though the PC method works it is not the quality of the OEM cluster finish.

[Mathh]

nostalgia

must have been in the late 80's:



I garantee you one thing: a lot of small children fainted when they saw that 320 kmh figure!
Clearly technics have improved over the years, looks great hobbyman!

[MAXIMAN]

HOLY SMOKE MATHH MAN!!!

Is that 97,000 km on a turbo Eleven?

[mro]

Do like the turbo gauge.
In pic looks like it was made that way

________________

Hey HobbyMan, WTF is Andrew???
was XSpecting "MeatHead Idiot Xsive"


mro

[HobbyMan]

Thanks, Mathh. It looks soo much better in person. I was at wilhoits(bike resurant/bar) and some guy complemented my custom gauge. It looks better in person