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for your Volvo 240 |
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These faces light
up
very well at night
and will really transform your 240 instruments. You
will not
be disappointed.
Comments I've received
from some of my customers:
"Finally found time to install
the white faces on my gauges. They look and work GREAT! Every one that
sees them can't get over them. Your directions were great also."
J.W.
“I was sitting around the house one day a while ago,
lounging around on the office furniture and browsing the web. I found
these gauges and I must say they are the coolest one I have seen. So, I
snagged them up and haven't looked back since, best thing I have
purchased while browsing on my office
furniture.” K.W.
"I just wanted to thank you
again for your fabulous gauge face set. Your instructions were
excellent and I couldn't be happier with the results. These faces
were an important safety upgrade for my car as well as cosmetic, as I
had always strained to see the dark, dim gauges at night. Now
they have a pleasant, slightly green glow that is very easy on the
eyes." P.P.
"Dave, just thought I would drop you a line. Many moons ago I bought a white face dial kit for my 240 and last weekend got around to fitting them. Following your guide made it a breeze and they look terrific. I'm so chuffed with it as it makes my 240 unique in Ireland." B.O.
"Got the gauges
yesterday installed the main set, one word describes it...
WOW. Thanks man they look freakin awesome." A.B.
DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS -
1981-93 240 (PDF)
DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS -
1975-80 240 (PDF)
DETAILED
INSTRUCTIONS - 52 MM GAUGES (PDF)
Each
order comes with
a copy of these full-color step-by-step instructions on the removal and
disassembly of your gauge pod and
the installation of these faces. Installation time is about an hour
or two. These faces are made so they will overlay your
existing
metal gauge faceplates using simple tools and a simple adhesive.
Many
of you have questions.
I have included answers to
the most frequently asked questions below.
Q:
Are these gauge faces
guaranteed not to fade?
A: Yes.
Q:
Will I need to remove
the needles
from the original gauge faces?
A: Yes. The instructions
will give you a very simple step-by-step procedure. For the main
cluster, the needles
for the speedometer and tachometer (or clock) can be pulled off and
replaced without any damage. The needles on the temperature and
fuel level do not need to be removed. For 52 mm gauges, needles
will be removed on these too.
NOTE:
In the past, I
have seen
some white
gauge faces designed for Volvos (and other cars) that allow for
installation without removing the needles. This requires a large
hole in the center of the face in order to get the needle through
without removing it. With that type of face, the original black
face can be seen past the needle through this large hole. I don't
think it works very well. My faces will provide very
professional looking results. It's important to me that you're
happy with this modification. Many customers have written to me
about the great results they have achieved with these faces.
Q: I am fearful to try this as I'm
afraid I'll break a needle.
A: Breaking a needle is rare, but it does happen to the speedo needle on rare
occasions. Most needles come off pretty easily. The one
needle that is probably the hardest on the '81-'85 240
speedometer (photo at right). If you break one of these, I have
some spares.
Click
here to find them.
Q:
Will the tiny black
screws that hold the face plates rip through the faces when they
are tightened?
A: No, but these scews should not
be cranked down too tight. They only need to be snug.
Q:
Can the faces develop
ripples?
A: Not all by itself...
only if it is crumpled up, abused or accidentally damaged
during
installation.
Also, when these faces are shipped to you, they come in a sturdy
envelope reinforced with cardboard inside so that damage during
shipping won't occur.
Q:
Does the overall
diameter of
your faces exactly match or exceed the factory face size?
A: Yes. The actual printed image
is
usually slightly
larger than the factory sized faces and will "fill up" the gauge circle
openings better than the original faces do.
Q:
What about accuracy? Are these faces accurately calibrated to
match my original ones?
A: Yes.
The calibration will be an exact
match to the original faces.
Q:
Are these faces applied
with peel 'n' stick paper or glue?
A: They are peel 'n' stick.
The adhesive is very strong, yet very easy to work with when
positioning them on your original faces.
Q:
My dash lights are dim
and it makes my instruments hard to see at night. Is there any
way to improve this?
A: Adding white faces will
improve visibility a lot. Also, I suppose it might be possible to
find
brighter bulbs, but I think that will be trial by error.
One
method I have found that works... the dash
light dimmer switch on it's brightest
setting does not seem to allow full power to the bulbs. I have
bypassed the dimmer on both on my 240's and found my dash lights to be
much brighter. I can no longer dim the instrument lights, but I
don't miss that feature.
Q:
Can you make white faces
for 740's and later models?
A:
No. The 240 faces are mounted on your original
metal faceplates. They work very well on 240 models since 240
gauges
are
"forward lighted," meaning they're lit from the front of the gauge by
bulb reflectors. The
faceplates on the 740 gauges (and later models), are made from
a translucent plastic and lit from BEHIND the gauge using prisms.
Putting
solid face overlays on your 740 would not allow very good
lighting. I
have
experimented with making translucent back-lit 740 instrument clusters
and the results never turned out near as nice as I would want.
The 740 boost face I make works well, but other faces have not.
Since I will not sell something unless it looks and functions well, I
have abandoned this type of project.
Getting Better Light to 240 Instruments
| I saw
some ideas you posted regarding better instrument panel
illumination. I made a fairly simple modification several years
ago which is a MAJOR
improvement, as follows: 1) Remove instrument panel from vehicle and remove guage cluster from housing 2) Remove the two light bulb sockets at the top of the cluster that are used for panel lighting 3) Carefully clean the two 'cups' that these bulbs were installd in with a mild solvent. 4) Typically, the plastic will have yellowed with age in these 'cups'. They need to be repainted with a bright white paint (the whiter the better!) --I used some Ford white auto touch-up paint for this--very handy with the small brush! This will transfer much more light into the plastic 'light-pipe' 5) While the paint is drying, we need to rework the two light bulb sockets so they can accept a small Halogen 5-watt instrument panel lamp used on many late-model vehicles. Do NOT use a bulb any larger than 5-watts! This is the difficult part, and it has been so long since I did it I no longer remember exactly how I did this--- There are several different styles of sockets that Volvo used, some are easier to modify than others. You have probably run accross these with all your different panel disassemblies! Basically, I ended up soldering the halogen bulb pins into the Volvo socket. The result of all this is an extremely bright white light source that really lights up the panel and make it look great!! Another option that might be a fun project is to use some high-intensity LEDs mounted on the outer housing under the white plastic cover to directly illuminate the guage faces. This would allow using any color, or even multi- or adjustable color! Look at http://www.ledtronics.com/ and look at some of their offerings! (I have some RAB362G1K (bright green) and RAB362Y3K (brite yellow) samples that are very impressive! Anyway, give the Halogen conversion a try, I think you will be VERY pleased with the result! Regards, Gary Harris |
Special
Projects
Over
the years I have taken on a lot of
special custom gauge face projects. Some are shown below.
Volvo
1800 Gauge Faces
This
is a white face overlay set for Smith's Volvo
1800 faces. These faces are now available with a 120 mph or 200 kmh
speedometer.
They are also available as BLACK
faces for restoring old faces. Cost is $40.00 per
set.
Installation instruction for these faces (2.5 mb PDF) CLICK HERE. Please email for
other details.
Here is the white face 1800 set installed. The red LED lighting
was a custom installation by Roger Patricio. Click
here for more info about Roger.
Volvo 142 Rallye Faces
These are restoration face overlays for restoring old 142 Rallye
gauges.
They are available with KMH or MPH speedometer. Also with lbs/sq. inch
oil pressure or kp/cm2
oil pressure.
Click
here for the 140 gauge page.
Volvo 240 Rallye Faces
Also,
I have done a number of custom
white and black
faces
for the 240 Rallye (sometimes
known as R-Sport) gauge pack. One
photo below shows oneI did with blue text, another with black text.
The
needles for these gauges were originally white, but have been
re-painted day-glow (florescent) orange.
Disassembling
these R-Sport gauges can be a bit tricky, but it can be done with GREAT
results as you can see. There are a total of 8 face pieces
to install in six gauges for a set like this. I don't have
specific instructions
for disassembling these gauges, but my 52mm gauges instructions will
help explain things pretty well if you
would like to install a set. I can also arrange for the
installation to be done on your gauges.
This
is
what the
240 Rallye original metal faces look like once they are removed from
the disassembled gauges. Here is a set of white 240 Rallye faces with some special modifications I did for a customer. On the ORIGINAL 200 km/h speedo face, it is missing several numbers (80, 140 and 180), making it look incomplete in the opinion of some. This customer asked for these numbers to be added. Also there is a face I did here here for Oil PSI, which accurately converts the original 10 bar face. And the word 'Tank' on the fuel gauge was changed to 'Fuel.'
Click photo for larger image
Similar to
above,
this variation below has WHITE indicator lines
(instead of black). Higher-resolution photos
of this one can be found in the Style
2 section.
A number of
matching
52 mm faces can be made available too.
Feel free to share your
ideas on special projects or customized faces. If you are in the
market for
something custom, I will consider making it. Most custom pieces are done at no extra
cost. If there is considerable extra time involved, I
might ask for a little extra.
This one below has been
made for several customers wanting to keep black faces, but have a nice
custom look. Matching 52mm gauge faces are available (with
R-Sport logos).
The one below is a
variation of the early 240 cluster ('75-'80) I did for an Australian
customer with a 242 GT. It features a red and gray band around
the gauges. This one is available with a MPH or KMH speedometer.
Here is a set below that
was custom made for a U.S. customer with a 240. It is based on a
Style 3 set, but with a yellow background. The customer liked the
moose, so it was added. Small 52 mm faces were made too
(Ambient Temp, Oil Pressure, Volts, Oil Temp, and Clock.
And another yellow face
set... (click for larger pic)
Replacement
Faces: