| PURCHASES, PAYMENTS, ORDERING and Other POLICIES |
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Have questions? Click here for FAQ's
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for Your Volvo 240/260 Gauges |
| PURCHASES, PAYMENTS, ORDERING and Other POLICIES |
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Or CLICK here to see some of my Special Project Photos... 
| Replacement White Faces for 52mm (2 1/16") Gauges |
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White Face Set Main Cluster 1981 - 1993 240  |
White Face Set Main Cluster 1981 - 1993 240 |
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White Face Set Main Cluster 1981 - 1993 240  CLICK HERE TO SEE! |
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QUALITY:
You will find that the line
and character
detail on these faces is excellent and the print quality is
fantastic! I offer several different styles to choose from and
all of them can be ordered with different custom configurations
at no extra charge.
These faces are printed on
heavy, high quality photo printing paper
and then laminated with a satin UV
protectant film. These faces light up very well at night
and will really transform your 240 instruments. I don't think you
will
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 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.
DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS (1981-93 240)
DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS (1975-80 240)
DETAILED
INSTRUCTIONS (52MM GAUGES)
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 so. These faces are made so they will overlay your existing metal gauge faceplates using simple tools and a simple adhesive.
Many of you have had
questions.
I have included answers to
the most frequently asked questions below.
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. Also, I suppose it might be possible to find
brighter bulbs, but I think that will be trial by error. One
answer I have found... 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.
Also, Gary Harris sent me
some great suggestions for brightening up the dash lighting in 240's, click here or scroll down.
Q: Are any special tools
required?
A: Basic tools will get
you by on this one. No special cutting or modifications to your
car will be required to install these gauge faces. At a slow,
careful
pace, it should take no more than 2 hours.
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.
Q: I am reluctant to try this as I'm
afraid I'll break a needle.
A: Breaking a needle is rare, but it does happen on rare
occasions. Most needles come off pretty easily. The one
needle that is probably the hardest on the main cluster is on the
'81-'85 240
speedometer. 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 paper faces when they
are tightened?
A: No. Those small
screws are brass and you would strip the heads before damage to the
heavy paper faces occurred. Besides, those screws should only be
merely snugged down, not torqued.
Q: Can the paper develop
ripples?
A: Not all by itself...
only if it is crumpled up or otherwise abused or accidentally damaged
during
installation.
Also, when these faces are shipped to you, they come in either an
oversized
box
or a sturdy envelope braced 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: The actual printed area is
usually slightly
larger than the factory sized faces and will "fill up" the gauge circle
openings better than the original faces do. However, as far as
the calibration, they are an exact
match to the original faces.
Q: Are these faces applied
with peel 'n' stick paper or glued?
A: The faces and instructions
I will send you suggest to use simple rubber cement to mount
the faces to your original metal faceplates. When I was
developing these faces, I experimented with peel 'n' stick papers and
vinyls and
different types of adhesives. While rubber cement is not the only
option, I always seemed to get the best result by coating both the
faceplate and the back of the face with rubber
cement. This is because rubber cement is very forgiving and
allows you to "adjust" the face for a few moments once it is placed on
the faceplate or
even remove it without damage if you need to try again. Also, if
you goof and get ruber cement on the white face, it will not harm
it. Other adhesives, like contact cement or peel 'n' stick, do
not allow for any adjustment or later removal
without damaging the paper faces.
Q: Are these gauge faces
guaranteed not to fade?
A: No... not really.
These faces are
supposed to be inexpensive. I do apply a very nice satin
Ultra-Violet
Resistant film to them, which I believe will prevent fading, but if
they are exposed to direct sunlight for
prolonged periods, I kinda think it will still probably affect them
eventually. Even your original black Volvo
gauges will fade some when exposed to direct sunlight. The design
of the Volvo dashboard does a very good job of protecting these faces
from direct exposure. Normally, I would expect you will get at
least several years of
service from these faces if it is parked outside. If you have
such a problem, please let me know and I will work to keep you a happy
customer.
Q: Can you make white faces
for 740's and later models?
A: Maybe someone can, however
these 240 faces are printed on photo paper and mounted on your original
metal faceplates. They work very well on 240's since 240 gauges
are
"forward lighted," or lit from the front of the gauge by
reflectors. The
faceplates on the 740 gauges (and later models), are made from
a translucent plastic and lit from behind the gauge. Putting
paper faces 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.
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: (I did this ~~5 years ago so details are a bit
hazy...) 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 dificult 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
I take on a lot of
special projects. One such project below was a set of custom
white
faces
for the 240 Rallye (sometimes
known as R-Sport) gauge pack. This one
below was done with blue text. The tach was given two-digit
numbers as
was original (10, 20, 30, etc.).
If you'll notice it also has a temp gauge in Celcius (but Fahrenheit is
available also... see below).
These are even available with the
200 km/h speedo face. For this set, the customer
completed
the disassembly of each gauge and sent me the metal faceplates (8
pieces... see photo further below). I designed and mounted the
new white face covers and the
customer re-installed the faceplates. The
needles were originally white, but have been re-painted day-glow orange.
Disassembling
these R-Sport gauges can be tricky, but it can be done with GREAT
results as you can see. There are a total of 8 white face pieces
to install in six gauges for a set like this. I will do a set
with blue text
or black text and several options for $30 plus postage.
If you
aren't comfortable doing the custom work yourself, I can make
arrangements to install them in your gauges. My on-line
instructions
for disassembling the 52mm gauges (CLICK
HERE) explains things if you would like to install a set.
This set below was installed for the
customer. These faces have black
text and the tach has
single-digit numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, etc.). You
can have it either way. It also has a temp gauge in Fahrenheit,
which overlays any celcius face and is still accurate.
Here is a set of white 240 Rallye faces with some special modifications I did for a customer. The original 200 km/h speedo faces are missing several numbers on the original face (80, 140 and 180), making it look incomplete. This was a disappointment for the customer, so for this design, I altered it to fit those numbers. Also there is a face I did here here for Oil PSI, which accurately converts the original 10 bar face. The word 'Tank' on the fuel gauge was changed to 'Fuel.'
Click photo for larger image
Another
variation of the 240 Rallye faces in blue with white text.
This customer requested the 'R' from R-Sport on the smaller faces.
Similar to
above,
this variation below has WHITE indicator lines
(instead of black). High-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.
Here are
some 52 mm (fron a 240) gauges (the
five
in front) I made faces to
match the black-face gauges in a 142 GT Rallye dash cluster (gauges are
similar to the 240
cluster pictured). The
photo doesn't show them that well, but they turned out very nice.
They went in a
turbocharged
145.
The pic doesn't show it
very well (due to the flash), but the lettering is actually
yellowish-gold
on
these gauges to
match the original text on the Rally gauges. And the needles
have been painted white to match also. There are more of these
shown in the 52 mm
gauge face page.
This was a custom
set for a German 240 owner who was making a custom speedo (going to 260
kmh).
This set is also available
with a 120 mph speedo (shown
below). It is shown with
an 8000 RPM tach
face, but I have the 7000 RPM tach (shown
farther down below) Your choices
are wide here.
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)
