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| White Face Gauges |
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FIRST OF ALL, you must download images of the white face gauges so you can print them out. Lucky for you, you spoiled little people, I have them backed up on this server. Here is the tach picture, here is the speedometer, and here are the gas level and coolant temp gauges. They are all in Adobe Photoshop format. Now, take them to Kinko's on a CD and have them print them up on matte, heavy stock (110# or 80#) with a resolution of at LEAST 300dpi. Then, cut them out CAREFULLY, with a razor blade if you have one. By the way, just for reference purposes, this is what the stock speedometer looks like. Now, it is time to attempt to fuck it up as badly as possible!!
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The first thing you have to do it remove the outer lining over the gauge assembly. To do this, you have to pry off the two rivets that are located diagonally up from the steering wheel on either side on the underside of the part of the dashboard that would shield the gauges from sunlight. It was easier for me to pry between the plastic and the dashboard than to get under the rivets themselves. Try that out. Pry hard. Then, you're going to need to pull that piece you just loosened both towards you and up to get it out. I managed to break off a supporting piece of plastic by pulling up too hard. Now, I know that breaking stuff is avoidable here, but I don't know how. Everything is pretty tight in there. Just fucking yank it. On the left side of the steering wheel is a knob to control internal light intensity. That has wires out the back and is pretty much connected to the outer plastic shielding. So, watch the wires when you pull the plasitc piece out. Next you'll see the clear plastic cover to the gauge housing. To remove this piece, reach around to each side of the plastic and pull towards you. Don't just pull on the clear plastic, though. Pull on the piece behind the plastic, too. When it pops off, the clear plastic AND the trim around the gauges will come out as a unit. I also managed to break off two MORE plastic support clips here. Again, I don't know how to avoid it, but I don't think it's a big deal. You're going to have to pull pretty damn hard the first time to get all this stuff out. Don't sweat it. And yes, this picture was taken as I was putting the thing back together, so the needles and faces are colored.
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Now, next task is to remove the needles. Grab onto the BLACK circles that the WHITE needles are attached to and pull straight towards you until they come off. DO NOT PULL ON THE NEEDLES THEMSELVES. THEY ARE VERY BREAKABLE. This is what the gauge should look like after you get the needle off.
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Notice that the needles you've just removed are white. White needles on a white face gauge would not be extremely visible. You have a couple options to fix this problem. You can spray paint them, color them black with a sharpie, or color the some strange color with a highlighter. Yes, I AM, in fact, the most ghetto ass person on the face of the Earth. Fuck you very much. I didn't have an orange highlighter, so I just did a coat of pink with a coat of yellow on top. Looks like motherfucking orange to me!!
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Finally, reinstall the needles, try to align them as well as possible, and put all the pieces back in place. You're going to have to adjust the needles some as you drive around since you very, very likely put them in slightly (or not so slightly) the wrong place. Don't worry, though. Getting everything apart is much, much easier after the first time. Also, thanks to Mr. Applefool for helping with this little arts and crafts outing.
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