White gauge face overlays... any good?

[astronut1885]

Hi guys. I've been looking to get a set of white gauge faces for my stock cluster. All the ones I've seen are either set up for 140 mph speedo or a 6k tach. I just found these on Ebay, and they match my setup, but they are overlays, not replacement faces. If anyone has any experience with these, or knows if they are good at night, please let me know. They're cheap enough, so if they are good, I want to get them.

Link to auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...3952&item=2457913067&sspagename=STRK:MEBWA:IT

Thanks guys!

 

[PonyBoy90]

I'm currently looking into buying a set of the MAC whitefaces myself and am starting to ponder if it would actually be a good idea to put them on.

I visited the MAC website and they have an FAQ on their site. The biggest question/problem I'm finding when I search on the topic of these things is that they don't lite up well during the night. During the day they look great, but at night, apparently they are either blurry, the number's don't show up too well, or to dark. Also, it would be wise to paint the needles red as the orange doesn't come up at all during night driving. Also, before applying the new MAC's on, the surface should be cleaned with mild soapy water as the old dirt and film prevents the light from showing through the new faces.

I called a Mustang pro who's installed plenty of the MAC's and he said first off, they are a pain to install on the foxbody Mustangs because of all the screws and trim and parts of the dash you need to take apart to get to the speedo. Then the speedo itself is a pain to unscrew. He told me he doesn't carry the MAC's anymore because too many people complained about the night lighting on these things. I asked what his labour charge would be on installation for me and he said $120 as it would take roughly 2 hours and the patience to take it all apart and then reinstall.

Interestingly enough, he said the MAC's look better on the 94's and up and the installation is so much easier that to install on a 94 would only cost $60 for one hour of labour!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lastly, my Mustang Pro told me he only carries the APC Indiglow whiteface guages now as those come with a special lighting system that is installed into your electrical system that lights up the cluster, hence making it more readable, however, he wanted something like $170 Canadian for it!

I just wanted to chime in and give you some idea of what I've found out so that you can make a better decision.

I looked at the ebay whitefaces you showed. I think those may be adhesives as the guy states you don't need to remove the needles. I think the MAC's are actually panels where you have to unscrew and remove the old stock panel and then screw in the new whitefaces. The ones on ebay look like all you do is just peel off the new whiteface guage, slip it over the needles and just stick them to the stock guages. If that is how they work, buddy, at night you won't see a thing on your gauge pod
I'm sure they'll look good during the day though.

Good luck

 

[PonyBoy90]

Hey, I did a forum search and typed in the key words "white face" and pulled up a lot of old posting concerning all types of white face guages.

The first thing I found was a lot of complaints about those ebay white face guages you were looking at. The guy who's selling them pretty much designed them on a home computer and just printed them up on glossy adhessive paper. That's right, you peel them off and just stick them on over the stockers

Another complaint about them had something to do with them not being "contoured" properly, hence on some areas along the edges the sticker bunches up, hence you have to cut stress relief points on them. There was also a complaint that the glue adhessive on the back is very poor and on cold days the sticker could peel off and interfere with your needles. Lastly, as they stick on over the stock guage, no light get's through so it's very dark.

Some other posts were about the MAC brand of white faces. They are cheaper and better as they replace the stock cluster totally, they are dark or dim in some places more than others. Biggest complaint of darness on numbers was between 40 mph and 60 mph. Still they looked good during the day and not bad bang for the buck.

Seems like the best or better ones are by BBK or NR. However, they cost quite a bit I hear.

Take a look at the threads. A lot of the guys show the various white face guages in pictures taken during the night and day. I thought they gave a nice "light show", however, even the nicest lit whiteface guage pic shown, I had trouble determining where the needles were. I guess during the night you're pretty much driving in the dark. In order for the white faces to work 100%, someone needs to design a needle with a light equiped inside it to glow so you can see it in the dark. At night, white numbers on a black backing are easier to see than black numbers on a white backing.

Personally, I think I'm going to have to re-assess the whole white face idea on my car.

 

[Gearbanger 101]

Don't suppose you guys know where I might find a set that read in km/h.....for us Canadians?

 

[PonyBoy90]

Gearbanger, I'm Canadian and live in Toronto.

I just talked to Joe DaSilva at DaSilva Racing here in Toronto. He's the one who informed me about the MAC's and the APC Indiglows. He sells the APC's and has them in his shop right now. When he was at Speedorama he had a couple of boxes, but like I said, he want's big bucks for them.

In Canada the km/hr are located along the outer radius and the mph along the inner radius. I think both MAC and APC do the same but vice versa. The outer has the mph, and the inner has the km/hr.

I don't think anyone makes white faces with the km/hr on the outside and mph on the inside like the stockers.

 

[Gearbanger 101]

Yeah, that's what I've found too.....but I can't understand why. Whoever markets them will make a killing off of people who want to keep the orignial look of thier cluster. How is he to deal with anyway...are there still two shops (J&P Peformance and Dasilva Racing) or did they close J&P all together. If I remeber correctly he and his brother were branching off?

 

[PonyBoy90]

Joe DaSilva is great! He's done plenty of work on my car and it's always done right the first time, not like the FORD dealership's I used to go to.

He has a nice and very clean shop and just recently purchased a Dyno system.

He care's about his customer's and he's always around his place. An honest and knowledgable guy.

Check his website at www.Dasilvaracing.com

Are you part of www.gtamc.com???????????? Did you know about it? Joe's always advertising specials on the site and has some links to it.