The gauge face on my tachometer was faded pretty bad.  I decided to try and fix it.  I was able to remove the face from the gauge and scan it.  I opened the scanned file in photoshop and darkened the faded black and red spots.  I removed the paint from the gauge and printed up a new face on plain paper and glued it on with rubber cement.  Then I reassembled the gauge. (I also replaced the lights with blue LEDs).  It looks MUCH better.

here is a copy of the photoshop file in jpeg format.  I am not certain whether or not it will print out at the right size.  But if you want to give it a try your welcome to it.  I printed directly from photoshop before converting this jpeg file.



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v637/dcoffey48/gs500/tach.jpg

All in all it was not too big of a task.  I found this link part way through I only wish I had found it before I removed the needle from the tach. 

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=7525

Dave.

Odd.. I'm pretty sure my redline is 10.5K, not 11K

No it's an  11k redline on my pile of tachs too....

Yeah there is a little tension on the needle and you have to let it past the pin and mark it's resting point.

Plain paper? Dunno how long that will last ( not fade )...The white faced gauges I did were on a selfadhesive photo-printed-vinyl kind of thing... (I'll see if I can recall what it was...).

Whats the finished product look like?

anything printed on a plain printer should fade in short order. i am just starting the process of making some for mine at work. my suggestion is to have a local sign shop with digital printing capabilities print it with some uv stable resin or solvent inks on vinyl (oracal 3651 or 3951 vinyl if they ask.)

QuoteYeah there is a little tension on the needle and you have to let it past the pin and mark it's resting point.

I had to reassemble just enough to test the tach to get the needle where it should be.  It should be close enough now.

QuotePlain paper? Dunno how long that will last ( not fade )...The white faced gauges I did were on a selfadhesive photo-printed-vinyl kind of thing... (I'll see if I can recall what it was...).

That thought crossed my mind.   When it does fade I'll re do it with better materials.


I was very pleased with how it came out.  It looks much better than it did.  It is still just a shade more translucent than the speedometer (I only did the tach) but not so much that anyone not looking real hard would notice.  The blue LED's really make it look awesome.

Dave.

Here are some pics:  (I took them this morning while warming up the bike)







I just love those blue LED's!

I hope it doesn't fade too soon.  I think I may redo both gauges this winter with a custom design and the proper UV resistant materials.

Print them white on black, or black on white, whichever, and then just have them laminated with anti-UV stuff ?

I'd imagine if you find a laminator with UV resistant plastic, you might be compelled to have them print up a dozen at a time