240z/260z Gauage Illumination

nzeder · Post by **nzeder** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 1:03 pm

To all the 240z/260z owners who are sick of the lack of Illumination of your gauages at night Speedhut.com have the answer.

Well this is one method to address the problem - the other method is replacing the stock bulbs with LED to increase the brightness.

I have send the guys at Speedhut.com an email to see if they make these in KM/H also and here is the reply

Hi,

We do offer Km/h for our gauges! We can also offer Km/h outer and MPH
inner scale if preferred. Please state in NOTES that you would like
Km/h (or Km/h outer and MPH inner). Please include your Km/h top speed.

There is a $10.00 charge for Km/h.

Thanks,
Speedhut.com team

So there you go they can do them in km/h or both if you like just $10 USD extra which is not too bad. The stock pricing is $89.95 USD + shipping.

I have attached some pics of these installed in a LHD 240z also note that for the demo the standard lights have been disabled so the needles don't show up. I have also asked Speedhut if they can do the volt member/fuel gauge aka 260z gauage - will post the answer once I get a reply.

Regards
Mike

Pest · Post by **Pest** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 4:27 pm

So...How's that work?

nzeder · Post by **nzeder** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 6:08 pm

pest wrote:So...How's that work?

Not sure - I have asked the question on the forum that I found the pics of the install on. However I think the faces must be connected to the inverter/control box included with the kit. I see on their website they also make an upgraded inverter/control box and it talks about the inverter/control box has 4 connectors for connecting to upto 4 of the el-glo dials so assume they dial light up with out the use of the stock lights = paint the stock needles in a black light colour and replace the stock bulbs with black lights.

The do a 350Z kit and looks like they have 300zx in development. They need a confirmed order of 25 before the 300zx's will be tooled up and they currently have 8 orders.

nzeder · Post by **nzeder** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 8:43 am

Here is link to how the EL (Electroluminescence) works ie how the gauage dial work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescence

Cheers
Mike

bernjean · Post by **bernjean** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 5:41 pm

That looks pretty cool. When I first got my car, I was disapionted at the lack of brightness for dash lights, however when i had the dash out for recovering I installed all new bulb, made a huge difference. Not up to current motor vehicle standards but heaps better. I'm happy with that for the moment, not in any great hurry to pull it all out again. Sill got lots other prioritys. But will print page out file it for future reference. Many thanks for this sort of info. Must say again looks cool.

240znz · Post by **240znz** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 8:49 am

My guages are in the shop for a pull down and refurb. The PO had painted the needles fluro orange....argh. In additon to installing new bulbs, I've asked the shop to paint the inside of the casings white to maximise the reflection. This should/could make a difference, time will tell.

Anyone else done this?

bernjean · Post by **bernjean** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:32 pm

Thats a great idea, good tip for those redoing dash, or doing restoration. Pity I didn't think of it. Not worth all the effort to pull dash again though.

old_datto_fan · Post by **old_datto_fan** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:54 pm

I'm about to swap dashes between my cars so have ordered a set of these - will place a comment once I have them installed.

old_datto_fan · Post by **old_datto_fan** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:05 pm

I have now swapped dashes between the cars. Went to install the Speedhut faces but had trouble getting the needle off the speedo and didn't have time to get the guages to someone who knew what they were doing so didn't install them. They do look really good though and may yet try fitting them once I get around to restoring the 240Z.

I did replace all 7 bulbs wirh new ones - they were all blown. At least you can now just read the guages at night time although I haven't had the car on the road at night time to see how effective they are.

So if someone wants a set of Speedhut faces I am sure I could be tempted by money.

If you need to swap dashes, I reckon that it took 8 to 10 hours to remove both dashes, swap all the wiring and guages and then reinstall both dashes.

And if you want to know why I performed this feat of apparent stupidity it was because the 260Z 2+2 I bought to wreck but ended up selling as a going vehicle had a much better condition dash than the one in my Fairlady.

Also I now have a good set of photos of the back of both dashes if anyone needs to put one back together.