Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Aesthetics Indaglow gauges

Please excuse my spelling. But many of us have realized how much our cool looking gauges suck for the 1.5 - 2 hours during dusk. Hell, I'm not too fond of the night time look. But on Maximas, there white gauges glow. I believe it's Indaglow. Does anyone think this could be done? Where could we get the gauges?

I bet Brad Noon could get some made with some kind of blue plastic with a white overlay. It would shine through as blue when the lights are on. I've been tossing the idea of making some for myself but I'm too busy with keychains, taillights, and stuff



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Chris Hightower
http://crush7.dyndns.org/

I tried the shine through method with our stock gauges with new faces... looked terrible. You could see the gauge innards as shadows... I'm not smart enough to do the indiglo way, not sure if it's a gas like neon or mmore of an LED type of thing, but it needs a transformer of some kind. My gauges are similar to the SVT ones as far as operation, just with different colors.

Brad

FWIW, I checked in the 300M service manual and DC is quite NON-specific about the Indiglo details. Just says illumination integrated with the gage cluster and shows six bulbs. The replacement bulb(s) is # 194, no idea of the specs. Does NOT appear to need extra support electronics. It does note that some bulbs are halogen and not to touch them but not specifically the 194. IMHO,the 300M has the, by far, BEST gage illumination I have ever seen in ANY car. VERY easy to see at a glance, day, night or in between plus covering a wider, than I need, adjustment range.

OF, any chance you could tear into the wife's bardge and figure it out? I'll look into local yards also. Any other DC or other make cars have it? The aftermarket indiglo style sets are hard to do, but if DC has a cheaper/easier way....

Brad

Danny - Try turning the brightness all the way down to no illumination and you can see the numbers better at dusk. Car & Driver really ripped the Contour on its gauge illumination.

Sorry, not even going to think about it. Two reasons, 1. I don't need to get killed and 2. not easy. If I were to guess, its the mechanical gage backing and/or face material with some sort of edge illumination. Think Dodge Intrepid and Chrysler LHS's use the same setup. It does NOT change color at night like the older Max's. White faced at all time. Illuminated it's a kinda teal blue green color.

Brad,
You are right, Indiglo uses a gas (neon?) which is excited by high voltage from an inverter. I happen to have MANY Indiglo devices, from watches, to palmpilots, to even a damn nightlight!

It would be pretty costly to develop an Indiglo setup just for the Contours.

I suggest getting some kind of fluourecent blue material to print the gauges on and light them up from the rear with a blacklight. That way, the palstic really would be emitting light triggered from the UV rays of the blacklight. 12V blacklights are pretty damn cheap, too. The only unknown would be where to mount the blacklight.

Just an idea.

I really think it would work. Lemme know,



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Chris Hightower
http://crush7.dyndns.org/

Actually...APC makes an "Indiglo" retro fit kit. I have not used it, but from what I understand is that it works with white face gauges and will give that effect.

Dark Side SVT, where did you see the indiglo retrofit? I looked for at APC's website but didnt see anything aboutit.