Ger's 2003 Porsche Boxster S

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by BRAN

Yup, do the conversion and switch the gauge faces to GTS01
+1
But remember, Orange on Red is difficult to see.

It's what they have though:



May have to choose a brighter orange...

[BRAN]

oh ja, well those, too, but I meant the needles


What about black and green like the OLD old old 911s? If you could catch that old style and match it with the other gauge faces, that would be awesome.
I think a cool mix of both styles would be Über!

Kinda like this:

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by BRAN

oh ja, well those, too, but I meant the needles


What about black and green like the OLD old old 911s? If you could catch that old style and match it with the other gauge faces, that would be awesome.
I think a cool mix of both styles would be Über!

Kinda like this:

Awesome idea, but I love the white

I may re-paint the needles actually so they're white. Good shout on that...

[geraintthomas]

Replaced the AOS! And HOLY COW, the difference is immense! All issues have been fixed, car idles stunningly (can barely tell it's on if listening to music), performance is great, response is awesome... all fixed.

And then I went and did something stupid.

This LED conversion, thought I'd make a start. Took the dials out and pulled them apart successfully. Started to de-solder an LED and the amount of force it was taking me to get the single LED off was ridiculous. It got to the point where I hadn't damaged said LED yet, so I had the chance to stop and put it all back together - so I did. I'm not doing the upgrade, it's far too risky damaging the board.

Put it all back together and I seem to have broken my rev counter. The needle is very loose and doesn't react at all anymore. Tapping on the housing bounces the needle, so looks like I've buggered it. I've already placed an order for new dials. As I'm changing them, I've gone for the DOT-Matrix dials (the ones with the proper LCD panel on). It's a direct replacement, and it'll let me upgrade to the on board computer and cruise control in the future. I'd do it now but it'll cost me a lot of money all at once, so that'll have to wait.

Replacement dials were £100 on ebay.

Ah well. Win some, loose some. I do everything myself so this was bound to happen wasn't it! At least the car performs stunningly.

[geraintthomas]

And voila, dials replaced!

The newer dot-matrix display gives a lot more information now, even without the extra stalks! Seatbelt, dimmer amount, key in ignition, temperature, etc.











I'm going to fit the extra stalk, but I'm waiting until a 4-stalk one appears as I'll get that so that I'd have cruise control too. With these newer dials, cruise control is built in, so they just need wiring in from the stalk and enabling. Pointless buying the 3-stalk one as I'd just have to swap it again when that time comes. They're rarer than hens teeth though.

Mileage correction is happening Wednesday - £80 to correct it back to the ECU mileage.

Nice having the new display though

In the meantime, I've taken out the faces to my old dials because I'm going to scan them in.



I know I said I wouldn't do the face upgrade, BUT there's a company in America (whitefaces.net) that do faces that slip over the needles. They also take custom requests, so I'm going to see if they can make mine. They have Boxster ones already but not of the 'S' variant. I was thinking of making some but put a slit at the bottom as I'm not risking removing the needles again, but that wouldn't work for the fuel and temperature gauges. Will need a think.

I had a look in my old projector lenses too, and found out why they started to dim.

Here's the reflective bowl:



And here's the inside:



It's just coated silver. You can see it peeling and burnt off completely! Obviously these are cheap £15 projectors, the same as the ones I've just put in. My new ones will eventually go the same way, so that'll be the time I invest in Morimoto projectors.

That's it for now

[geraintthomas]

I've just thought of a wicked idea.

I can't change all of the dial faces, but I can change the centre one. Notice how small the gap is between the bottom of the needle and the bottom of the dial? There can be a tiny slit there which you'll never notice, which is how you can slip the new face on.

The beauty of this? I only have to print a singular face - the colour face on transparent paper. As I'll be re-creating the face using the scans of the original, I just need the block colour printed on a transparent sheet.

Like this:



Keeping all original holes, so slipping it over the original face would then look like this:



And because I have spare faces, I can keep testing until I get a perfect fit. Once it's done, pop open the dials (easiest thing in the world to do), slip the new one over the old, and job done!

Some more colours:







So yeah, going to try that ASAP! Will scan in the dials tomorrow and should be able to print them by this weekend!

If this works, I'll have the template for re-creating these for anyone - a very easy upgrade!

[geraintthomas]

Actually, when the dials aren't illuminated, the writing will be black, making it very hard to read. Will see if I can put a sheet of something behind the colour to create the white without blocking too much light.

[geraintthomas]

Talking of gauges...





A perfect fit.



Cut it out



Removed the gauges



Placed the overlay onto the face





Tadaaah! All without removing the needle. You can't even see the slit.



Haven't got any photos inside the car yet as it was too dark. Will get some tomorrow!

With red, it's hard as the numbers are already black. The only thing I can do is add some sort of dropped stroke to that they ping out:

[Silver']

Well I'm impressed, again!

I imagine that your printer wouldn't be able to interpret any colour as 'thin white' so having a layer of white would mean that they are no longer lit. Perhaps a fine matrix of white dots?

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by Silver'

Well I'm impressed, again!

I imagine that your printer wouldn't be able to interpret any colour as 'thin white' so having a layer of white would mean that they are no longer lit. Perhaps a fine matrix of white dots?

The printers we have don't print white unfortunately, so that appears transparent!

[Nevergrowup]

Awesome!

I'm sure there are more like me who every day goes into "Show and tell" and "Wonder if Ger has put an update..... YES!!!!" Your car is such an inspiration!

I did the same thing with printing clock faces to my old Cherokee several years ago, and have been wondering how difficult it'll be to do my rev counter in red. I have a measly base model with black faces and white numbers, so I think it'll be even easier.

Did you find a template online, or scan your old one?

[geraintthomas]

That's put a massive smile on my face thank you.

I scanned in my originals and re-created them in a vector form, which took me a long time!

I'm happy to do these for anyone, but seeing as I live in the UK, postage may be a bit pricey? It'll only be the cost of a letter though, so shouldn't be too much. Still, if there's demand for them then I'll happily do it.

[Nevergrowup]

Hmm. A quick look shows me that my car being a base model not only differs in colour, but also the number range and number placement.

So I unfortunately won't be able to use your overlays... :-(

[geraintthomas]

Here's what they're like in the day:



In terms of doing other dials, I can do any dial that you want but I'd need an A4 600dpi scan of the faces for me to create the overlays for. Black will be hard as the colour will be very dark.

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by bokepid

artikel bagus

Terima kasih!

[BruceH]

The dials look great! You have a lot of talent and creativity

[BRAN]

Awesome sauce, great job!

[geraintthomas]

Thank you guys

[Saxosim]

Awesome work as ever Ger 😉

[Dan Mumford]

Wow, I've got to say you've probably got the best looking 986 I've ever seen, super clean!

I've got a non S, 2.5 986 that's been off the road for a little while so it's going to be a bit of a project for me, I'd love to know some more details about the custom android headunit if you don't mind? It's looks incredible!

Also the projector lenses, how does the wiring work to turn the fog lamps into the sidelights?

Thanks! 👍🏻