Modding the Gauge Cluster & Overlay

First: please forgive the poor quality of some of the pictures, I shot these with my iPhone since it was at hand.

Since I had to install a new speedo stepper motor, I took advantage of the fact that the cluster was apart to add in the 7th motor for the trans temp gauge.



To finish THAT mod, I will be changing to a 2500HD overlay, now was the perfect time to play around with attempting to change a few things on the soon to be discarded 'Normal' overlay.

1: I never liked the Cruise indicator, the green was overly bright at night, and I always thought the 'needle' should have been a different color.
2: Ditto for the blue High beam indicator
3: I didn't like the monochromatic 'LOCK' icon, was very plain.


I remembered we used to sand the backs of factory overlays down to eliminate the factory color, and then recoat them (or sections of them) with translucent paint to change the illuminated color. Alternately we could change the bulbs to colored bulbs, or paint the bulbs themselves, or a combination of the three to create our own different color scheme.


Sooooo...

I scraped off the green color on the overlay for the Cruise indicator, using a very very steady hand and a razor blade (you can use very fine grit sand paper as well, if doing the entire back or a large section)



and then using some orange nail polish...I changed the bulb color to orange.






Which made it look amber when I was driving, instead of green.
(testing the cluster before reassembly)


I still wasn;t completely happy so I started adding some detail with translucent red paint, which should (hopefully) illuminate blood orange for a nice contrast...




<2 b cont.>

I'm headed out to test it out now before the sun comes up.

It is so nice to have a working speedo again!

Excellent work man

Pretty sweet.

I need to give that a try.

Results of my experiment:

Successful:
HI beam -
thin red coat on overlay + high beam's blue LED = deep nearly violet blue. this cut the intensity to about 1/3, about same as the other gauges making driving with the highs on much more tolerable. I can see the indicator even during the day, but it isn't piercing and irritating.



Partially successful:
The amber section of the cruise indicator is still bright, and with the red indicator it's a little too attention grabbing. I think I will go for a nice restful deep red by painting the rest of it red also, since the red section of it I did like.(bulb is still orange)




Unsuccessful:
the lock symbol, honestly, looks like arse. I'll be scraping that off and leaving it with just the orange LED illumination, and won;t mess with any other LED illuminated ones.

I'm undecided on whether or not to change the turn signals to red... I'm certainly leaning towards doing it that way right now.

Either way man, excellent work.

Is there a write up for stepper motor replacing and how do you put the needles back in the right place? I didn't even know you could just add a needle and motor for the trans temp.. Thats crazy

hey Eagle my understanding is that all you need is a denali or escalade transmission gauge and just plugs it into the original harness and it should work right for models 03+ Correct ?i heard that they come prewire already but without the Tranny Gauge. GM wanted to save some money.. Im thinking of getting a US speedo gauge pretty soon and they have one already with the pre temp gauge already.

viximaging said:

Is there a write up for stepper motor replacing and how do you put the needles back in the right place? I didn't even know you could just add a needle and motor for the trans temp.. Thats crazy

Click to expand...

Yes there is a write up. Omar did one and has it posted on z71tahoesuburban forum. I'll dig it up and get it up here.

OK, I did the turns red, the cruise in red, and redid the highbeam indicator with a lighter coat. we've got 60+ mh winds right now so I don;t feel like going out to take a picture at the moment, but I'll put one up when i can.

---------- Post added at 11:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:18 AM ----------

06tahoe said:

hey Eagle my understanding is that all you need is a denali or escalade transmission gauge and just plugs it into the original harness and it should work right for models 03+ Correct ?i heard that they come prewire already but without the Tranny Gauge. GM wanted to save some money.. Im thinking of getting a US speedo gauge pretty soon and they have one already with the pre temp gauge already.

Click to expand...

it isn't a separate gauge. it's the same motor all the other gauges use.

vix: I turned the needles full counter clockwise, marked em with tape, pulled em... when I put them back on, i turned the needles counter-clockwise until they lined up,even if it took 2-3 trips around.


here is the link to omar's tutorial. other than different ways of indexing the needles, it is exactly what I followed.

http://z71tahoe-suburban.com/iboard/index.php?showtopic=19909

i so want to add the trans stepper motor, but i want to get the SS overlay first and another needle for it. Omar's thread was an excellent write up.