Continued From Lounge: Custom Overlays

[JVT007]

Lounge Topic: Great Idea!!

Anyways I have made some HVAC and LC overlays and even a shifter plate overlay from reading the info on this thread. Can anyone scan their speedo gauges all of them 97+? To see if it can be done properly and not pay 100+ for professional ones we would be able to do them ourselves. The other site is where this started.. but I think asking for v6 overlays over there would get me yelled out. Can anyone help? Maybe someone just got their Mcgeawen(sp) gauges they can scan before they install or something... Here is what I have made so far.

[camarochic]

Sweet!!! I'd love to have some of those for my camaro, nice job [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] but I dont have a rear defroster button so there would be and extra hole hmmmm

[Dojo2000]

How To Create Custom Gauges

This seems to have the best directions, but I have no clue how to do layers.

Anyone else interested in this?

[TealV6]

Excellent topic guys!! and good hunting for info!! My question is what are you printing this on and with what?? (i.e.: standard paper? Inkjet printer?)

You can use spray mount adheasive to mount these and that would be good.

Steve

[ravenp]

I'd be all over it... plus I would consider a thicker laminate for the the shift are in particular... alwasy dropping chips and spilling pop around there [img]smile.gif[/img] But i'd love those templates.. [img]smile.gif[/img]

As for the guage overlays, i'm probably out of luck wanting a metric display template... that's what McEwan guys said for the time being [img]graemlins/crybaby.gif[/img]

[Dojo2000]

Here is my light/dimmer overlay from my 96 bird.


Click here to download it.

The exact size to print out is:
Width = 9.55 cm
Height = 5.96 cm

I'll try to have the HVAC panel up soon.

[img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[AcidDrag0n]

Sweet man, I'm already trying to get some graphics on that dimmer, Anyone have requests or suggestions?

[Dojo2000]

Here is the HVAC controls:


Click here to download.

Exact size for this one:
Width = 20.56 cm
Height = 6.43 cm

I actually went and peeled these overlays off my panels, that seemed the easiest way to scan them. I'm not sure how I'm gonna get the speedo cluster scanned cause I'm afraid to peel off the overlay on that. Now that I think about it, my scanner bed is probably not even long enough :mad: . I'm gonna try printing on different types of paper and see which has the best results. Wish me luck.

[Jiffy]

What about when we turn on out interior lights, will the red in my bird still shine through?

[Dojo2000]

Not yet, still working on that. It will, sort of, if you put these over your stock overlay, but not very much. I think it might work better if the interior color was printed on a transparency(see-through plastic), then glued to the back of the new overlay(both of them replacing the old one), instead of them both being on paper. Right now Photo quality matte coated inkjet paper is giving me the best results, but my printer is messing up the colors.

[TheBeast]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Jiffy:
What about when we turn on out interior lights, will the red in my bird still shine through?<hr></blockquote>

The red still shines through, not as bright though. Enough to see the controls. I just had to take my HVAC overlay off today...thought the cloth i was using was dry and went to wipe a little dirt off and BAM, smeared the ink on the WHITE faced overlay, looked terrible so i yanked it out. Grrr, a protective coating would be a nice idea for any future overlays made. I was a little annoyed to find out that the ink could be smeared so easily and i dropped 35 bucks on that piece of paper. Its the overlay from www.interior-auto.com looks nice and all, custom "firebird" lettering, but bah its ruined now, lol

[AcidDrag0n]

Why not call a printing or sticker place and ask them what they think, or see if they can print it?

[TheBeast]

My sister works in a stamp store that does all sorts of things. If someone will send me a final copy of the HVAC that I could put on a disk, then I can take it up to College Station this Friday and see what they can do with it.

[JVT007]

Ok the orignal overlays are a kind of opaque type thing... i was thinking maybe a transparency if you weren't going for a complete change like maybe just black with your flames or whatever that way your flames and your lights would still come on...

or If you could print the whole thing out on a transparency and let the ink dry for a long time and then laminate it (to protect from smearing) it would show through. Just leave the icons empty by deleting the color or whatever... i dunno just thoughts.

[JVT007]

Hey! This is a silly idea but I was thinking it might work... ok i am using kodak photopaper soft gloss on all the ones that I print.

I know this is silly but it might provoke someone smarter then me to come up with a solution..

EDIT!!!! I tried my theory. I printed out my gray design and then lightly poured some vegtable oil on a tissue and did one light layer (carefully) not to oversature the paper and besides where I left finger prints there was no severe discoloration to the print (if done on the reverse side) More light is goign through. Just a ghetto way to get something done [img]smile.gif[/img]

Do you know how fat (grease) can make a white sheet of paper transparent (come on i know you have seen that episode of the simpsons). Maybe if we do something like that to the back side of our print outs the lights will show through without damaging the print out. Oh well just a suggestion? Anyone come up with some new designs?

Here is my latest!


[ June 05, 2002: Message edited by: JVT007 ]

[ June 05, 2002: Message edited by: JVT007 ]</p>