There has been a lot of debate over removing the needles when installing aftermarket gauge faces. If you remove the needles, be prepared to have the gauge not read correctly. There is no accurate way to re-install the needles once they have been removed. The first thing is to remove the dash panel and aux gauge panel. I am going to be replacing the Ebay decals with Speedhut faces.
Remove all of the outer screws for the clear lens and then remove the black metal bezel behind the lens. Then pull off the gauge stop pins:


Here is the tip for not removing the needles. Using a jewelers flat screwdriver, pry up on the black cap that covers the center of the needle. The old adhesive will give way and the cap comes off:

Once this is off, simply slide the new gauge face over the needle:



For the Speedhut gauges, some minor cutting is required for the connectors:

Wire routing is made simple because you will actually be removing the factory light bulbs since they are no longer needed to light up the gauges:

Here are the gauge faces installed minus the needle caps:

And the finished product with the needle caps glued back in place. The AC face will be put on later:


Hope this eases some of the fears of doing this project.

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In Memory Of Tyler Shipman:

Excellent write-up.
It's the same way I installed my Speedhut gage overlays a couple of months ago.

Another tip for Speedhut gage faces is to order an extra inverter and use one of them just for the speedo and tach and the other inverter for the fuel / temp gage, aux. panel and the HVAC panel.
The overlays for the Fiero comprise a lot of surface area which requires more power to make them as bright as possible.

Sorry to intrude on your thread. This just seemed like an ideal place to pass along that tip.

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 02-15-2010).]

quote Originally posted by randye: Another tip for Speedhut gage faces is to order an extra inverter and use one of them just for the speedo and tach and the other inverter for the fuel / temp gage, aux. panel and the HVAC panel. The overlays for the Fiero comprise a lot of surface area which requires more power to make them as bright as possible.

I agree. Come to think of it, I wonder which inverter I bought. I know they offered 2 types. It has been so long since I bought these that I forgot.

Any tips for cleaning up the needles w/o having to remove them? I know there was a post about how to repaint them, but that requires major disassembly.

Plus I'd need to change the color to match the gauges I want

Thankyou for this useful information after I already done went and removed the needels.

quote Originally posted by IMSA GT: If you remove the needles, be prepared to have the gauge not read correctly. There is no accurate way to re-install the needles once they have been removed.

This is simply Not True. PFF members have been installing the Speedhut faces For Years and removing the needles to do it. If anyone doesn't think so, search through the archives. Some people have even FIXED the bad reading on their gas guages by removing and re-positioning the needle. Many times the factory guages Don't read correctly Straight From The Factory.

I think im going to order a set of speed hut's gauges once tax time comes around.

I know I had to recalibrate Tyler Shipman's needles after someone said 'just pop em all off' when I did these on the cluster. You can use a 12V DC wall pack and resistors for temp(1.4k-55 Ohm) and fuel(0-90 Ohm). Oil pressure zeros out when off. Tach and speedo can be set with the same 12V DC wall pack and a low voltage AC wall pack... 60HZ = 54MPH and 1800RPM for V6 and 1200RPM for L4. All I know is that Oliver Scholz's articles on Fieros.de saved my rear end in Frazee.

[This message has been edited by carbon (edited 02-16-2010).]

Are these reverse glow indi glow ?

Meaning the numbers light up at night and not the whole bessel.

Do you have any pictures of what they look like at night ?

They look very nice

quote Originally posted by 85LAMB: Are these reverse glow indi glow ? Meaning the numbers light up at night and not the whole bessel. Do you have any pictures of what they look like at night ? They look very nice

Not to hijack, but here are my Speedhut gages.
I have both the overlays in my speedo, tach and HVAC panels and 3 regular full Speedhut gages for my volts, temp and oil press.
They have white legends on black faces unlit, and light up cobalt blue:

(hard to photograph them well, but they look brighter than shown)

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 02-17-2010).]

Randye
thanks for the picture,
If you don't mind would you please post a couple more, maybe some in the daytime with close up pics of the speedo and RPM.
Also, are your gauges (speedo n RPM ) black and blue light up numbers ?
Thanks again and I am looking forward to seeing your car in Daytona.