Lotus Elan Central

by **Elanlover** » Thu 17.01.2008, 19:16

Understand you're point about having them seem "invisible" until lit. I think that's exactly how they have them working but I will confirm for us all. I don't think I'd want them showing in any way until lit either. In any case, these would be an optional purchase and not part of the main dial package.

by **tigerdog** » Fri 18.01.2008, 05:33

Nige wrote:just want instruments that are easier to read on a sunny day with the top down.

by **Elanlover** » Sat 19.01.2008, 19:18

Here's the latest from Naomi at Metal Monkey (and I have to say she's been absolutely amazing to work with). There's an outline diagram showing markings (which, if you wanted white face dials, would give you a sense of their look) and a diagram with a black face and white lettering.

The black face set is based on my personal colour preferences whereby the numerals will be white/silver during the day but all red at night. Looks pretty good in my opinion.

by **Nige** » Sat 19.01.2008, 20:26

They do look very good indeed. I expect mine to be similar but the speedo will be in MPH and my intent is to have the numbers white when not lit and green when lit apart from the kmh and redline which will be red all the time. You are right about Naomi, excellent comms and feedback thus far, makes a nice change.

by **Elanlover** » Sat 19.01.2008, 21:18

Almost forgot................

Naomi made a comment that, if one were to stay with black faced dials, there really wouldn't be value in having the warning lamp faces replaced. You'd not really notice a difference I suppose (especially sicne one would hope they's mostly be never lit!). But, she did say that if you went with the white or brushed silver faces then it would make sense. I told her that even though I'd probably not order a set I'd work with her to complete the faces anyway in the event someone wanted to order them.

I am planning to send her the heater dial faces as I'll want her to work a bit of magic on them for my fascia redesign project.

by **chris.t** » Sun 20.01.2008, 00:39

The dials look really good.

One thing that i was reminded of when i was looking at them was the petrol pump symbol. Apparently the side the nozzle is on depicts the side the filler caps on. So Nige make sure your nozzles on the left

by **RichyP** » Sun 20.01.2008, 02:40

chris.t wrote:The dials look really good.

One thing that i was reminded of when i was looking at them was the petrol pump symbol. Apparently the side the nozzle is on depicts the side the filler caps on. So Nige make sure your nozzles on the left

Makes more sense the way it's shown to me.... filler on the left so you need a pump with the nozzle on the right??

They do look very good though!

by **Nige** » Sun 20.01.2008, 13:07

Elanlover wrote:Almost forgot................

Naomi made a comment that, if one were to stay with black faced dials, there really wouldn't be value in having the warning lamp faces replaced. You'd not really notice a difference I suppose (especially sicne one would hope they's mostly be never lit!). But, she did say that if you went with the white or brushed silver faces then it would make sense. I told her that even though I'd probably not order a set I'd work with her to complete the faces anyway in the event someone wanted to order them.

I am planning to send her the heater dial faces as I'll want her to work a bit of magic on them for my fascia redesign project.

Naomi is spot on, and I was only thinking of black dial faces when I said earlier I couldnt see the benefit of doing the tell tales, if, however you go for white or stainless faces it makes perfect sense.

Chris, I'm lookinga ata brand new boxed fuel gauge and the nozzle on the pump symbol is on the right but the filler on the car is on the left so Richy's conclusion seems to be correct, use a pump with the nozzle on the right, as per the symbol. This had never ocurred to me before, you learn something new every day!

by **Elanlover** » Mon 21.01.2008, 16:51

Here's the "final" version of the dials with the speedo in KMH (an MPH version will also be available obviously). I believe that the mounting holes will be correct on this set unlike the Lockwood dials (which i heard there were a few minor problems with - easily sorted with a drill bit). I've also taken some liberties and asked Naomi to add a notch where the .9 mark would be on the boost gauge to eliminate the guessing should someone get close to the fuel cutoff point.

Anyone who's interested in these dials (especially you Nige) should provide their feedback now before they go to production. I plan on giving here the ok to produce tomorrow. I will also post the warning lamp faces when they are complete. I do plan on sending them the heater control face at the end of the month.

by **Nige** » Mon 21.01.2008, 16:57

Looks good to me (in MPH of course) I hope I will have e mail from Naomi when I get home as I will need to finalise colours etc. I plan on having an Elan logo (in green of course) in the Rev counter, this was my plan for the Lockwoods as it would have covered the Lockwood wording but the metal monkey option is much tidier.

by **Gazza** » Mon 21.01.2008, 17:15

Nige

You going to have it done for Donny?

Would like a look, as always wanted white with blue lights.

Gazza

by **Elanlover** » Mon 21.01.2008, 17:51

Nige, Naomi told me it'd take 2 weeks to put them through production. Plus whatever time for delivery and install. I'll still wait until tomorrow before giving her the go ahead just in case anyone else has some comments. Give you time to have them for Donington?

I like the idea of the little Lotus logo. May do that too.

by **GeoffSmith** » Mon 21.01.2008, 19:59

Nige wrote:Chris, I'm lookinga ata brand new boxed fuel gauge and the nozzle on the pump symbol is on the right but the filler on the car is on the left so Richy's conclusion seems to be correct, use a pump with the nozzle on the right, as per the symbol. This had never ocurred to me before, you learn something new every day!

Superb discovery. The number of times I've pulled up in a hire care an not known which pumps to go for. So easy and logical when you think about it.

So, who's going to tell VW and Peugeot because they don't comply!

by **Elanlover** » Mon 21.01.2008, 20:04

One other thing, I think Naomi will be including (need to confirm as I may have not heard this correctly) the warning lamp faces with the "package". Here's what she's working on for Fed cars which needs afew icons changed. But, can someone have a look and see what the warning icon layout is for UK based cars? I know its different from Fed cars and we might as well get it right. We'd need to know the ordering of the icons and their colours.

I've also attached a few pics of other warning panel faces they've done. Now that I've seen them I may very well use their set even if for consistency only.

by **Nige** » Mon 21.01.2008, 20:49

As hoped I had e mail from Naomi when I got home:

Photos below show what the finished result should look like:

As you can see I have an option of 160 or 170 mph speedo and thought the logo was a nice touch. Like Elanlover I may well include the tell tale warning lamps for completeness so the style of the symbols stays consistent. I cannot think of any changes I want to make other than perhaps reduce the size of the Elan logo slightly so it's a little more restrained. The daytime pic shows a green tint to the numbers as the green under the white will apparently show through a little, I actually like this effect so no worries there.

by **RichyP** » Mon 21.01.2008, 23:51

Nige,

looks very good - I think you're right about the size of the elan.

one thing I noticed - and I'm nowhere near my car to check, but isn't there a hidden tell-tale for the coolant temp similar to the low fuel? Could well be wrong on this and probably not necessary since most elan owners get twitchy when that needle starts rising!!

by **Elanlover** » Tue 22.01.2008, 02:31

No hidden coolant temp warning light on the dial face. I think we all just wait for the steam to rise from under the hood/bonnet :wink:

by **Elanlover** » Tue 22.01.2008, 14:09

I gave the fine folks at Metal Monkey the "OK" to use the latest template as the standard for the Elan. When ordering, you should be able to select KMH or MPH as your primary speedo measurement along with face colour, font, notch style, numeral colouring and any other little options they offer. There's only two things we don't have that would complete the M100 offering from them.

1. A Boost and Oil Pressure gauge in imperial as opposed to metric
2. The layout of the warning icons for UK cars

If someone can take a picture of their fed boost and oil pressure gauges and send it to me that would probably be good enough for them to work with. And, if someone can look at the icon layout I posted for the warning light panel faces and compare it to their UK car layout (and provide me with the differences) I can get them to offer up a UK version too. Thanks!

by **Elanlover** » Tue 22.01.2008, 15:56

By the way, here's the "final" version of the Fed warning lamp panel faces. And, for those of you who want to replace the old, incandescant twist in bulbs in the manin cluster with some properly coloured LED ones, its pretty hard to do since the bulb doesn't come out of the socket. However,these guys(from whom I've ordered all my LED bulbs from in the past) have the T5 base bulb (286 in Europe - 74 in NA) AND the twist base you can insert the bulb into. How nice! I'll be replacing ALL my instrument cluster bulbs with LEDs.

by **Nige** » Tue 22.01.2008, 19:05

Revised Tacho with a slightly smaller Elan Logo.

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