Metal Monkey Dial Faces

[HJ2]

Enjoy!

[tweetdriver63]

Guys, I'm working on installing the dial faces right now. Here's a question though. Installing them exactly as they arrived from MM, they are pretty dim and a little unevenly lit. There seems to be a thin white backing on them over the colored backing, and it isn't perfectly lined up where the holes are. The instructions don't mention this backing, whether it is supposed to stay on or be removed. It sticks on pretty tight, but can be peeled off without damaging the colored part, and that would make the lighting a lot brighter.

Can somebody who's already installed these things, should I remove that backing, or is brighter bulbs the answer?

[HJ2]

Time to peel, as it is protective foil for the colored layer!

[tweetdriver63]

Time to peel, as it is protective foil for the colored layer!

Thank you.

[Elanlover]

Chris, I think you should e-mail them first. Mine had this on the back and it was required. Better safe than sorry.

[HJ2]

You have a 2 colour version?
White as the back layer will never ever show on the front.

The other way around, yes. (F. I: lights off: white, lights on: coloured!

[tweetdriver63]

I have the stainless with dark blue and some red. Shows dark blue in the daylight too.

I peeled the backing off of the boost gauge and you really can't tell any difference. I had already installed all three of those gauges, so I decided not to mess with the others. I also went ahead and installed the speedo, etc with the backing still on, because it didn't want to come off without the colored part coming with it.

What I see now is that they all need to be brighter, so I'm going to get some LEDs for everything. Also, the upper arc of the speedo doesn't appear to have any backlighting at all. I don't see a bulb right behind that area either. What could be causing this? (I'll take a pic later when it's actually dark outside)

Also, I had them put the Lotus logo on the rev counter. Right now it looks like the bottom part of the logo isn't being lit either. Maybe there's some partitions behind the face that block it?

One thing's for sure. I'm not taking those f**king gauges out again right away, regardless. By the time I got them all back in I was about ready to end it all.



On the bright side, I also installed the new seat suspension unit under my driver's seat. My arse is much happier.

[Elanlover]

LED's for backlighting the speedo and other gauges isn't going to help. Been there and done that. They tend to be more unidirectional than spread out so it actually creates hotspots not uniform lighting. I eventually bought prewired LED's with diffuse lenses (like these or maybe these?), drilled a few extra holes and installed them in the back of the cluster using plastic LED retainer clips found on eBay as well. A bit of a pain to be sure but it works.

[tweetdriver63]

I guess that'll have to be another project. For now, everything works well enough to get by. The only thing that's difficult from a functional perspective is seeing the upper arc of the speedo at night. Everything else is ok. LEDs should brighten up the heater controls and the funboy 3, but they are visible as is.

It's such a pain in the butt getting the cluster in and out -- a real clusterf**k, actually. I wonder if I can just add a couple of lights to the upper part without actually having to remove it from the dash? Awkard, and there would be debris from drilling, but it should be behind the gauge faces where it might not be an issue. I'll have to give it all some thought. Maybe, since I'm going to have some work done on the car while I'm deployed in a few months, I can get the shop to take care of it for me?

Other than the lighting issue, which is fixable, I really like the new dial faces. I get to fell like I've gotten a new car, sort of. The stainless faces look the dog's.

The tell-tales for the lights on, turn signals, etc all light up in green, so the new clock I have on the way will fit right in. It's got a green LED readout. BTW, clocks identical to our OEM clock, but with the green LEDs, are available on ebay for just over $20 U.S. Search LQ-1200L.

[tweetdriver63]

Did I mention my Speedo actually tells me how fast I'm going now? No? Well, I have been subtracting 10% from the displayed speed to get the correct speed for almost six years now. As of today, my Speedo is accurate to within one mph. It even errs on the high side by that one mph, just like you want it to.

[WienLot]

Just found this: http://www.fk-shop.fr/Tuning-interieur/ ... -1998.html
But most probably already known by all of you...

[HJ2]

I hate to tell you, but there are only 2 ways of getting the background lighting all nice and even.

1. Do as lotus did (and almost all manufacturers did). The use of bulbs comes with the problem that near a bulb there is more light than farther away. They compensated this in printing a pattern with matte black on the back of the dials. The pattern lets more light through where the bulbs are further away, and blocks a little light when the bulbs are closer. The pattern is complex as the bulbs are not spread out evenly across the surface of the faces.

2. Do it the modern way and fix a sheet of Indiglo behind your dials. Indiglo provides a nice even backlit glow, but is quite blue-ish so it won't reproduce the colors as you'd like.

Not an easy problem to fix. I want to have a good reading and good looks in daylight, and good reading in the night is sufficient for me. Although my dials are not perfectly even lit, i still love the looks of them!
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=19819&p=253943

I also calibrated the speedo as well! I drove 100 kph on the GPS and then put the needle back on. It still shows the same as GPS speed untill today (but of course only around the 100 kph...

Also good that we established that the white film is, in fact, transport protection foil

[tweetdriver63]

Here are some pics in the daylight: I really like the stainless, but the pics don't really do them justice, specially taken with my phone.

WP_000624.jpg

WP_000625.jpg

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[Steve A]

Like

[Rusty Wishbone]

Very nice indeed!


[Note to self: Another project to add to the list]

[Rice crispy]

Being a coward I only did the 3 aux gauges on mine as 2 of them were pitted with standard looking metal monkey ones which was easy ish, I may take the boost back out as I have put the needle on pointing up slightly so it is actually is acurate but doesn't quite point to zero more like 0.1bar on idle. the guages are also much brighter than the other guages now so will order the rest to even it out hopefully. Been reading Henks write up so it seems fairly simple just need to order them.

David

[mitreklov]

I'm after some clarification from you fellow forum members.

I'm in the process of ordering some Metal Monkey dial faces for my 91 SE, I'm fed up with not being able to see the red digits on black background on sunny days so I figured I'd update to look of the dials.
In addition to the instrument dial faces I'm also going to change the heater panel plate to match and this is where I need some guidance.

The image on Metal Monkey web site shows two extra symbols on the upper airflow control knob giving 6 possible positions for the control, however my car only has 4, see attached pictures. My initial thought is the 6 position version is FED or ROW and differs from the UK spec, but I did wonder if the 6 position version was fitted to later S2 UK cars as well. Can anyone confirm this?

Naomi at Metal Monkey has been brilliant and has tooled up to produce a heater plate with just the four symbols that matches my car. I just wanted to confirm the differences so I could confidently tell her which versions were for which markets.

In addition to the revised heater panel Naomi is also modifying the telltale light masks to better match the UK symbols as the ones she has were FED.

Any input on this would be appreciated.

Thanks

Tim

M100_Heater_UK.jpg

as per my 91 SE

Lotus_Elan_Heater.jpg

version on Metal Monkey web site

[Elanlover]

................In addition to the revised heater panel Naomi is also modifying the telltale light masks to better match the UK symbols as the ones she has were FED.

Well, you can blame me for that since I started the process with MM many years ago. Although, Nige was the second one to install those dial faces and he has a UK car. If I recall though he didn't have the telltale inserts done so all Naomi would have would be the Fed one (and my custom ones). As for the heater dials, there are two versions out there - one with 4 positions and one with 6. I can't recall if its related to having aircon or not.

They do a great job and provide excellent customer service.

[dapinky]

Hi Tim,

Firstly, Naomi is very helpful - can't praise their customer services enough!

The 2 versions of heater were fitted in both UK and Export models, and don't appear to be date-related at all - the 6 position heater was used with AC (and possibly some cars without AC - I'm not sure).

As such, it isn't possible to state a 'market' for either panel - just wheter they are 6-position or 4-position heater units.

[epipete]

Mines 6 position, no a/c!