Plasma Gauges

[pre620ti]

Right, I'm just trying to find out if there would be any interest in a group buy for plasma gauges for most of the Rover models. I am also trying to get them to do heater controls as well.

These would be supplied as a kit that are fitted in the same way as Lockwoods (or similar), the have a white finish in the day time and when the lights go on the are illuminated with blue and red - I think they look quite nice.






I've borrowed these from one of their adverts, if they can not supply immediately they are quite keen to do development work on other models and either need an image to go from of a set of instruments - I am sending them the ones from my 'new' Vitesse to work on when I am away.

If I can get an idea of how many (if any) are interested I can talk to them a bit more and see what sort of deal they are talking about - the standard prices are about £40.00 plus postage.

[pre620ti]

Just in case you want some more details;

BASIC FITTING GUIDE

Please note! this is only a guide and may
not represent your vehicle.
_______________________________________

Remove the screws that hold the dash surround then unscrew the screws holding the dash clocks in position. Lift out and disconnect the electric connector and speedo cable at the back of the clocks. Remove speedo clocks from the vehicle. Now find a clear area to work on. Unclip the latches around the side and remove the clear and the black facias. Carefully cut a gap at the edge of the dash. This is to allow the new dial wires to feed through. Now leaving the original dials in their positions, carefully slide the new white dials over/along the gauge needles and over the rest pin (if fitted) ensuring they are situated correctly. Continue the same method with the other main speedo dial first feeding the dial wire neatly under and between the speedo and rev counter dials (picture right) ensure the dials are in position and all new wires feed neatly along to the cut-out.
Refit the dash facia. Note! when fitting black facia, ensure all the wires go out through the gap you had cut as indicated in the bottom right ensuring you do not snag any wires. Place the small transformer in a convenient position at the back of the dashboard. You will need to locate the live electrical wire for your vehicle’s instrument lights and connect the small transformer (red wire) to this and the black to an earth connection or neutral connection. Next, find a suitable position to install the dimmer switch. This will be at your preference and depends on the vehicle model. Then connect to the transformer. Now you can replace the clocks back into the vehicle housing and reconnect the electrical connections. Also connect the wires from the transformer to the wires from the white dials. Re-fit all dash components by reversing the process. Reconnect the battery and turn the ignition on. Take the vehicle for a short run to ensure the needles are functioning correctly.

These are the very basic fitting instructions from their web site http://www.visual-performance.co.uk/#/w ... 4519423046 , as I have said they do not cater for all models, but are prepared to develop.

If I can get enough interest, instead of doing it as a group buy I may see if they can offer a discount to RT members. This would be a better way for me, as I wouldn't have to have everything delivered to me and then re-post things.

[das_Chaos]

the heater controls for the rt's are available in poland, moman.pl got some, search for honda civic ma/mb/mc

[ttrw2]

FWIW I had a set of these fitted to my R8 hatch.

They did look very nice at night, but are an absolute mare to fit. Mine weren't "slip-overs" so you had to remove dial needles (2 out of 4 broke off) and then inflatable dinghy-around for ages getting the needles back on int he right place - the fuel and temp gauge rely on a min. stop on the backing that the plasma gauges don't have, so you make your own or let the needle drop to about six o'clock when turned off.

Mine were from Visual Performance

Nice to look at but a pain getting there......

[pre620ti]

I have e-mailed the company and I am sitting here patiently waiting for a response.

I will be sending them my gauges and clock over the next week. I am due to go to sea soon and wont be back for a while. If it is looking like a forum discount I will either post the details on this thread or PM them to one of the moderators.

[pre620ti]

Just received an e-mail back for these gauges. Price quoted is £40.00 delivered - this is based on an order of 15 sets. I have just asked him to clarify some details and given him some over options.

If they do not have your cars gauges they are happy to develop them. They look to do 50 items from a development item and will not manufacture them until they have a confirmed order of 15 pieces. This is what the £40.00 is based on, but the person supplying the gauges / pdf file for the new gauges will get theirs for free (I would suggest this is used to bring the prices down of the others so everyone pays the same. ie (14 X £40.00) / 15 = £37.33 each delivered.

I'll post further details as I get them.

Cheers

[james26386]

I do like the look of the plasma gauges - but that particular design just doesn't do it for me. Too much 'stuff' in near the middle of the dials where the needle comes out. If they could replicate the OE dials in white or black background, and if the numbers and everything that lights up was all one colour, I personally think they'd look much nicer.

To me the 'multi-coloured-ness' of them just looks too tacky as I'd rather have everything on the dash light up the same colour.

Just my two pence worth!

[amh01]

i would be interested i would want some for my 220 coupe tubby

[pre620ti]

I do like the look of the plasma gauges - but that particular design just doesn't do it for me. Too much 'stuff' in near the middle of the dials where the needle comes out. If they could replicate the OE dials in white or black background, and if the numbers and everything that lights up was all one colour, I personally think they'd look much nicer.

To me the 'multi-coloured-ness' of them just looks too tacky as I'd rather have everything on the dash light up the same colour.

Just my two pence worth!

Shouldn't be an issue, been talking to them about redevelopment work on all models - so we could do what we want to them (within reason)

[james26386]

I do like the look of the plasma gauges - but that particular design just doesn't do it for me. Too much 'stuff' in near the middle of the dials where the needle comes out. If they could replicate the OE dials in white or black background, and if the numbers and everything that lights up was all one colour, I personally think they'd look much nicer.

To me the 'multi-coloured-ness' of them just looks too tacky as I'd rather have everything on the dash light up the same colour.

Just my two pence worth!

Shouldn't be an issue, been talking to them about redevelopment work on all models - so we could do what we want to them (within reason)

I'll have to take a pic of my standard ones and have a play around with them. Ultimately I'd like to lose the orange of them for red - and make them a more even brightness, as some numbers are brighter than others - but don't know if the filters are built into the gauges themselves and whether they can be removed without damaging them.

[Vard66]

If black faced, with just single colour (red) backlit were an option, I might be interested, Paul.

[limpabit]

I really like these dials.

But been bitten before. Ruined my previous speedo needles.

Do do a replacemnt service with a warranty?

[PJW]

Im interested in a group buy for these, you would have thought they might have knocked off more money for 15 like.

[gezmeister]

I'm up for a set for my 218 vvc

Maybe we should start a list, seems we have about 5 already

[amh01]

ok so we know that we need 15 how many people are there here that want them

1) amh01 (220)

[PJW]

1) amh01
2) pjw (220)

[gezmeister]

1) amh01
2) pjw (220)

3) Gezmeister (218)

[limpabit]

(1) amh01
2) pjw (220)
3) Gezmeister (218)
4) Limpabit (200 mk3 150MPH)

[PJW]

(1) amh01 (220 coupe pre95 150mph)
2) pjw (220 pre95 150mph)
3) Gezmeister (218 coupe pre95 150mph)
4) Limpabit (200 mk3 150MPH)

[limpabit]

I've asked the kit car guys as well.

[gezmeister]

(1) amh01 (220 coupe pre95 150mph)
2) pjw (220 pre95 150mph)
3) Gezmeister (218 coupe post95 150mph)
4) Limpabit (200 mk3 150MPH)

PJW - mine's a 'S' plate, '98

[gezmeister]

1) amh01 (220 coupe pre95 150mph)
2) pjw (220 pre95 150mph)
3) Gezmeister (218 coupe post95 150mph)
4) Limpabit (200 mk3 150MPH)

[Vard66]

1) amh01 (220 coupe pre95 150mph)
2) pjw (220 pre95 150mph)
3) Gezmeister (218 coupe post95 150mph)
4) Limpabit (200 mk3 150MPH)
5) Vard66 ('98 820 150MPH,but black faced and red backlighting or gtfo...)

[xuk]

1) amh01 (220 coupe pre95 150mph)
2) pjw (220 pre95 150mph)
3) Gezmeister (218 coupe post95 150mph)
4) Limpabit (200 mk3 150MPH)
5) Vard66 ('98 820 150MPH,but black faced and red backlighting or gtfo...)
6) xuk ('94 cabby, 150 mph 220T conv)

Conversion hasn't happened yet so don't know what year it will be

[pre620ti]

1) amh01 (220 coupe pre95 150mph)
2) pjw (220 pre95 150mph)
3) Gezmeister (218 coupe post95 150mph)
4) Limpabit (200 mk3 150MPH)
5) Vard66 ('98 820 150MPH,but black faced and red backlighting or gtfo...)
6) xuk ('94 cabby, 150 mph 220T conv)
7)pre620ti ('97 Tesse)

'Spose I'd better add my name as I started this.

I am about to go to sea again, so would someone like to run with this in my absence?

I can PM you all the details and post my Vitty gauges (I think I also saw someone has an 820 pdf file (or similar) for white gauges).

[PJW]

Link in my signature mate, i to am going to sea very soon too (you still on a T boat?) but i should be around long enough hopefully to see 15 people!

[pre620ti]

Link in my signature mate, i to am going to sea very soon too (you still on a T boat?) but i should be around long enough hopefully to see 15 people!

Still on the same old run-into-the-ground T-boat - off on PO's course soon, so nice bit on inboard time to fiddle with my car(s).

[amh01]

if yall want......i can take over the thread, tis up to thee just PM me with all of the details and ill sort it.

[pre620ti]

if yall want......i can take over the thread, tis up to thee just PM me with all of the details and ill sort it.

Details PM'd to you.....

[216si]

i would be interested in a set of these if they can come exactly as above except with a black face and as mentioned above no logger in the middle of the face.... if so then put me on the list too

[amh01]

i would be interested in a set of these if they can come exactly as above except with a black face and as mentioned above no logger in the middle of the face.... if so then put me on the list too

im looking into this i am going to send them an e-mail when i get in to see if there are different colour ranges with slight modification.

[james26386]

Good effort on getting people together on this, but I for one I'm not sure exactly what is being signed up for??

As I put in a post above, the pictured design looks a bit cack to me, and a few others seem to have agreed - but others may well be signing up for a set like them.

I wouldn't have thought that a company willing to do a group buy would want say 5 different designs to have to make up if they are only going to sell 3 of each.

If the majority of people would prefer the above design, then so be it, but otherwise it would be useful for some drawings of how others want them to look, then maybe a group buy could be organised on those.

Personally, I would like something that looked OE, maybe with some slight, subtle differences, but I like the idea of the plasma lighting which does look better than OE.

Just a thought anyway!!

[amh01]

i see where you are coming from: sp for we have 2 designs white face as above and also a black face without the center red part....if we have enough interest then im sure that they will be happy to do the 2 different designs but im going to contact them to find out. If they cannot do it without a min of 15 then we will have to decide between us which one we want.

[Vard66]

Good effort on getting people together on this, but I for one I'm not sure exactly what is being signed up for??

As I put in a post above, the pictured design looks a bit cack to me, and a few others seem to have agreed - but others may well be signing up for a set like them.

I wouldn't have thought that a company willing to do a group buy would want say 5 different designs to have to make up if they are only going to sell 3 of each.

If the majority of people would prefer the above design, then so be it, but otherwise it would be useful for some drawings of how others want them to look, then maybe a group buy could be organised on those.

Personally, I would like something that looked OE, maybe with some slight, subtle differences, but I like the idea of the plasma lighting which does look better than OE.

Just a thought anyway!!

Take the picture of the gauges above, change the face colour to black, and all the lighting to red. That'd do me - as you say, OE looking, but crisper and nicer than the OE gauges.

[james26386]

One other thing - how does the 'plasma' actually work? Is it replacement bulbs / OE bulbs or some other kind of wizardry?!

Just wondered how the OE setup would look if it is just somekind of different lighting behind them - like LED's.