[1/12/2003] Reviewed by: Ian C. Lance - lance@clatskanie.com
Applicable to: '90 - '97 1.6 liter
Indiglo gauge faces--that change colors. Also, I installed the 5 Ring chrome trim set at the same time.
Indiglo gauges: These are really nice. No setting exactly mateches the interior lights--do not expect them to. However, the blue setting looks VERY cool in my Mariner blue car. Use the Serious Auto instruction page--the supplied instuctions are lousy. Also--these MAY be the same faces available on e-bay for a LOT less $$--shop around.
5 Ring Gauge Trim: Like the Indiglo--and almost anything else from IL--these are a nice product. At $90, they are HORRIBLY overpriced! There is nothing else like them though--and I had to have a set......argh BE REALLY CAREFUL prying off the acrylic gauge lens--take a lot of time. I took off the old trim rings on the tach and speedo--and used black silicone to glue on the new rings. Use silicone sparingly and try to keep it off the flat black face. BEFORE the silicone fully sets, and after it skins--use isopropyl alcohol and a clean cloth to clean off the residue. IF YOU WAIT TOO LONG, you will have a real mess with this. Spotless is just clean enough. Sunlight will make your sloppy gluing here look like a 3 year old with a bad muscle twitch was in there............
Over 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to: '90 - '97 1.6 liter
White Luminescent Gauge Faces
As soon as opened the box I knew I wasn't about to put these on my Miata. They may have been a cute idea (the luminescent aspect that is) but they really look cheap and chincy. I didn't even take them out of the packaging.
This is the type of product that makes you leary about ordering from catalogs. At $120 a set I surely expected more than 5 pieces of cheap plastic and some wiring.
Not an installed item
Applicable to: '90 - '97
Set of 5 White gauge faces with green font and Miata logo on tach. $135.00
The directions were very detailed and easy to follow. The gauges come with an adhesive film on them which makes the green look kinda like moss (weak)...once I removed the film a crisp dark green was exposed. Its so dark that during the day it almost looks black. Nice! Be sure to reinstall your gauge cluster without the cover and take your Miata for a quick spin just to insure you replaced all the needles properly. Once it checks out just snap the cover on and put her back together. I used a red Sharpie permanent marker to recolor my needles and It worked great. I ran the marker over the four sides of the needles and man do they look good, translucent red...real nice.
One little tip I learned was to remove the stock green sleeves on your dash lights. There are 4 lights that illuminate the gauges and they are covered with a green plastic sleeve. I owned a 97 Maxima SE which came stock with white faces and when you turned the lights on at night the white face of the gauge magically turned to black. I removed these sleeves and now at night my new white faces look black and the numbers are a cool glowing green. I would spend the $135.00 again. The "Miata" logo does the trick.
Over 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to '99 + 1.8 liter
White Faces with green and red number/letter colours. $175 Canadian.
Easy to install. First remove panel under steering column (2 screws)and two pieces surrounding column behind the steering wheel (3 screws). Next carefully pull on dash pod evenlly on both sides until pops out of clips. Remove the clear plastic and black plastic surrond by pushing their clips down and forward. Make sure the engine is fully warmed up - make a note of the needle positions. Remove the needles by grasping with your fingers and pulling straight off. remove stk faces by removong the small screws. Then just reverse this proceedure when installing your new faces. This set came with new alum. posts which you insert from the back of the tach and speedo and hold with a small dab of glue. I left the needles white.
Note I did not remove the complete gauge pod and worked right in the car
Great product - came with instructions that I did not read yet. Would recommend product and if you are handy at all you should have no problems at all. Looks great in the day white on white and at night looks black with the white needles.
Over 30 minutes to remove completely
Mirror-polished flat aluminum sheet, precision laser-cut, which surrounds your gauges. Made in Germany by Ingo Leidiger and sold by RSpeed. One of a number of polished aluminum accessories to dress up your interior. Also available in chrome.
The necessity to disassemble the instrument binnacle in order to install the sheet made me think that this would be a scary install, but RSpeed's provided directions were excellent, and true to RSpeed's prediction, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it really was to install. It is held in place by the infamous "black chewing gum", which makes it removable. I have yet to find the sun (or myself) reflected in it to be objectionable.
The quality of the piece is flawless, and I couldn't be happier. It coordinates perfectly with my growing number of IL accessories and polished Voodoo shift knob. My only concern is whether it will oxidize and become dull over time--having to disassemble the binnacle again to polish it would be inconvenient.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
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