Anyone done this? I have seen a few guys with painted needles and i was wondering how you go about it. I want to do mine red. I have some translucent paints but i dont know how to go about it. thanks guys!

CJ AKA: Chicken Shack!

 

youll have to remove the needles, flip em upside down and scrape the paint off the back of the stock needles. once youve done that, paint the same side with the translucent paint, let dry, and youre good to go! youll have to recalibrate your speedo which is a pita... you can use a gps system to clock your speed and put em on that way, or you can match speeds with a friend on the freeway, and via cellphone, find out how fast hes goin, then put your needles on accordingly.

 

does it look cheesey though? or does it look for real?

 

im sure it would look like stock just a diff color, so i think it would look good..

would you need to recalibrate the speedo? couldnt you jsut start with the car off and it resting agaist that little stopper? or is there tension? ive never taken off my dials so im just wondering

 

When my friend did his needles he just started his truck up and put them all back on and his seem to be working fine. He did it on a 99 ranger. I will be doing them on mine this weekend or next so I will see then.

 

well i have some spare needles from a failed gauge cluster i have here so maybe ill do mine this weekend

 

You don't need translucent paint, you paint the BACK of the needles with a solid color after you scrape the white off of there.

 

and they will still light that color?

 

Is this true?

 

yep thats true.

 

So I could use a bottle of touch up paint that I have and THAT could be my color??

 

absolutely. colormatched gauge needles... that might look really cool.

 

Sounds a like plan to me!!!!

Just looked at my needles and am wondering what anyone can recommend to use to remove the white? I was thinking some a Scotch-brite pad. Also, it looks like the white is on the front of the needles, is this just an illusion?

 

I think the white is on the back of the needle.

 

Daddy Griggs has a How To on his CarDomain for this very thing. I will have it up here on RF in due time also.. but check there and you can see a step by step