Part 4 - Finishing Up the Gauge Cluster

During disassembly, you may have noticed this thin plastic film that normally sits in front of your indicator lights as well as in front of the window we're working in.The left half - the side that would sit in front of your new display - is completely opaque. Cut this half off, just to the left of the small locating hole. You could leave it at that and put the cluster back together, but then the wiring and display would be completely visible through the window. To finish this project off, we can install a tinted film over the front of the window. Using the piece of opaque plastic film you just cut off as a template, cut out a rectangular piece of polarizing filter. This piece of filter will not be tinted enough, but that can be addressed.Polarizing filter has a property where if you place two pieces on top of each other, rotating one will cause them to darken. Take your piece of polarizing filter you just cut out and place it on top of the rest of your filter sheet and hold both up to a light source. Turning it 90 degrees should cause them to become nearly opaque. If this is not the case, try flipping one or both pieces of filter over until this effect works. Now, rotate the top piece until you have your desired tint - I recommend about 45-60 degrees. When you decide on your angle, cut out a second piece of filter at that angle the same size as the first. You should have 2 pieces that look something like this.Cut a small, thin piece of scotch tape and fold it over the short side of the 2 pieces of polarizing filter. Do this again on the other side. The idea is to hold the 2 pieces together while keeping the tape hidden. Using small pieces of electrical or scotch tape, tape the filter to the inside of the gauge face plate. For a clean install, make sure no tape is visible from the front. Here's what mine looked like at this stage.And from the frontWith the tinted filter in place, re-assemble the front of your gauge cluster. There is one more step before we can put the back on - drilling a hole through the back cover to allow your 4-pin connector to pass through. Find the drill bit that is large enough to fit your connector (mine came out to 3/8"). When drilling through plastic, it's best to start with a small hole and gradually increase drill bit size to avoid cracking the plastic. Drill your hole then re-install the back cover. Here's what that should look like:continued on next post...