[Lambo003]

Thanks Klutz!. . .

Instrument cluster time. . . . . lol

I didn't like the decals as is and thought they needed to be behind "glass" as with the real gauges.

I made transparencies of the decal sheet as described in my How-to tutorial.

I made a punch set for the gauge faces with quarter inch plexi. You can buy a punch set online but it's about 40 dollars.







I stacked four pieces of plexi together prior to drilling. The top and bottom pieces will help stabilized the drill bit giving you clean, precise holes. Discard these pieces afterwards.

I then drilled in sequence (with a drill press). Drilled #1 hole and inserted a pin (aluminum rod). Drilled #2 hole and inserted another pin. With these points secure I was able to drill out the punch hole with the correct size bit I needed for the gauges (3/16ths).







Remove the bit you used to drill the punch hole from the drill press and grind the stem flat.







The drill bit will act as your punch and all you need to do is sandwich and center your printed gauges and then tap with a hammer. Light tap is all you need and it shouldn't hurt the bit at all. You can use a piece of wood or rubber mallet of you want to protect the bit but, you're not drivin' nails and only piercing thin plastic. . .lol

You can buy an entire set of drill bits and do several hole in different sizes. You can also buy additional metal rod to use as punches if ya don't wanna be bangin' on your drill bits and eventually dulling them.

Great tool for scratch building with out that huge price tag.

Anyway, Here are the resulting gauges. . . They look better than the kit decals and actually look as if they're "under glass".





If you look in the first pic, I also punched out additional clear disks to go on top of the punched out gauge to increase the realism. This was a little bit thicker than the transparency film and will lay completely flat.

Not really necessary but it does add a little more depth to them.

Going to do the center console next in the same manner. I hope they come out as nice as the larger gauges did . . .