D A V E ' S V O L V O P A G E
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for 240, 140, 1800 and some other cars  |
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for 240, 140, 1800 and some other cars |
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UPDATED: August 4, 2023
CONTACT
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D O
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RESOURCES FOR REPAIRS, PARTS AND
OTHER INFO
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Replacement or Custom Black or White Face Overlays for 240 and VDO gauges 52 mm Gauges |
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Replacement Face
Overlays: for Early 1975-1993 240 ORIGINAL STYLE BLACK FACES |
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Replacement Face
Overlays: for 1981-1993 240 ORIGINAL STYLE BLACK FACES |
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Replacement or Custom
Face Overlays: 240 STYLE #1 Customs White Face Overlays 1981-93 240 |
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Replacement or Custom
Face Overlays: 240 STYLE #2 Customs Black or White Face Overlays 1981-93 240 |
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Replacement or Custom
Face Overlays: 240 STYLE #3 Customs White and other color Face Overlays 1981-93 240 |
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Replacement or Custom
Face Overlays: 240 STYLE #4 R-Sport Rallye Style Faces Black Face Overlays 1981-93 240 |
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Replacement or Custom
Face Overlays: 240 STYLE #5 COBALT Style Faces Black or White Face Overlays 1981-93 240 |
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NEW Replacement or Custom Face Overlays: 240 STYLE #6 1981-93 240 |
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Custom
Face Overlays: Early 240 1975-80 White, Blue or Black Face Overlays |
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Replacement or Custom Face Overlays: 240 Rallye (R-Sport) Gauge Clusters Black or White Face Overlays |
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Replacement or Custom Face Overlays: 140 Rallye and 140 GT Gauge Clusters Black or White Face Overlays |
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Replacement or
Custom Face Overlays: SMITHS Gauge Face Overlays for P1800 Black or White Face Overlays |
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Replacement Face Overlays: SMITHS Gauge Face Overlays for Other Makes |
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Replacement or
Custom Face Overlays: Non-VOLVO Projects |
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Replacement or
Custom Face Overlays: Meme Faces for '81-'93 240s |
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INFO and F.A.Q.'s BELOW... HIGH-QUALITY PRINTED ADHESIVE BACKED VINYL GAUGE FACE OVERLAYS All sets are custom printed to order. These face overlays are the product of years of development using 240 instrument clusters from my own cars and from junkyards. I originally began designing them for my own 245 Turbo in 1999. I then received so many requests from other 240 owners that I decided to make them available for a modest price. ABOUT
QUALITY:
You
will
find that the line and character print detail on
these faces is excellent and the overall print
quality is fantastic! All sets are printed
when ordered. I use special waterproof ink
and professional grade vinyl media. Each set is
then covered with a UV clear laminate that offers
a non-glare finish. I offer many different
styles to choose from and all of them can be
ordered with different custom configurations at no
extra charge.
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Comments
I've received from some of my customers: "Hey Dave, I was just
letting you know that I installed the white faces
and they look great. Nice work." I.M.
“I tried to paint some gauges myself with this KemKhrome auto paint, but didn't quite come out the way I wanted it. So, I put on the white gauges and they look amazing. I thinking I could use the KemKhrome auto paint for something else on the car other than the guages.” B.T.
"Finally found time to install
the white faces on my gauges. They look and work
GREAT! Every one that sees them can't get over
them. Your directions were great also."
J.W. "I just wanted to thank you again
for your fabulous gauge face set. Your
instructions were excellent and I couldn't be
happier with the results. These faces were
an important safety upgrade for my car as well
as cosmetic, as I had always strained to see the
dark, dim gauges at night. Now they have a
pleasant, slightly green glow that is very easy
on the eyes." P.P. "Dave, just thought I would drop you a line. Many moons ago I bought a white face dial kit for my 240 and last weekend got around to fitting them. Following your guide made it a breeze and they look terrific. I'm so chuffed with it as it makes my 240 unique in Ireland." B.O. "Got the gauges
yesterday installed the main set, one word describes
it... WOW. Thanks man they look freakin
awesome." A.B. |
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FULL COLOR STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS |
DETAILED
INSTRUCTIONS - 1981-93 240 (PDF) DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS - 1975-80 240 (PDF)
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 Primer / Adhesion PromoterApplying this stuff is easy. Dip the cotton swab in the liquid and smear the edges of the face plates where the overlays will be. It dries in seconds. CAUTION: Using this stuff makes things stick very well, so be careful when placing the overlay down. It will be harder to lift and re-position. To Check Out or View Cart, click below button. |
| Many of you have questions. I have included answers to the most frequently asked questions below. Frequently Asked Questions |
| Q: Are these face overlays applied with peel 'n' stick paper or glue or what? A: They are peel 'n' stick custom printed VINYL. The adhesive is very strong, yet very easy to work with when originally positioning them on your faces. Q: Are any special tools required to install these? A: Basic tools will get you by on this one. No special cutting or modifications to your car will be required to install these gauge faces. At a slow, careful pace, it should take a first time installer no more than 2 hours. Q: Will overlays fade? A: NO. These are made with UV resistant materials. Q: Will I need to remove the needles from the original gauge faces? A: Yes. The instructions will give you simple step-by-step procedures. For the main 240 cluster, the needles for the speedometer and tachometer (or clock) can be pulled off and replaced without any damage. The needles on the temperature and fuel level do not need to be removed. For 52 mm gauges, needles will be removed on these too. Q: I am afraid to try this because I'm afraid I'll break a gauge needle. A: Breaking a needle is rare, but it does happen to the speedo needle on rare occasions. Most needles come off pretty easily. The one needle that is probably the hardest is on the '81-'85 240 speedometer. Q: Will the tiny black screws that hold the face plates damage the faces when they are tightened? A: No, but these screws should not be cranked down too tight. They only need to be snug. Q: Does the overall diameter of your face overlays match the factory face size? A: Yes. The overlay will "fill up" the gauge circles. Q: What about accuracy? Are these face overlays accurately calibrated to match my original ones? A: Yes. The calibration will match to the original faces. Q: My dash lights are dim and it makes my instruments hard to see at night. Is there any way to improve this? A: Adding white faces will improve visibility a lot. Also, it's now possible to find brighter bulbs, such as LED. Also, Gary Harris sent me some great suggestions for brightening up the dash lighting in 240's, click here or scroll down. One method to get more light that works... the 240 dash light dimmer switch on it's brightest setting does not actually allow full power to the bulbs. I have bypassed the dimmer on both on my 240's and found my dash lights to be brighter. I can no longer dim the instrument lights, but I don't miss that feature. Q: Can you make white face overlays for 740s and later models? A: No. The new 240 faces are mounted on your original metal face plates. They work very well on 240 models because 240 gauges are "forward lighted," meaning they're lit from the front of the gauge by bulb reflectors. The faces in the 740 gauges (and later models), are made from a translucent plastic, which is lit from BEHIND the gauge face using prisms. Putting opaque vinyl face overlays on your 740 gauges would remove the night lighting. I have experimented with making translucent back-lit 740 instrument clusters and the results have never turned out as nice as needed. The 740 boost face I make works well, but other faces have not come out as well. Since I will not sell something unless it looks and functions well, I abandoned this project many years ago. |
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Getting Better
Light to 240 Instruments
Try this thread from the
Brickboard: http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/index.htm?id=735768Suggestions for better lighting. Posted by Gary Harris: I saw some ideas you posted regarding better instrument panel illumination. I made a fairly simple modification several years ago which is a MAJOR improvement, as follows: 1) Remove instrument panel from vehicle and remove guage cluster from housing. 2) Remove the two light bulb sockets at the top of the cluster that are used for panel lighting. 3) Carefully clean the two 'cups' that these bulbs were installd in with a mild solvent. 4) Typically, the plastic will have yellowed with age in these 'cups'. They need to be repainted with a bright white paint (the whiter the better!). I used some Ford white auto touch-up paint for this. Very handy with the small brush. This will transfer much more light into the plastic 'light-pipe' 5) While the paint is drying, we need to rework the two light bulb sockets so they can accept a small Halogen 5-watt instrument panel lamp used on many late-model vehicles. Do NOT use a bulb any larger than 5-watts! This is the difficult part, and it has been so long since I did it I no longer remember exactly how I did this. There are several different styles of sockets that Volvo used, some are easier to modify than others. You might run across these with when looking at different panel disassemblies. Basically, I ended up soldering the halogen bulb pins into the Volvo socket. The result of all this is an extremely bright white light source that really lights up the panel and make it look great. Anyway, give the Halogen conversion a try, I think you will be VERY pleased with the result. Regards, Gary Harris |
| Special Projects Over the years I have taken on a lot of special custom gauge face projects. Some are shown below. |
The faceplate on
this AEM Air/Fuel Ratio meter is stamped aluminum,
which made is fairly easy to apply a new
face.
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Volvo 1800 Gauge Faces This is a white face overlay set for Smith's Volvo 1800 faces. These faces are now available with a 120 mph or 200 kmh speedometer. They are also available as BLACK faces also for restoring old faces. Installation instruction for these faces (2.5 mb PDF) CLICK HERE FOR INSTRUCTIONS. |
   
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Volvo 142 Rallye Faces These are restoration face overlays for restoring old 142 Rallye gauges. They are available with KMH or MPH speedometer. Also with lbs/sq. inch oil pressure or kp/cm2 oil pressure. Click here for the 140 Gauge Page.   |
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