Probably the cheapest & best way to bring your MR2 interior bang up-to-date is to replace the instrument cluster facias. This is not as difficult as you may think and requires simple tools plus little or no mechanical experience / knowledge.
DIAL FACIA REPLACEMENT – Standard Lighting
These are similar to factory specification materials and will either stick on over the top of your existing instrument facia or replace it completely. As the light tends to shine through the facia you may want to try them with and without the existing one there to get the look you desire.
LOCKWOOD- UK
To buy, the cheapest available is the LOCKWOOD dials. These give the old black clocks a modern sporty white look. They are available in Turbo or NA and for 110, 160 & 180mph versions. Shown below in NA – 160 form. LOCKWOOD dials are generally supplied with both Volt and Turbo gauge facia so as long as you get your speedo right you should get the correct kit!
The easiest place to get hold of these is from eBay - search for “MR2 Lockwood” (if the link below does not work) and this should point you in the right direction.
Colours Available;
White (As Shown)
Silver
Green
Cream
Yellow
Red
Blue
Costs between £15 - £35 dependant on colour
CASTLE HILL GAUGES- Australia
These people are Australian based and, bearing in mind the packet size, the postage would be minimal to the UK. So for around $100 AUD (about £50 GBP) you can have gauges done to your EXACT specification. Will also duplicate the gauge pattern of your instrument facia onto additional gauges that you have in the car (original gauges may need to be supplied). I appreciate these are not MR2 as shown but give a good indication as to what these guys are capable of.
https://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/Castle-Hill-Gauges/Custom-Options.html_
All these featured in their eBay shop and ranged from $80 - $105 AUD.
DIAL FACIA REPLACEMENT – EL Glow
Much the same as the normal replacement dials – give a fresher look to your instrument cluster – again in varied colours & styles. The difference is when night comes and you put your lights on! [b]EL[/b] Glow; meaning [b]E[/b]lectro-[b]L[/b]uminescent.
Wiki definition
Electroluminescence(EL) is an optical phenomenon and electrical phenomenon in which a material emits light in response to an electric current passed through it, or to a strong electric field. This is distinct from light emission resulting from heat (incandescence).
VISUAL PERFORMANCE- UK
The cheapest available EL dial. Has a multi-colour face and is switchable from blue to green EL light
Daytime shot
Night time shot with no backlighting
Installed
EVO STORE– Australia
Another eBay store I found while researching this article. Offering custom EL Dials for around £229 AUD (about £120 GBP). EVO STORE will colours that Speedhut do not. A viable option but postage is likely to make them more expensive.
https://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/EvoStore_EL-Dials_W0QQ_fsubZ497922012QQ_sidZ611035152QQ_trksidZp4634Q2ec0Q2em14?_pgn=1
SPEEDHUT- USA
The daddy of all EL Dials available in a multitude of colours. As well as Reverse EL – thereby the numbers glow instead of the dial face (similar to Visual Performance ones). They are available in Turbo or NA and for 110, 160 & 180mph versions.
Examples;
Gltd_simon – Rev EL White on Silver dials
jimGTS fully pimped out Rev EL Red on Black
Topgun’s EL Glow White on Blue face
https://www.speedhut.com/custom_gauge_dial_products-auto-Toyota.htm
Prices start at $99.95 USD and will increase by adding custom logo’s, uprated transformers and so on.
A big plus in my eyes with SPEEDHUT is they can supply additional gauges with matching dial faces. Other gauges they make are;
- Boost Pressure
- Fuel Level
- Fuel Pressure (various scales)
-Oil Temp
-Oil Pressure
-Transmission Temp
-Water Temp
-Voltmeter
https://www.speedhut.com/gauge_products.htm
OTHER OPTIONS....
Why stop at the dial faces? Making updated to the black part of the instrument cluster can also improve the look. The simplest method here would be to colour code it – paint it the same as your car – though be aware! Use plastic primers and remember gloss spray may be reflective in bright sunlight!!! Also available are stainless steel and carbon fibre overlays. Finally Aluminium and Chrome Accent rings. Some pictures below.
Stainless Steel Overlay (mr2big)
Available from eBay - UK
Carbon Overlay (Tsunami65)
Available from Carben Fibre Creations
Aluminium Accent Rings (dgh938peg)
Available from eBay – USA(but delivered from Germany)
Johnny_C’s with Speedhuts
Chrome Accent Rings (Spaceman)
Available from eBay – UK
(Also showing custom “PaulPort” Boost Gauge)
INSTALLATION
Additionally, I would like to point out that most replacement dial facias DO NOT require removal of the needle and therefore will not affect calibration of the instrument.
I will assume you know how or can follow the Toyotarepair manual in order to remove the instrument cluster!
To separate the WHITE plastic housing, the BLACK cover and CLEAR face from each other – which is as far as you need to go, perform the following.
Firstly, remove the CLEAR face – as to avoid possible scratching from further operations. It is held in place by (8) plastic clips indicated by the blue arrows. It is easiest to work from one end to the other – releasing a top clip followed by a bottom clip. Releasing all the top clips at one time will only make the bottom clips tighter and thereby making it easier to break them.
This will leave you with the WHITE housing and the BLACK cover clipped together. Following the same pattern as before (top-bottom-top-bottom) unclip the two pieces. There are (8) clips indicated by the red arrows
This will leave you with the WHITE housing and your 5 instruments to replace the dials of. EL-Glow dials will require a hole or slot in the WHITE housing to allow the power wires to be run. (Consult manufacturer’s instructions for installing specifics of EL-Glow dials). Now carefully bend the new dial face, allowing the needle to pass through the centre hole and sit in the position required. Once you are happy with the dial face, remove the face, apply the sticky pad and fit back into position.
WHAT ELSE?
Change the colour of your back-lighting while you are there! 501 wedge type bulbs are readily available on eBay in a variety of colours and shown above (particularly jimGTS’s & mr2big’s setup) again giving your dash a more unique feel.
For the more challenging swap – you can also colour change all the instrument lighting throughout the car using 3mm & 5mm LED’s….. Other write-up’s & how-to’s on this swap will be available soon.
DIY Custom Dials…..
As seen above, Tsunami65 made his own Rev Counter & speedo dial face. There are several on here who have the templates available (Tsunami65, Protok & dgh938peg), if you’re handy with photoshop & wish to have a go at these yourself with your own unique style then drop one of them a pm.
These are also being used by some V6 conversions to gain a better scale across the dial.. As the V6 redline is about 6500rpm, this would only use half the scale (once the resistor mod has been done) a re-scaled rev counter can greatly improve this….
Replacement instruments!!!
Very hard to come by but extremely functional and very “JDM” are Omori Boost Gauges.
These fit into the stock location on turbo instruments and give a much better accuracy over the existing “is my turbo working” Toyotagauge…
EMS Powered Digital gauges… - USA
The all new EMSPowered high performance side gauges replace the OEM gauges on either side of the cluster. This is a great way to add the most accurate gauges on the market to your car while keeping that "OEM look" and not cluttering up your interior.
* The left side of our custom gauges reds fuel level and water temperature. User selectable option to put either one on top or bottom. Hot swappable via programming functions.
* The right side is available outputs with the options listed below. The outputs on the right side are also hot swappable so that you can switch which reading is on the top or bottom.
Options for right side gauge:
Combo 1: Oil pressure + Oil temperature
Combo 2: Boost level + Wideband O2
Combo 3: EGT + Wideband O2
Available from here…
https://www.emspowered.com/storefront/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=61_62_64_74_75
dgh938peg
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