Hello everyone,
My name is Rahul Bhatia and I live in Texas. I drive a 1989 300E.
I am relatively new to this forum, but I post a lot in the MercedesShop.com forums. (Same username.)

I bought a used cluster from a member of the MercedesShop.com forum. I removed the faces and scanned them in... after some time, I came up with my own white gauge faces.

Then I thought, I ought to see what zebrano faces look like, so I made some and installed them in my spare cluster...

I was throughly impressed and proud of my own work on the zebrano gauges, I have decided to install similar ones in my car along with the chrome rings and chrome painted/taped needles.

I hope you all enjoy the pictures, I will soon try to find a chrome paint or hobby tape and then I will post the "finished" version of the gauges.

Please don't ask for a free copy of the gauges... put yourself in my shoes...

I will however make a deal with any people interested, since I have not perfected my printing process yet, and since my zebrano wood faces are still prototype, for now, I can offer the original black faces and white faces on a cd in a PSD format (Adobe Photoshop use) or in BMP format (high quality, miminum compression, many program use).

Each image is about 25 Megabytes in size and is scaled exactly to the size of the actual gauges, so all you have to do is print them on your favorite card stock or thick matte or semi-gloss photo-paper, cut and install...

Price:
Here is my philosophy, I may not be providing you with the actual pre-cut gauge faces, but I am giving you the ability to customize the gauge faces to any design you want and produce any quantity. You can make new ones whenever you get tired of the ones you made and make more for your other W124 sedan type cars.

Now to the very serious part, I ask that if you purchase my gauge images, that you do not resell them or post them all over the net, please out of decency, don't do something like that. It ruins all my work.

I noticed that people are selling white faces online for about $25.
So I offer you this deal:
If you want the white gauge face images only: $15
If you want the original black face images (already edited and touched up): $10
My wood ones will be sold soon, once I perfect the images, price will be set later...

As you can see, I have already customized my own white faces, I can that for you for a bit extra ($3 an image), for example, if you want your name and/or car on the speedo , and then the tachometer numbers changed to read 1, 2, 3, 4 instead of 10, 20, 30, then it will be a total of $6 extra.
I can customize the faces for you or like I said, you can do it yourself... its your choice...
For large scale overhauls, I will have to know what you want in order to set an appropriate price.

Please sincerely consider the prices, I honestly do not think they are too high, especially since it is a one time only sale, unless I make something really cool that you all want...

However, like I said, if there is an audience, I will keep making new things like burl wood faces and other designs, if you all like my work...

I will probably only be able to sell the cds until and make new faces until August 20th, thats when I go to college, I may still be able to sell the cds, but may not be able to design new things...

Please email me at bhatia55@comcast.net if you are interested or if you have any questions...

Enjoy the faces everyone!
And thanks for reading my long post!

 

DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That Zebrano looks SICK!!!! LMK when you get that up for sale ....I was thinking about getting rid of my Zebrano trim but now I just might hold off on losing it.Great job!!

Tony.

 

Thanks Tony,
You have no idea how encouraging that is! I how found several zebrano patterns, but to get the best results, I may have to take an ultra high quality picture of the wood in my car in order to get it to match perfectly, in general, that pattern matches most of our cars (not the ones with burlwood obviously!) so it should match anyone else's trim...
I will now go take some pictures of the zebrano in my car, then get to work tonight... I found chrome tape and paint at Hobby Lobby, (I called them...)
Now I need to buy it and paint the needles!

I expect the zebrano faces to be done by 5/16/05.

Thank you for your interest.

 

Please disregard first post, this is a copy of a post I have made on MercedesShop.com

Okay everyone, I have made a good printing process!

I print them on the 8.5 x 11inch, 11.5 mil thick, semi-gloss[matte], card stock like, photographic paper.

You cut out and install

Pricing:
White faces: $18
Zebrano faces: $20

Customization: $3 a face
This is for basic modifications, if you want completely different faces, email me, you can give me an idea of what you would like, then we will go from there.

Hope you enjoy!

I have faces for both you w201 and w124 guys & gals.

Click here for pictures please.
http://www.mercedesshop.com/shopforu....php3?t=123370

Email me at bhatia55@comcast.net if you are interested.
Thanks for reading my post!

 

With chrome tape and rings..............

BEHOLD!!!!!

(Did I mention I am selling these?
$20 for Zebrano faces
$18 for White faces)

 

Very nice work my friend...

~Cali

 

Beautiful work........

 

Hey, thanks for the compliements!

I am having a hard time selling the faces... is it because the price is too high?

Only 4 people have purchased from me in a 2 week period... maybe I am expecting too much?

Maybe I should try ebay... that should get me some traffic...

I will post about them in the classifieds section...

 

Yeah try ebay because you'll take the biz from that other white face guy! Oh yeah I can get ATE front rotors for only $80 Shipped! The ones on ebay are exact fit replacement rotors by OPparts and go for $74 Shipped.

 

You're not asking to much for them. I would try Ebay more traffic . I like the chrome tape, I'll have to do that to mine.

~Cali

 

All you need now is to buy the wood dash kit for your gauges! but i think tooo much wood looks fake?

 

Yikes! I just remembered that there is a person with the username MbFantic01 selling them there, can I get sued by him? Probably not, he has not copyrighted his work...

Whew! I would have been in BIG trouble!

Thanks for the compliements!

Speaking of brake rotors, I need those too! Ebay, HERE I COME!!!

And I will try to make a posting of my gauges soon, it probably will take a while to make a nice professional looking write up....

Yeah, I thought about that wood insert, but I doubt I could get it to match up, and yeah it probably would look too fake, however, the white gauges, with the chrome rings and wood rim/bezel would be a good combination methinks!

 

four questions
Are you still doing this?
How do you take out the gauges to put them on ?
will you customize my name instead of yours?
ever consider making the shift console wood overlay in Zebrano. I think if you made it very very glossy and cut it out you could sell tons..

Dave

 

Out of curiosity, what material are the guages on? Do you sell them as a sheet like the ones on Ebay to fit the other W124 models? Lastly, are the zebrano ones hard to see at night? I'm interested, thanks.

 

the new email address of the person doing it is ' rahul.raj.bhatia@gmail.com' I just emailed waiting for response...

 

I got an email and yes Rahul is still doing it.. I mentioned to make the shift surround in Zebrano too. I would be a customer anyone else interested?

 

The gauges look awesome!!!! When you day "You cut out and install" you mean that we have to actually cut the circular faces out right? Is there a border we follow so we wont jack up the shape? When you say we could customize the gauges, can we pick how they look or what color the the mph/kmph scales are? Rather than black and red scales on a white face, can we change them to another color but still on a white face? How much for the three white faces with the original orange scale (to match the original color of the needle) with the other black like in the pics?
Keep up the good work....

 

can this be printed out of vinyl sticker? so I can stick it on a sheet of Carbon Fiber?


Albert S.

 

Albert one could make them in vinyl but youwould need a vinyl cutting printer to cut the things out perfectly.

Then you could lay them on top of a very thin piece of carbon fiber.

I made some for myself on my own, and they look killer if you ask me. but then again mine are not everyones cup of tea. blue faces, white and gry lettering, custom logos on them. I will snap a pic soon to show you. I also did my speedo in KM/H Style, but reading as MPH..

Alon

 

Yeah Alon, You still need to make me mine!

 

I have heard that they are simpler to put the intrument overlays in when you do not have to take off the needles. anyone have intructions to put any of these overlays on?

 

Just Awesome

 

Alon, post some pix up, sounds good. I can just take it to the mall to one of those booths & have them cut it out do you have the file? Dosen't scott have the file on his site? I'll check it out.

Albert S.

 

Hello Everyone,

Sorry about the delay in my responses, I have been extremely busy with school. FYI: If you are about to go to college and are considering Georgia Tech, just know that this school will try to screw you over just about every day.

Now to the fun part:

I now sell the gauge faces precut and laminated for extra protection. They have been holding up very well in the strong Texas heat for at least 1 year now. I have never had a customer complain about problems like that. Just wanted to try to get rid of some assumptions.

I charge $35 a set, they come with a 2 year warrenty as well. Instructions are provided upon purchase.
Shipping is as follows:
USPS First Class: $2
USPS Priority Mail: $4
USPS Global Priority Mail: $9

If you are interested in purchasing a set please talk to me at rahul.raj.bhatia@gmail.com and have a good quality photo of your instrument cluster ready. Once I confirm that I can make gauge faces for your car, you just tell me what you want and I will create it.

Thank You for reading my post and I hope to hear from you soon,
-Rahul

P.S. Hell, even if you do not want to buy a set, just tell me about your ride! I am always interested in new mods and such!

 

how does one change the faces?


Hard to remove the needs w/o messing them up I bet.