Opened gauges to repaint redline and clean

I hate how faded and dirty gauges look. I tried a reproductions set on my 900 but found the tach response to be kind of slow so I thought I'd try a little clean up of the factory ones that came off the bike. It was pretty straightforward. I used new crimp rings rather than reuse the originals. I painted the light baffle flat white so I could play around with different colored lighting. The two shown are green LEDs and Ultra Violet LEDs. I've got a set of red on order. I did cheat a little bit by not keeping the 500 rpm increment hash marks in the redline. I was afraid that a poor result would look worse than just skipping the little buggers. One photos is of the "before" and those streaks are on the inside of the lens.

Nicely done. I prefer the green to the blue.

Me too but I think red is going to be good also.

Beautiful job!

I also vote for green.

Blue/UV Led's are not something you want to be looking at. Plus UV will fade things. That said, UV led's put out very little actual UV, just mostly blue light.

Nice rebuild!

What about RGB (red green blue) led's with three potensiometers... any color you want!

Any idea where can I find crimp rings for 1980 GPz 550 D1 clocks?

We're on a similar wavelength. I have a set of variable colored LEDs for an automotive project. I''d don't know it they're available though . The supplier said they were pulling them off the market because an OEM was going to use them on a vehicle and there were not going to be any more private sales. Right after that Mustangs started to have the feature.


Here's where I got my crimp rings:

www.cb750faces.com/en/kawasaki-parts/177...-ring-set-2-pcs.html

Thanks for the link RBRKZ. My 550 D1 isn't listed as a model that those rings will suit, however they do "look" similar. I measured the rings on my 550 at 102.5mm . I would appreciate it if you would confirm what diameter yours are?

Mine are in dire need of some tlc...

I should be able to get you some info in a couple of hours.

I couldn't get a direct measurement from a gauge but the rings that I took off are pretty close to CB750faces listed size of 104.5mm O.D. Mine may have stretched a bit from being removed.

Thanks a lot!
I believe they will work fine.
I will order those.

I recently swapped the gauge lights over to LED's on mine and ended up going with red on the tach/speedo. It provides a nice warm glow, is easy to read, and also the color red falls on the longer wavelength end of the color spectrum which causes your eyes the least amount of recovery time for night vision