Red gauge needles......

[slow e30]

note: use one, steady, slow stroke. dont paint little pieces all the way down.
note 2: prep makes perfect.
note 3: patience. my clear cover slipped and some glue touched the inside of the gauge pod.

did mine today, its not PERFECT but if you were to remove my steering wheel and look in, you can find a flaw.

[bimmer_E30]

will be doing this next weekend lol..thanks bimmer_e30

[bimmer_E30]

no problem.

[MikeK]

good write up. im going to have to do this with my spare cluster.

[gearheadE30]

I did the same thing a while ago. I used some random RC car flat red paint that looks wonderful. The needles will come off of the little hubs they are on so that there is no risk of damage, incorrect reinstallation, or overspray. There are small crips on the back side. Pry them open and teh needles will fall off. Stick them on toothpicks, pint them, let dry, and crimp back on. Doesn't take long at all.

[h82crash]

He has an ETA, doesn't rev past 5.

And...?

[SamE30e]

Ya know, if ya just remove like nine screws in the back, the cluster comes out of the housing and you don't have to pry the plastic off. But I guess you needed to for those chrome rings. While you had it out you coulda installed a 7k tach!

Looks good, though.

He has an ETA, doesn't rev past 5.

[bimmer_E30]

thanks man. i will post a pic of the back of my cluster:D

[h82crash]

thanks man. so do i have to get a pre 87 7k tach to work with my 85 325e?

Some of the articles are not exact for the cluster years but if you take apart your cluster and the code chip looks the same as the one from your 7k tach then it will work. I read an article that said if the back of your cluster is blue then you need to swap from another blue cluster and that is not true. My cluster is white and the tach came from a blue cluster and works perfectly. If you have motometer then it probably should be swapped from another motometer but I have also read that VDO parts work. I don't know if that's true cause I haven't tried to interchange those.

[bimmer_E30]

well i kind of fucked my rpm needle. it used to idle at 600rpm , now it idles at 400rpm lol.

[JasonC]

I used a fork to pull my needles out. But i bent one when i put it back in . Good thing i had extras. The first cluster i did i used a bright orange paint, then a red sharpie on the next one (i don't think it looked as good). I painted the needles with a GM bright red in my current cluster. This next cluster i'm going to try to find a brighter red then that GM red.

[nando]

I did that when I did mine, and I won't do it again. I don't think I got any of them back to their exact original positions. And it's too damn easy to fuck up and ruin them.

agreed. taping is far easier. it's not hard to do the MPG needle either.

[TDE30]

Yeah, if you're working with a tach/speedo and don't mind ruining the face of it, it can be done somewhat easily. But I had a bitch of a time pulling the needle without compromising the face.

[Jand3rson]

You know you can remove the needles from the tach/sppedo, right? Just pull straight out with force, but not too much force as you might bend the extremely brittle needles.

I did that when I did mine, and I won't do it again. I don't think I got any of them back to their exact original positions. And it's too damn easy to fuck up and ruin them.

[TDE30]

You know you can remove the needles from the tach/sppedo, right? Just pull straight out with force, but not too much force as you might bend the extremely brittle needles.

I've never been a fan of red needles, but I would have done the MPG needle to complement the rest of the needles. Also, the red needles on ///M clusters are not a glossy red.