I currently have a 1997 DX hatch, and I’ve recently acquired a 1997 LX gauge cluster.
First off, I’ve read it’s a direct plug and play setup… just want to make sure this is true.

Second, I found these 96-00 civic EX black reverse gauge faces.


They look very clean, almost stock, but a bit more aggressive.
I was thinking of getting it and then painting the needles with a permanent red marker.
The downside of course is the price… $50 + shipping

Would it be cheaper for me to sell the LX cluster and buy an SI?
Does any one have these installed… have picture?
Does any one know where I could get these cheaper, aside from ebay?

P.S.-------------------
I know this probably belongs in appearance, but since I need help with EJ (EK) civic and this is the 92-00 civic forum, I was hoping I could have my question answered quicker,

EDIT:

Here's a photoshoped LX cluster of what it would look like if I had those faces on and the needles painted red.



Modified by d16rice at 9:34 AM 10/23/2005

 

plug and play is true

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by d16rice &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I currently have a 1997 DX hatch, and I’ve recently acquired a 1997 LX gauge cluster.
First off, I’ve read it’s a direct plug and play setup… just want to make sure this is true.

Second, I found these 96-00 civic EX black reverse gauge faces.


They look very clean, almost stock, but a bit more aggressive.
I was thinking of getting it and then painting the needles with a permanent red marker.
The downside of course is the price… $50 + shipping

Would it be cheaper for me to sell the LX cluster and buy an SI?
Does any one have these installed… have picture?
Does any one know where I could get these cheaper, aside from ebay?

P.S.-------------------
I know this probably belongs in appearance, but since I need help with EJ (EK) civic and this is the 92-00 civic forum, I was hoping I could have my question answered quicker,
</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah i came across those quages the other day i never liked the white face but the black face is pretty good looking..not too ricey

 

Is it worth it though?
LX cluster ($75) + Gauge faces ($60 shipped) + red marker and miscellaneous ($5) = $140

Si gauge cluster = $200

Does this sound right?

Also, since my car is a daily driven w/auto, I should probably stick with LX cluster, although Si would look somewhat nicer, and theres a gear indicator is by a **** anyway.

I already have an LX cluster from my dad's totaled civic, but I was wondering if I'd be better of geting the gauge faces or selling this cluster and buying Si.

 

ok...i dont know if you like that played out ricer blue look or whatever...if you do thats cool, everyone likes their own stuff...but as an honest suggestion from one person to another...DO NOT do the marker/needle thing...you will be sorry. just get any other stock cluster if you dont like the plain white look. si, sir...ctr if you got money, if you really wanna be original, canadian EL cluster is the same, so is the crv cluster...just dont do indigo man, please, not another civic down the drain.

 

In truth, I would much rather have an orange lit gauge cluster, but there are a few reasons why I <U>can't</U> go with SIR, CTR or similar clusters.
- I want my car to have a clear title and straight records, there fore the cluster has to be in m/hr, not k/h
- Money is very tight, even $50 is stretching it right now, although if I sold the LX cluster, I would have a bit more $$.
- I looked into CRV clusters, but you probably know from the post above that this is going into an automatic civic. It’s hard to come by a manual CRV cluster and the automatic one has a bit different layout, I'm not sure if it would work correctly.

 

I'm looking at this:

(I photoshoped this image, as if you couldn't tell, lol)

LX w/glow gauges = $60-75 out of pocket expenses

V.S.

Si cluster = $200-250 out of pocket expenses

 

stick with the lx cluster with the gauges. Looks decent. As long as you have a tach. Its all good.

 

yeah i hear what youre saying...i guess go with the gauges then, but i still stick to my word when i say do not marker the needles. its gonna look like ****. you will see the marker streaks, and also, i highly recommend you do not touch the needles, they are pretty sensitive and it is easy to throw off their calibration.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by beav &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yeah i hear what youre saying...i guess go with the gauges then, but i still stick to my word when i say do not marker the needles. its gonna look like ****. you will see the marker streaks, and also, i highly recommend you do not touch the needles, they are pretty sensitive and it is easy to throw off their calibration.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I bought a cheap CX/DX cluster to practice on.
If it doesn't work out, or if it looks bad, I'm obviously not going to do it to the LX cluster.
And thanks, I do appreciate your opinion

 

see now thats a good idea...i fucked up one cx cluster real good just for fun, i dissected it thoughrally before messing with my ex cluster, which im selling now...heres a link to it...http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...MESE%3AIT&rd=1

i went through hell doing this, i dissolved the light coating with solvent from the back of each gauge and covered the backs with red vinyl, left the white bulbs, no blue covers, and it looks ****** sick, in the daytime it looks bone stock but at night its white arrows with retarded red digits.

 

by the way, if you have a 96-98 front...im selling my oem square yellow foglights.

 

your cluster looks nice

I do have a 97 civic with OE front end, but I curently have no money to spend.
Just sent out my bill payments .

Thanks for the offer though.