After some hours of research on the net, I found out indiglo gauges and a 'brushed aluminium-look' gauge bezel is available for the 3rd gen Prelude (www.autodynamic.com). Naturally I ordered them right away. Because they are manufactured in the US, the speedometer is in miles per hour. The kilometers per hour are displayed in the center ring.
Indiglo gauges are white gauges that generate light themselves. They're made from a certain material that has the ability to light up. With the supplied dimmer you can determine the brightness of the gauges. Also supplied is a switch, used for switching between two colors; green or blue. As you can see beside, they give a very nice effect in darkness.
Once I was ready to install the indiglo gauges into my cockpit (from 1989), I found out they weren't going to fit at all. There are big differences between the cockpits from the 88-89 and the 90-91 Preludes, and the gauges I ordered were made for the cockpit of the late type. So I was left with two options: send back the indiglo gauges and trade them for the right ones, or find a new type cockpit. I went for the last option. After searching quite a few scrap yards, I finally found a 91 cockpit at 'Kleine Staarman' located in Bornerbroek. On the right you see me taking it out.
These are the cockpits of the pre- and post facelift Preludes. The top one is an 88-89 type and came out of my Prelude. I had already painted the bezel white for a different look. The cockpit on the bottom is a 90-91 type and is different from the top one, both inside and outside.
The difference in gauge size is the reason the indiglo gauges and the bezel won't fit into the old cockpit. As you can see, the gauges of the upper cockpit (90-91 type) are considerably larger than those of the old type.
In my opinion, the cockpit housing of the new type (top) has a nicer design than the old type. The control buttons on the front were redesigned as well.
A more technical difference concerns the speedometer, which is cable-driven in the old type cockpit, and operated electronically in the new type. That's why I took the cockpit wiring loom from the scrap yard while I was at it, as they're obviously different.
I finally got all the bits complete, so I can start assembling it.
The plastic covers have to be removed first, and then the gauges can be taken out. The removal of the needles has to be done with care, because they can easily break. Now, the indiglo gauges can be easily installed over the stock ones. I also turn back the odometer to match the old cockpit.
The indiglo gauges are in place and the aluminium-look bezel was placed over the stock one. Now the three cables coming from the gauges just need to be concealed.
This is what the cockpit looks like with everything reassembled. I replaced the supplied dimmer with the original one, which is normally used to dim the cockpit lighting as well. The color switch will be neatly built in. The one tricky part still left undone, is the fitting of the new wiring loom, but I'm sure I'll manage.
Look at the effect with the gauges on and the ambient lighting low. Very cool eh?