Ok everybody! The smoke tint Mark II/Rio faceplates are made and ready to go!

To those of you that have ordered already, I thank you for your patience. They will start shipping out this week.
The reason it has taken so long is that I had to special order the material. Sixteenth inch smoke tint plexiglas is apparently a special order item and cost me more.

Unfortunately because of this I am going to have to go up in price on the Mark II faceplates to $25 US.
All of you who already ordered before today are safe. I will absorb the extra cost, but any new order will be at the new price.
Mark 1 price is the same. As is the shipping.

I will notify each of my customers by email when their faceplate(s) go out.

Again, Thanks for waiting,
Steve

I would like to order one now :) hehe sheesh I should have done it before hand oh well. Where do you wish us to PayPal the money too?

Damien Heiser

RioCar 12GB Blue SN: 120001043

Paypal to [email protected] along with your shipping address

Shipping is $3.50 per panel in the US and $5.00 per panel International.

BTW I also have clear panels available which are the same price as Mark I's, $20 US.

Steve

Can I see some pictures of these faceplates somewhere?

Greetings!

I have a bad photo and a review here. The clear looks very much like the empeg without any panel at all - a very nice VFD cyan. A perfect match for many US cars, including mine. It also includes a thread for the fact that clear tends to wash out in bright sunlight.

As soon as the smoke arrives (preordered), I will post a picture and a review of that as well.

While testing the panels out on the Mark II, I took a few photographs of the fit of the fascia and panels. These were used to try and relate the fit to Steve (DarkStorm), as he has a Mark I. This includes the clear panel, the old smoke panel (the new one is the right thickness and darker), and the standard blue and green panels from empeg. I have them up here for now. Note: My ISP only allows 5MB of storage, and I will not be keeping these files up there for very long. If someone really wants them, grab them now...

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB Clear)

Greetings!

I have received the smoke faceplate and installed it in the empeg. WOW! It is a perfect match for the VFD green / blue in my car. For photographs, you can see my install page. The install was easy, simple, and the match is perfect! Again, I haven't seen it in bright sunlight (major thunderstorms at the moment), but I expect that the smoke plastic will help with the washout.

Excellent job, sir!!! Thanks!

As long as I was at it, I installed the fixed knob (I just started to have some slipping this latest heat wave) and 1.03 final. I should be up to date for a week or two, until the tuner comes out!!!

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB Smoke)

Okay I just want to chime in and say that I received my "smoke" colored faceplate. It's not exactly what I thought in terms of the smoke effect, I thought the smoke effect would be more diffusive a la the anti-reflective plates. Actually it's just a slight gray-ish effect which probably makes the display a little less bright, but what I do liike about it is that it slightly obscures some of the "guts" underneath whereas you see them through a clear plate (not something I think looks very good.)

The color as stated before is green-ish. I'm pretty sure my smoke faceplate makes it a darker and more "greener" green than with no face, but certainly not as green as with the green faceplate.

Well, overall, it matches my instrumentation better, looks better when the screen is blank than with a colored plate, etc. I like. Do yourself a favor and send Darkstorm lots of money for his excellent plates.


-Tony
MkII #554

Anyone have a pic?

32GB (JUST UPGRADED!) Mk. II BLUE
Detroit, MI USA
www.PfeifferBeer.com

Here is the link for the Mark II lenses and here is the link for all the different colors which are also available for the Mark II.

By the way they are also available in Smoke and clear.

Steve

Mark I / #102 / 48g / Smoke / Custom Fascia
Best PC/Audio Investment Ever Made

Personally, I would recommend the smoke panel. It gives off a nice green tinge and looks really professional. I'm hoping to get some pics of my smokey empeg on my site sometime soon.

___________________________

Steve - 18GB Mk II Sssmokey

Another good use for smoke panel. Actually you can make unlimited color screens with that. All you got to do is to get a smoked panel and a piece of coloured sticker (like the one they use makeing advertiseing lightboxes that you can see anywhere out on the streets). Put this sticker on the back side of your smoked panel and voila. If you are tired of one color you can allways replace the sticker to another colour.

Actually i'm quite happy with my blue/green faceplates, but i'm planning to change my dash illumination color with that stuff from green to blue to match the empeg blue colour

Veiko
[email protected][email protected]

MK1 #317 - 20GB green

It looks and sounds like the smoke face plate will match the color of my Dodge Intrepid. Is that true?

Link to a pic of lightly smoked fascia

/Michael

As an owner of a Mk2 smoked fascia, I can confirm that the picture is very accurate in terms of what the display color will look like. Very close to what I have. Sunlight in the picture is obviously changing it a little.

Hey CHiP

I have a Plymouth Laser with a light grey/charcoal interior...The faceplate is a perfect match and so much so that I don't use my blue one much any more. It has better performance in bright sunlight and I kinda like the green/blue tint it gives the graphics on the display...reminicent of older LED displays.

John

I have a dodge ram with blue green illumination. Ill take a pic of my smoke faceplate in my truck tomorrow if you want. Its as close as you can get to an exact match imho.

Steve,

Are these still available?

Thanks - Neil

For the moment they are, at least until they run out...They're not selling as well as they were.

Here's the info.....

Prices:

$20 ea. Clear or Smoke Mark I faceplate/lens
$20 ea. Clear Mark II/Rio Lens
$25 ea. Smoke Mark II/Rio Lens
$25 ea. Colored Mark I faceplate/lens
$30 ea. Colored Mark II/Rio lens

Shipping:

$3.50 up to 2 panels by Priority Mail to the United States
$5.00 up to 2 panels by Global Priority Mail to the rest of the world.

Payment:
Payment is made through Paypal to [email protected].

When ordering state:

1 - Quantity desired.

2 - Colors desired.

3 - Correct shipping address.



Any other questions please email [email protected].



Thanks,

Steve

Anyone have a picture of a smoked lens on a MkII?

Hey Brad

I don't have a close up photo, however if you ever get across to Windsor one day, I would be glad to show you my smoked lens in the car....

John

John, I havn't heard from you in a long time! Glad to see you back! Maybe I'll have to take a trip over. How far from the bridge or tunnel are you?

Here are some shots of a empeg smoked faceplate in a dodge ram.

and another

and one more

Hey Brad...sent you a PM but I guess it never made it...I am only two blocks from the tunnel exit downtown...let's have a beer sometime.

John

Can you take a daylight shot, with the display off?

Calvin

Sure

here it is

and another with it on

Dan thats looks nice, ill probably be geting one once i get the funds.. Good Job Darkstorm, and thanks for the pics Terminator.

Damn thats looks nice, ill probably be geting one once i get the funds.. Good Job Darkstorm, and thanks for the pics Terminator.

I thnk with more photos like this, you would have sold out sooner! Esp. with all the new owners about to hit the board...

I want one! I will contact you in a few weeks.

Hmm. Kinda makes me want one.

Interested in trying the Magic Marker Mod?

Ok DarkStorm, wheres my commission?

Sure! I didn't notice your pics on riocar.org before, but I still have the black notebook from when you last suggested it to me. It would be nice to cover up the tiny gap in between the trim and the empeg. As for the marker trick, Ill do that at work tomorrow when I can get paid for messing with it. Ill post more pics when im done.

Sean

Made me buy one. looks great!

what is the difference between the smoke and the clear? can we get an A/B side by side comparison? or should i just buy one of each?

thanks
joe

With the clear one, it will be much easier to see all the components behind it.

Do you offer the Mark II faceplates in green?

It seems from the pictures that your faceplates have a smooth, polished (reflective) finish. Perhaps they would benefit from a slightly textured anti-reflective finish through some sort of sandblasting technique using very fine abrading media? This would cut down on the glare significantly