Quick run through of LED's in dash!
03-27-2005, 10:30 PM
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Quick run through of LED's in dash! Awhile ago I decided to try something different and did the Blue Leds in my dash. I see alot of people are trying it now, but there is a right way to do it. The Led's don't put out light the same way as a regular bulb and the biggest problem with LED's in the dash is lighter and darker spots. I did my dash and found it didn't look right with uneven color and looked for a way to even out the color and not take away from the look. Why do it if your dash is uneven and looks out of place. I bought 6 point leds, may be a little overkill, but they worked great, went to autozone and bought a couple GEL bulbe covers in blue. cut small circles and siliconed them to the tops of the Leds that looked uneven in color in the dash. It took awhile to get it just right(Maybe 1 hour, due to taking out the parts and putting them back in). Over all I was very pleased and after 5 months, I still like it and had no problems. The one thing you will lose is the red in the tach area and any red in the gauges. The red needles will still look good. Takes time and patience and will turn out good. The LEd's are nice and bright and make my face glow at night, also you don't need a LED for the highbeams, they already are blue and with the blue LED's they almost blind you when it lights up.
03-27-2005, 11:08 PM
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Yes, is stock overlay. I did add a chrome bezel, looks way better in person and even in brightness. Here are some more pics. For some reason my camera doesn't like to take good pics of the Leds and the red washes out. In person you can see the dials.
03-28-2005, 01:31 AM
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The Camaro has a very slight bluish green tint to the white in the bezel, I am pretty sure the Ponitacs are all red and wouldn't work, I did see some overlays that are sliver and have blue on ebay and look close to stock, might want to check them out.
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03-28-2005, 01:42 AM
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Formula Fire, this is a pretty simple job. I had no clue what I was getting into when I did it. You unscrew the tilt steering wheel ****, pull off the snap on cover on the box around the tilt ****. Pop off the cover around the Gauges. Remove a couple bolts, and the whole plastic cover over the bezel will come, just need to be carefull not to scratch it. A couple more bolts and the whole gauge cluster comes out. After the bolts are removed the cluster is just plugged into the dash, is wierd because the dash is finished beind the cluster and there is just a plug. The lights twist out and twist in the Led's. The only time consuming part is, removing the Leds and putting a piece of the blue gel on them to even out the light, then having to put the cluster back in to check it out, then doing the same for each led. Would suggest if your going to ever put a bezel(carbon fiber or chrome etc.) you do it when your doing this. Some of the Led's used up to 3 pieces of gel and I used clear silicone to get them to stick to the Leds. The gel covers are just blue silicone covers to use on standard light bulbs, I just cut pieces big enough to cover the top of the Led's. I did use 6 point leds(have 6 leds on top each)So it is equal to about 42 regular bulbs. 7 bulbs with 6 leds each. I bought the gel covers at autozone, was about $2.00 a pack, I did use some smaller gel covers that fit perfect on top of the leds to use where the light was very uneven and worked great.
03-28-2005, 11:39 AM
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You can't dim the LEDs and like rotwiler said, in person the needles do light up. I used the same 6 led bulbs and it looks great. It must look even better with the time you put in to get them nice and even. You can check my webshots page for pics that you can tell the needles are lit up, but once again, everything is brighter in person. My blue interior is the best apearance mod I've done, lots of complements. Just recently I added blue leds into the ***** of the hvac and light switch. I will have some pics up tonight. Rotwiler you may want to try this too, it brings it all together very nicely. If you want I can give you details on how I did it. By the way nice job on the gauges. They look real nice. I may have to try that trick when I dig back into them to add some red leds for the redline section.
03-28-2005, 03:50 PM
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rufretic is right, the needles light up..something about pictures and the blue and red, it washes the red out. I have a Kenwwod stereo and all the buttons are blue and match the cluster nice. Also, looking at getting one of those HU kits that have the script in blue on top. Will have to try the hvac now.
03-28-2005, 10:52 PM
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Final cost was about $24.00. The 6 point blue Leds and the gel bulb covers. Already had the silcone. I drove around with just the leds for about 2 weeks and the uneven bright and dark spots bothered me and the improvement with the gel covers was well worth the extra $2.
