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Yes. I put a thicker coat on and could barely see any light. You just need a thin layer so you can see the needles during the day. I painted each one many times before everything matched. The paint just wipes off so you can try it as many times as necessary.
UPDATE: When you block the light guides with electrical tape--the guide will no longer channel light to the needles (good), but it will also not light up to provide backlight to the gauge faces (bad). I noticed the backlight was a little dimmer than usual, but it is still bright in my case. If you're using bulb condoms, it will be much worse. Something to consider if you're trying this. I tried red bulb condoms to see, and it's quite a bit dimmer. The best way is to get some after market reverse indiglo or something.
Thank you guys for the comments. I'm glad there are still some members here that care about modding their car. Some of the noobs lately are really abusing this site.
ok, now if i had aftermarket gauges over the stock ones, couldnt i just change the regular gague bulbs to blue ones (LED) since i wouldnt have to worry about the blue going to the stock gagues? And then all i would have to do is take the orange paint off the needles?
__________________ Xbox Live Gamertag: Blade Razorr
Okay, I first cleared the needles and tried them without the blue LED setup plugged in. They lit up a bright amber color. Now what you're saying is possible and alot easier. You don't even have to use an LED setup. Autolumination.com sells blue bulbs that you can just swap with the five stock backlight bulbs. The blue will channel through the light guides and into the needles no problem. Just make sure it's an 01 cluster, cause the website doesn't carry the colored bulbs for an 02. They even have super white replacement bulbs if you wanted to try that for contrast. I don't know how bright the blue bulbs would be, but I imagine it should be okay. If that doesn't work, you can always try the hyper white.
I wonder why Norrinradd didn't use bulbs for his setup. He cleared the back of the gauges like I did, so they would be bright. The only thing is the rest of the dash lights would have to be changed to LEDs to match. Too much work. I'm gonna scream if I have to take apart that cluster one more time!
KC-B 
