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1) I considered doing an all-white dash, but I needed at least 20 LEDs at $5 each = $100=way too much.
2) I did some more major gauge mods. All the bulbs that tell you if you're in P, N, R, D are gone because I couldn't get them to match (only amber).
2) I soldered in #74 blue incandescent bulbs from autolumination for the gauge backlight. Looks a little dim, but very cool at night. The numbers are almost like a white blue. Looks really nice. Also took out LCD backlight (didn't match again).
2) I'm doing the dash now with blue LEDs. I'm almost done with the HVAC console, and then I'm doing my voltmeter. That's all. I tried the moonroof area but had to give up after a few hours cause nothing was fitting or lighting up right. I just unplugged that as well Oh and I unplugged the light for the bottom shifter cause I couldn't get that to match. So now I'll never know what gear I'm in at night. Oh well.
This is going to look amazing hopefully. I'm gonna post pics later tonight and some from the DIY. All I can say is the cluster looks excellent with regular blue bulbs. The reason it's dim has to do with the fact that incandescent light doesn't put off much blue light (mostly red/yellow). I thought of LEDs for the cluster, but it would be another $40 at least for 10 more. Plus the way that the 01 cluster is set up, the shift indicator would have been green with white backlight--the green paint is on the front. So the blue nicely hides that
I think I might be able to redo the moonroof area if I had 7 LEDs to make it light up properly. I'm not wasting time on it since you can't really see them anyway from above.
i like how you did everything in blue. what kind of resistors and how many did you use when doing the control knobs? how many leds per knob and button?
Well, for each button like A/C defrost I used a single LED. For the bottom buttons, you can make a series curcuit like this with 660 ohm resitsors before each LED. The most you can hook in series is 3 LEDs. This only applies to blue LEDS!!
For the control knobs, you'll notice that there are only two bulbs in the side. I replaced each bulb with 2 LEDs facing towards the front. You'll have to make two circuits of 2 LEDs each. Put them right where the bulbs used to be. Make sure they face forward, since LEDs are very dim from the sides.
For the voltmeter, I just hooked up a single LED with resistor.
I could NOT do the moonroof and other controls in that area, so if anyone knows how, please post. Also the shift assembly down below is impossible to do due to filters that can't be removed.
Also, I have no way to tell which gear I'm in. I had to take out the gauge indicator lights and the shifter lights on the bottom so that everything is blue.
The blue bulbs from autolumination worked really well. I just hope the paint doesn't fade over time. I think I used close to 20 LEDs in all. This was so expensive and tedious.
UPDATE: I just finished doing the power window switch and the mirror button only. For some reason the cruise button is really dim with the LED, and the moonroof button is impossible to get 3 LEDs in there. So I just did the mirror. The AUTO window light was the hardest and most frustrating. Let me know if you're interested, and I'll post more pics.
Remember that you can do this with any color LEDs. The only part I used bulbs for was the gauge cluster backlight. It still has that uneven light, and I've thought about putting more bulbs back there. Only problem is trying to make them stay in one place and running more wiring. Post pics if anyone has done parts of this, like dash LEDs or something else.
The LEDs would be too directional. I used blue bulbs because the light diffuses better. I guess you could try shaving down the tips or using the opaque lens.
The only thing I worry about with my bulbs is the blue coating fading over time.
one thing that I am thinking about is that the light from the bulb/led would travel thought a plastic that directs it to its place, like in the AC controls. If this the same kind of design in the guage cluster ?
The gauge cluster does have a plastic light guide, but only to send light to the needle holes. With blue light, the needles do not light up very well--hence the need for separate LEDs for each needle.
The rest of the cluster is just lit by the bulb glow. This is why some parts of the display are brighter where the bulbs are. There's no light guide to even out the number lighting. They put paint on the back of the gauge faces to filter the light evenly, but you need to take this off if you want a brighter, different colored light.
