Dash Light DIY...what happened?
Thread Starter
www.ImportFactor.Com
iTrader: (4)
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 1,614
Likes: 0
From: Bay Area, California
Rep Power: 0 
Dash Light DIY...what happened?
Yeah...neither of the dashlight DIY's work.....the messages have been altered by the moderator(s) and it won't work now...whats up???[IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/IMG]
Registered!!
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 59
Likes: 0
From: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Rep Power: 0 
Sorry for long post!
This is what some guy sent me:
First of all, this process took me about three hours to complete. And your car will function as normal if you have to drive with the guage assembly out. You will need a phillips screwdriver, medium to small headed, an xacto knife, and blue lighting gel (This can be bought in a huge variety of colors from green to red, to purple and all shades in between. Call any place that sells stage lighting or club lighting equipment, and more than likely, they will carry this. Just ask for a sheet of (whatever color you want) lighting gel...they'll know what you are talking about) I needed only one sheet...20" x 24"...and it was $6.00.
1) Unscrew the top two screws (phillips) on the top of the dash panel that covers the guage assembly right behind the steering column. They are very noticable.
2) After unscrewing these, you have to pull that peice out. It will take some force, but first pop the top portion of the top off and then the bottom. The bottom part of this peice is held on by two clips (one on each side of the steering column) This will take some force to pop out, but it will. Pull firmly and the peice will pop out (it will make a loud breaking noise, but it won't break).
3) After removing the black part, you will see the guage assembly right there in front of you. There is a top black screw and two gold screw on each side at the bottom of the assembly. Unscrew all three of these (Phillips)
4) After unscrewing these three screws....slowly pull the peice out. You will see a light blue harness on the left and a green harness on the right side at the top of the guage assembly. Just pull these out and away from the guage assembly.
5) Now the guage assembly can completely be removed. Pull the assembly out and go inside. (better working conditions)
6) The guage assembly has three parts. The black cover, the clear plastic lens peice, and the guage face assembly. These are all held together by clips that are very noticable. The first peice to remove is the clear plastic lens.. Just unclip the clips from around the edge and the peice will come off. After this, do the same for the black guage cover. Just unclip the clips from around the edge of this peice and it will come off with ease. Now you should have three seperate peices. ( the clear plastic lens, the black guage cover, and the actual gugaes on a white plastic piece.
7) The TRICKY part....you have to remove the needles to get the guage faces off. You can either make a little mark where the needles are and put it back to that spot or what I did...I took them off, and when I put the guages back together, I drove my car around and set the needles while my car is idling at operating temp. I knew that the temp needle sat right below center, I knew I had a full tank so I set the gas needle just below full (now I have no excuse for running out of gas), I set the RPMs to a c*nt hair below 1000 RPM (idle) and the MPH needle at zero. But anyways.
8) To get the needles off, just get a good grip on them and pull straight up. It will take some muscle to do, but they pop right off like an Old School stereo ***** or something. Get all the needles off (4 total).
9) After the needles have been removed, the are little black rings left behind on all four guages. Pull these little rings off, they come off easily with just prying them off with your fingernail. Now the guage faces will come right off ( there are two guage faces, one for each side). On the back, you will notice like a screen printed orange on the back...not the whole back, but you will see it..the rest of the guage back is black besides the orange.
10) I used 150 grain sand paper ( the finest I could find) to sand the orange off (be wary of the little grey points that hold the needle. But after doing this you should hold them up to a bright light and make sure no orange is still showing through. Get them nice and white, or the blue will fade just a bit, but not too much. Definitely make sure the numbers and lines are nice and white. And be careful not to sand the other black portions off, they have the gas light, the turn signals, you know, those other lights, so just sand the orange parts. Two big ones and two little ones.
11) Now, get the blue (or whatever color gel) and lay the guage faces on top of it and slowly cut around it with your xacto knife. After you get both guages cut out, you need to cut out the gear strip (automatic) and the little screen box for you mileage reading. You can do this easily by placing the gel peice you cut out over the plastic peice the guages came off of. It should fit nicely on the clear plastic peices that were behind the guages and cut those two things out. You have to obviuosly cut the screen out, but you don't have to do the gear
lights...but keep in mind that they are green and red (Red for nuetral and park) You also need to cut out the little circles for where the needles ago, it's pretty ecxplanatory.
12) Now just place the blue cut-out gel peices on the clear plastic peice that was behind the guage faces and then carefully place the guage face back on over the blue gel peices. Now snap the little black rings back on the guage faces, and you are set. These rings will keep it on there nice and tight.
13) You are ready to put the needles on...if you are certain you have put them on at the right spot, then push slowly down until the are sitting firm on there. If you want to do what I did, then just barely push them on, so they can easily be pulled off and adjusted. Go back out to your car with all three peices and set the assembly back into the dash, plug the harnesses back in and run you car and set them where they need to be...refer to number 7 for what I did. When you are satisfied that they are where the needles need to be, unplug the harnesses again, and slowly push the needles back on, not too hard though, you should see like an 1/8" between the bottom of the needle and the guage face. Snap the black guage cover back onto the assmebly, then clip the clear plastic peice back on ( BUT be sure there are no fingerprints or dusty sh*t on the inside before you put the peices back together. Now you should have the guage assembly back the way
it was when you pulled it out. Put it back into your dash and plug the harnesses back in. Then just screw the top screw in and the two bottom gold screws back in. Then, shimmy the black dash cover part back into the hole and snap the bottom two clips back in and screw
the top two screws back in. I found it easier to push the top in first, then bend the bottom a little over the steering column and pop the clips back inyo place.....Enjoy the blue, red, green or whatever guage colors.
Problems I had:
The blue seems to be lighter in some areas, and I'm not sure why, and the needles jump up when I turn the car OFF...I think becuase I pulled the thin grey strips off the needle itself so it is clear and I think it wieghted it down enough to drop the needles back where they need to be, but when I start my car, they drop back down, and they are good to go.
Also, side note, follow these steps to replace the whole guage face with a white indiglo face or whatever, except there is no need to sand or cut gel out, because you are replacing the whole face. Any problems or questions, shoot me an e-mail. Have fun !!
This is what some guy sent me:
First of all, this process took me about three hours to complete. And your car will function as normal if you have to drive with the guage assembly out. You will need a phillips screwdriver, medium to small headed, an xacto knife, and blue lighting gel (This can be bought in a huge variety of colors from green to red, to purple and all shades in between. Call any place that sells stage lighting or club lighting equipment, and more than likely, they will carry this. Just ask for a sheet of (whatever color you want) lighting gel...they'll know what you are talking about) I needed only one sheet...20" x 24"...and it was $6.00.
1) Unscrew the top two screws (phillips) on the top of the dash panel that covers the guage assembly right behind the steering column. They are very noticable.
2) After unscrewing these, you have to pull that peice out. It will take some force, but first pop the top portion of the top off and then the bottom. The bottom part of this peice is held on by two clips (one on each side of the steering column) This will take some force to pop out, but it will. Pull firmly and the peice will pop out (it will make a loud breaking noise, but it won't break).
3) After removing the black part, you will see the guage assembly right there in front of you. There is a top black screw and two gold screw on each side at the bottom of the assembly. Unscrew all three of these (Phillips)
4) After unscrewing these three screws....slowly pull the peice out. You will see a light blue harness on the left and a green harness on the right side at the top of the guage assembly. Just pull these out and away from the guage assembly.
5) Now the guage assembly can completely be removed. Pull the assembly out and go inside. (better working conditions)
6) The guage assembly has three parts. The black cover, the clear plastic lens peice, and the guage face assembly. These are all held together by clips that are very noticable. The first peice to remove is the clear plastic lens.. Just unclip the clips from around the edge and the peice will come off. After this, do the same for the black guage cover. Just unclip the clips from around the edge of this peice and it will come off with ease. Now you should have three seperate peices. ( the clear plastic lens, the black guage cover, and the actual gugaes on a white plastic piece.
7) The TRICKY part....you have to remove the needles to get the guage faces off. You can either make a little mark where the needles are and put it back to that spot or what I did...I took them off, and when I put the guages back together, I drove my car around and set the needles while my car is idling at operating temp. I knew that the temp needle sat right below center, I knew I had a full tank so I set the gas needle just below full (now I have no excuse for running out of gas), I set the RPMs to a c*nt hair below 1000 RPM (idle) and the MPH needle at zero. But anyways.
8) To get the needles off, just get a good grip on them and pull straight up. It will take some muscle to do, but they pop right off like an Old School stereo ***** or something. Get all the needles off (4 total).
9) After the needles have been removed, the are little black rings left behind on all four guages. Pull these little rings off, they come off easily with just prying them off with your fingernail. Now the guage faces will come right off ( there are two guage faces, one for each side). On the back, you will notice like a screen printed orange on the back...not the whole back, but you will see it..the rest of the guage back is black besides the orange.
10) I used 150 grain sand paper ( the finest I could find) to sand the orange off (be wary of the little grey points that hold the needle. But after doing this you should hold them up to a bright light and make sure no orange is still showing through. Get them nice and white, or the blue will fade just a bit, but not too much. Definitely make sure the numbers and lines are nice and white. And be careful not to sand the other black portions off, they have the gas light, the turn signals, you know, those other lights, so just sand the orange parts. Two big ones and two little ones.
11) Now, get the blue (or whatever color gel) and lay the guage faces on top of it and slowly cut around it with your xacto knife. After you get both guages cut out, you need to cut out the gear strip (automatic) and the little screen box for you mileage reading. You can do this easily by placing the gel peice you cut out over the plastic peice the guages came off of. It should fit nicely on the clear plastic peices that were behind the guages and cut those two things out. You have to obviuosly cut the screen out, but you don't have to do the gear
lights...but keep in mind that they are green and red (Red for nuetral and park) You also need to cut out the little circles for where the needles ago, it's pretty ecxplanatory.
12) Now just place the blue cut-out gel peices on the clear plastic peice that was behind the guage faces and then carefully place the guage face back on over the blue gel peices. Now snap the little black rings back on the guage faces, and you are set. These rings will keep it on there nice and tight.
13) You are ready to put the needles on...if you are certain you have put them on at the right spot, then push slowly down until the are sitting firm on there. If you want to do what I did, then just barely push them on, so they can easily be pulled off and adjusted. Go back out to your car with all three peices and set the assembly back into the dash, plug the harnesses back in and run you car and set them where they need to be...refer to number 7 for what I did. When you are satisfied that they are where the needles need to be, unplug the harnesses again, and slowly push the needles back on, not too hard though, you should see like an 1/8" between the bottom of the needle and the guage face. Snap the black guage cover back onto the assmebly, then clip the clear plastic peice back on ( BUT be sure there are no fingerprints or dusty sh*t on the inside before you put the peices back together. Now you should have the guage assembly back the way
it was when you pulled it out. Put it back into your dash and plug the harnesses back in. Then just screw the top screw in and the two bottom gold screws back in. Then, shimmy the black dash cover part back into the hole and snap the bottom two clips back in and screw
the top two screws back in. I found it easier to push the top in first, then bend the bottom a little over the steering column and pop the clips back inyo place.....Enjoy the blue, red, green or whatever guage colors.
Problems I had:
The blue seems to be lighter in some areas, and I'm not sure why, and the needles jump up when I turn the car OFF...I think becuase I pulled the thin grey strips off the needle itself so it is clear and I think it wieghted it down enough to drop the needles back where they need to be, but when I start my car, they drop back down, and they are good to go.
Also, side note, follow these steps to replace the whole guage face with a white indiglo face or whatever, except there is no need to sand or cut gel out, because you are replacing the whole face. Any problems or questions, shoot me an e-mail. Have fun !!
GODLIKE
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 2,449
Likes: 0
From: Chinatown, Alberta, Canada
Rep Power: 0 Well the needles were a **** to take off...they were worse than the black part around the guage assembly...hahaha...the reason for the uneven lighting is because the orange part behind the guages was painted on thicker in some parts than others causing an even amount of light to pass thru....I am still having a hella hard time finding the gels....anyone else have a better place to get them...cuz well the drafting place I went to...gave me some bs crap story that they were the only ones in western Canada with them...I was like "wtf...I'm not your stupid mom...so don't lie to me like that" but I really need some ideas on where to look...cuz I used a file folder sheet..and that was bs..cuz well i needed to use 3 layers...now that was hard...hahaha...
Thread Starter
www.ImportFactor.Com
iTrader: (4)
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 1,614
Likes: 0
From: Bay Area, California
Rep Power: 0 Hmm get them online...
Look for stage lighting stores...
Also Theatrical stores carry them also! Just call around...
What I did was called up a lighting store (electrical) and when they said no they dunt carry it, I ask them who would and they refered me to a place that had em... You jus need to call around!
Good luck
Look for stage lighting stores...
Also Theatrical stores carry them also! Just call around...
What I did was called up a lighting store (electrical) and when they said no they dunt carry it, I ask them who would and they refered me to a place that had em... You jus need to call around!
Good luck
Thread
Thread Starter
Honda Civic Forum
Replies
Last Post
voblak2
Safety/Security Items - SRS, Keys, Immobilizer, airbags, ABS
20
May 4, 2023 02:08 PM
Linda0818
Mechanical Problems/Vehicle Issues and Fix-it Forum
14
Apr 23, 2015 11:30 AM
twtron
Electrical, Wiring, and In Car Entertainment
6
Apr 17, 2015 12:09 AM
SSMatey
Mechanical Problems/Vehicle Issues and Fix-it Forum
4
Apr 13, 2015 06:09 PM
antidote11
General Honda Civic Forum Archive.
14
Dec 8, 2001 09:32 PM
