LED Guages - Body - Third Generation F-Body Message Boards

83Firebird420 · 04-09-2003, 01:05 AM

ok iv searched for this but havent found anything, what i want to do is light up my guages with LED's...the plates(fuel and speedo)are metal, i thought they were paper or something other than metal...what do i do and how do i do it? any advice is welcome.

Nightcruzer · 04-09-2003, 01:22 PM

There is a "how to" right in the technical articles under beautification.

89blackGTA · 04-09-2003, 02:50 PM

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...gi?product=CAR

Thats where I got mine. Looks good to.

Brian

Kj Rockz · 04-09-2003, 03:29 PM

Anyone know what size bulb were supposed to get???

89blackGTA · 04-09-2003, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kj Rockz
Anyone know what size bulb were supposed to get???

194s are in my GTA

Firebird 383 · 04-09-2003, 04:47 PM

Forgive me for being ignorant- but will installing LED's in place of the factory bulbs give the gauges that bright white glow like a stock Caddy Deville or Infiniti I30?

iroc2nv · 04-09-2003, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Firebird 383
Forgive me for being ignorant- but will installing LED's in place of the factory bulbs give the gauges that bright white glow like a stock Caddy Deville or Infiniti I30?

not quite that bright man...

i wish i had a pic.. picture the infinity like 2 times less bright..and only in certain places...still looks 100000 times better then stock, but not to the point of the infinity...(you pay alot of $$$ for that)

ill have some pics up soon..

iroc2nv

91Z28 · 04-09-2003, 08:36 PM

how did he get blue ? there are no blue led's on that page ?

Firebird 383 · 04-09-2003, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by iroc2nv
...still looks 100000 times better then stock, but not to the point of the infinity...(you pay alot of $$$ for that)

Yeah, I know... and I don't even get to drive it.

89blackGTA · 04-09-2003, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 91Z28
how did he get blue ? there are no blue led's on that page ?

If you are refering to me and the page that I linked you might want to scroll down. If you count the items, it is number 19 from the top. The pic looks like this

Brian

paulo57509 · 04-10-2003, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by 89blackGTA
If you are refering to me and the page that I linked you might want to scroll down. If you count the items, it is number 19 from the top. The pic looks like this

Brian

Brian,

Which ones did you use? The single or double LED 194's?

Thanks.

Has anyone tried these in a pre-'92 gauge cluster? How's it look?

I made my own blue 194's a while back using 10000mcd LED's, home-made PC boards and SMT resistors. Fun project but what a PITA.

89blackGTA · 04-10-2003, 12:15 PM

I used the single. If I could go back and do it over I would probably go with the double or even quad leds. It is plenty bright at night the way it is right now, but when it is dusk(or whatever you wanna call it) you cant show anyone cause it is to bright out side.

Brian

fun Pain · 04-10-2003, 05:16 PM

i haven't torn the dash apart yet, how many do you need, i am going with red

89blackGTA · 04-10-2003, 05:23 PM

If I remember, 9. I bought 15 to be safe. I put the 9 in the dash, and 2 in the floor lights. I am going to buy their dome LED also.

Brian

DreamState21x · 04-10-2003, 06:30 PM

Are theses LED lights just a plug in replacment or is there more to it..? Thanks.... Looks nice by the way..

89blackGTA · 04-10-2003, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DreamState21x
Are theses LED lights just a plug in replacment or is there more to it..? Thanks.... Looks nice by the way..

Just a straight replacement. Here are some pics.

Regular Blue 194s

194 Blue LEDs

Dash with blue 194s and Blue 194 LEDs

Old orange rubber lights, 194b's, and 194 leds

Hope this helps

Brian

nikh23 · 04-10-2003, 10:04 PM

Hey that looks awesome, I think i'm gonna get a set of red ones. And also how'd you get the needles to be blue also? Ah a couple more questions, i couldn't find the dual led lights, just single and quad? And has anyone tried this in a pre 91-92 camaro dash?

bigals87z28 · 04-11-2003, 12:56 AM

how big of a pain is it to take off the dash to put these in.. i am also putting in white face guages... any one out there with white face and 87 dash set up?

CustomX · 04-11-2003, 01:04 AM

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...d=7190148.3601

or jameco.

Get as high an mcd as posssibel and also as wide an angle possible.

Also note what resistance youll need.

89blackGTA · 04-11-2003, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by nikh23
Hey that looks awesome, I think i'm gonna get a set of red ones. And also how'd you get the needles to be blue also? Ah a couple more questions, i couldn't find the dual led lights, just single and quad? And has anyone tried this in a pre 91-92 camaro dash?

The needles glow blue with the LEDs. I need to get new ones without the orange stripe and they will be even more blue. I would go with the quads you can always dim them down if they are too bright. And yes the dimmer does work with them.

Brian

86White_T/A305 · 04-13-2003, 03:34 PM

If you really want your needles blue.you can take them off,use paint thinner and take off that ugly orange stripe.but make a mental note of how big that stripe is because i found out the hard way that u cant paint the whole needle blue.i used model car paint so it would stick nice to the needle and be thick enought to give a good blue light.i painted the bottom of the needle blue exactly how the orange stripe was and i had blue needles.took me a couple hrs to do because i messed up the first time but after that it was really simple.also when u take out your needles write down where they were when u took them out so that when u put them back in they will give the proper readings.sadly guys i dont have pics because a week late my car got totalledin a accident so i didnt enjoy mine long enough but they looked sick

nikh23 · 04-13-2003, 04:03 PM

i'm confused as to what orange strip you mean, isn't the whole needle just painted orange? And also what about camaros since our needles are painted white, anyone know if theres a better way to paint those things?

deadbird · 04-13-2003, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by nikh23
i'm confused as to what orange strip you mean, isn't the whole needle just painted orange? And also what about camaros since our needles are painted white, anyone know if theres a better way to paint those things?

On firebirds, the needles are clear and somewhat prism shaped. The backside (underside) of the needle is painted a crappy orange color. The light shines thru the needle to light it up.
Camaro needles (82-90) are just solid plastic and lit by the reflected light from the trim bezel (black metal piece that surrounds the gauge faces).

nikh23 · 04-13-2003, 06:41 PM

so for camaros simply painting the whole needle itself a different color would do the trick right? I was planning on doing white faced gauges, the quad LED lights, painting my needles red, and also painting the metal reflection piece on the cluster to white on the underside rather than the blue that it currently is to help reflect more light. does that all sound ok?

paulo57509 · 04-13-2003, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by nikh23
so for camaros simply painting the whole needle itself a different color would do the trick right? I was planning on doing white faced gauges, the quad LED lights, painting my needles red, and also painting the metal reflection piece on the cluster to white on the underside rather than the blue that it currently is to help reflect more light. does that all sound ok?

Careful with what you paint the needles with. I've read on some "sport compact"

oriented boards that the added weight of the paint on the needles makes the gauges read wacky. Some report that a "Sharpie" felt tip marker works. Do some research before doing this, though.

Painting the backside of the bezel white will help a little bit in reflecting more light. I did this when I installed blue LED's. I wonder if a more metallic slver color would be better?

Trans_AM_88 · 04-13-2003, 07:28 PM

hey 89blackGTA did you use both the bulbs AND the leds for your gauges? of so, why?

89blackGTA · 04-13-2003, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Trans_AM_88
hey 89blackGTA did you use both the bulbs AND the leds for your gauges? of so, why?

No, I have all LEDs. I just took that pic so you could see how much brighter the LEDs were than the regular blue bulbs.

Brian

nikh23 · 04-13-2003, 11:27 PM

well i ordered the red quad led's for my car just a few minutes ago. I'm gonna be putting in my white faced gauges and doin the bulb replacement this friday i'll take some pics for the people who wanted to see it done on a camaro.