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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.
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__________________ 1987 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am GTA 120,000kms, SFC's, Wonderbar, Eibach Pro-Kit, MSD coil and 8.5mm Super Conductor wires, BBK AFPR
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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?
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)
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
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.
Last edited by paulo57509; 04-10-2003 at 09:19 AM.
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.
i haven't torn the dash apart yet, how many do you need, i am going with red
__________________ [
Ram Air Firebird Formula 350 1987
Powder Coated Holley Stealth,
HX50W Holset, monster SX pump,
42lb injectors, FMIC, FS BOV [[Tuning in progress]] and I still have my Nitrous back up my 10psi... bent 3 rods..... now 6.0L/ 4l80e going in
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?
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?
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.
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
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?
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).
__________________ "It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away."
- '87 Formula Firebird - never ending project
- '91 RS Camaro - beater
- '93 Z28 - donor
- '71 Camaro LT - as if I need another project.....
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?
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?
Last edited by paulo57509; 04-13-2003 at 07:57 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.
I'd like to see some pics when your done.. I'm looking at the quad blue ones for mine.. but no white face guages.. Though the singles ones look ok too...
Anyone take any pics of a standard white 194 bulb, with a blue LED beside it for a comparison?
Last edited by FastElectrics; 04-14-2003 at 10:56 PM.
well what pictures would you guys want to see, i can take pictures of a standard 194 in the dash next to the quad red led, picture of the dash with all red led's, and then another picture with my white faced gauges when i go home for the weekend hopefully that should cover most of it
hey guys finally home for college. i'm goin to do the white faced gauges and LED gauges sometime this week right after i do my struts and shocks. I'll post my pictures as soon as I do it.
1989 White IROC-Z
383 Super Ram, AFR 190's, LPE 219, Worked 700R4
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i have an 89 rs and i was looking at articles about converting to leds, and i am not advanced enough to do a full conversion so the bulb replacement that site offers is perfect, the camaro i have doesnt use the actual led thingys, they use the ones that look like rockets, look just like the old bulbs but with leds inside instead of the filament, so dont go buying 194 bulbs, this is the article http://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/leddash.shtml, so visit it and you will see what i mean, i am gonna do all the lights in my car, except the headlights because i will eventually do the conversion to xenon wannabees
Originally posted by 89blackGTA 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.
Ok I have a quick quesiton. If you buy the quad ones off of that site, can you just plug them right in or do you still have to check the specific voltages and solder resistors to them? If you can just plug them right in, then what's the advantage of doing it the other way??
1989 White IROC-Z
383 Super Ram, AFR 190's, LPE 219, Worked 700R4
Eibach springs, Koni 12 ways, More...
Sponsored By: Year One, Hawks Thirdgen Parts,
Dynamat, RPM Resto & Custom
Media Coverage:
Chevy High Performance - April 2003
GM High Tech Performance - March 2006
Chevy Rumble - Summer 2006 Steel And Skin Photoshoot - July 2006
Paul, I was just thinking the same thing. Why not save some work for yourself if you can just get ones the plug right in?
__________________ 1987 Pontiac Trans Am
Motivated by an Lt1 & T56!!! Gone!
Anyone seen it? The Surgeon General Never Said Nothin' 'bout Smokin' The Competition
The advantage to making your own (like the tech article) is that you can use brighter LED's.
I've done both the DIY and the SuperBrightLED's (which are plug-n-play) and I like my DIY ones better. The unfortunate thing is the 10,000 mcd blue LED's aren't available from Jameco anymore and I haven't been able to find another source.
I'd like to see some red dash lights soon please.
I think I'm going to do the DIY's since they are supposed to be brighter. I guess there is no way to do a quad setup with those right?
1989 White IROC-Z
383 Super Ram, AFR 190's, LPE 219, Worked 700R4
Eibach springs, Koni 12 ways, More...
Sponsored By: Year One, Hawks Thirdgen Parts,
Dynamat, RPM Resto & Custom
Media Coverage:
Chevy High Performance - April 2003
GM High Tech Performance - March 2006
Chevy Rumble - Summer 2006 Steel And Skin Photoshoot - July 2006
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.
and I haven't been able to find another source. 
