I thought this might be a cool idea. i hate white face guages, silver face are alright, and reverse glow are alright. i like the reverse glow with the black background but ive only seen those once in a stock appearance. anyhow, i was thinking it might be cool if you replaced the light bulbs in the gauge panel with some nice blue, red, green, or any other color. anyone done this or wanna try it?

 

I'd say Search, I feel like people have been talking about this all the time for years on this forum.

 

I wanna try buying LEDs to put back there like the ones on this site
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b....10562&next=50
They are the 194's about half way down. I wasnt sure which would be better but I like the idea of using them.

 

would those go right in?

 

Yea the 194 bulb works. Ive put new hyperwhites 194 bulbs in the gauges but I want to try colored LEDs now. Thats with different gauge faces though.

 

make sure you get quality bulbs. i got cheapies from walmart or pepboys dont remember i got blue ones though little 194s. changed all the gauge lights with the blue and it works just fine. it was kinda dark and dull but it had the blue i was looking for. but few weeks later of use they ended up turning some green some blue and some white. so i took them out and put stockers in and matched my HU color to it so it looks good with the orange on my firebird. so beware of qaulity.

 

i do i will post pics later on 2day.

edit: heres a pic, they are just regular painted red 194 bulbs you can buy at your local walmart. they come in packs of two. the camera really sucked so its pretty blury...

 

Wow those are pretty bright. I want to get those LED ones but Im not sure which ones to do cause Im not good at picking out good LEDs. They have the 5 and then the 6 LEDs on one set up on the site I posted up. Im not positive which would be better. I don know I want to go with the wide since they disperse the light better.

 

That looks nice Maroon88iroc, any better pics of them?

 

painted them? those look cool...im actually going to walmart today

 

defiately get BULBS! DO NOT GET LED's!! I went the cheaper route and ordered the 194 led's online, b/c my walmart didn't have any and I didn't really have the $5 for just a pair of them either. But anyway, the led's do not light up the gauges well, they look dim, and if you don't know your gauge panel, it can be hard to read the numbers. I'm going to be swapping them out for bulbs real soon.
----------
and there real easy to swap so you shouldn't have a problem with that part of it.

 

What kind of LED did you use? Was it with just a single LED on one or was it the ones with multiple LEDs on one plug in?

 

so no matter what led's they are there dim ? i was looking at a set of purple that seem bright , any one know a nice bright purple 194 bulb ? would also consider blue , but a nice purple would rock casue my cars purple

 

How many 194 Bulbs are in a Firebird gauge display?

 

Get the "WLED 5-LED Wide Angle LED bulb" they work great. The painted bulbs work until the paint burns off.

 

Jtufts they have purple LED 194s here
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b....20574&next=50
I havent seen any regular 194 bulbs in purple though.

 

oh i auctly never looked i just thought they were all led's heh

and whats with led bulbs and leds , are the led bulbs , bulbs or leds?

 

well I bought the WLEDX-5 bulbs and they are fantastic. They are very bright, and turn your guages any color you want.

 

how many lights are in the cluster anyhow (early style iroc cluster).

 

There are 11 lights in the camaro cluster.

 

is that including or not including the ses and "brake" lights, etc. or is it just the gauges.

 

Just Gauges

 

my T/A has red backlighting from the factory... not sure if the same bulbs would work w/any dash tho???

 

so theres 11 in the guages , how about the shift plate ? what kinda lights in the dome light is it a 194 also ?

 

shift plate i believe is just one 194, im not sure what kind of bulb the dome light is but that site i put up has it in LED too.

 

The LEDs I got light up the guages better ther bulbs sorry but it's true. I've tried both, but the leds need to these "WLED 5-LED Wide Angle LED bulb" from
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b....20574&next=50
I promise they are great.

 

^^^^ bad link, but I know that site, wat about the 6 and 9 LED ones?

 

Take a close look at the picture, the WLED-5s have a large square LED in the center and four smaller ones at angles giving these a wider coverage than the others.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b....20574&next=50

 

I see what you mean. But you dont think the wedge base with the 6 or 9 wouldnt be better?

 

No, I actually tried them both and the wled-5 is better.
In fact the 9-led was 2 big to fit in the HVAC unit.

 

oh ok, really good to know.

 

i can try and get better pics tonight. they are not painted per say they are just coated or something red, its a basic 194 bulb that is red on the outside ive had mine in for over a year and it looks just as good as it did when i first put them in, no discoloring at all.

 

nice link, I think I had bad experiences cuz I got the cheap, 1-led wedge type bulb, and they don't produce light for $h*t. I'm goign to order some led's from there this weekend.......and I'm holding you to that promise

 

One other thing I painted the black steel bezel piece white. It gave the gauges a blue halo like glow.

 

And it's a simple and cheap mod, which works quite nicely:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...r-cluster.html

JamesC

 

i just bought all new blue dash lights for mine to match my new cd player. ill sell the red ones out of it if anyone wants them, CHEAP. these things are like 3$ a pair at the store. it was over $20 for the lights. lmk if you want em.

 

that does seem bright though, maybe it's just the pic.

 

I got bored one day and decided to mess with my gauges. I put tinted plexiglass in front of the gauges. I removed the original plexi that is there. I then took a few LEDs and put 4 per gauge pod. The LEDs are insane at night, but early morning/late evening they work great. Even during the day they hit that plexiglass and glow.

In the pictures, I only have the tinted plexiglass over the Tach and speedo. without any light, they are extremely hard to see the gauges because the plexi is so dark. But it does give a nice effect. Almost like digital gauge looking until you turn the light on.

The stock pontiac red is still visable... just not in the pictures. I have a switch for the red, and a switch for the LED's. So I can choose whichever.




At night, from outside the car:

 

PM sent!

 

i changed out all my gauge and hvac lights and shifter with red 194 bulbs...i like them very much and now i want to order some 194led replacements for them...

 

sorry to bring up a dead post but i have to replace my cluster lights on my 92 rs and figurd i might as well change the color to the color of the car so i was wondering if these would work

LB194G
194 Green Mini Wedge Mount Bulbs (12V 5W



i just copyed that from a web site i dont really no what u need to no to tell me what i need and also how meany bulbs r in the cluster?

or dose eny one have eny beter sugjustions on what to get i dont no eny thing about the lights i just know that i want a green color

 

Super white LEDs

 

that looks horrible its not evenly lit up at all haha no thanks already.

 

Is there a way to evenly distribute the light?

 

That pic is from a camera phone, not the best quality.Im using 4-6 led lamps(194).It will look better in the flesh.Just dont go with the single/two or even three led lamps.Not bright enough.

 

Yes I put red in my 1992 camaro cluster, lights from http://www.v-leds.com/Shop/Control/fp/SFV/32481
the best lights around, trust me i tried them all, smt 5led lights is what you want tu use.