Yeah, I'm moving in a week so I haven't had any time to experiment myself... so if you could keep me informed on your progress, that would be awesome. I figure it's probably all one piece so I' have to fab up a new plate myself, BUT there's one good advantage to it........ I could make a custom dash plate with the background coloring whatever color I wanted (I really like the colored film background idea) because it could be interchangable, plus I could customize the plate to add some special graphics or whatever I wanted that would make it a one-of-a-kind.

Let me know how everything goes with your car if you happen to get to it before I get to mine

-Kyle-

 

if you are using blue transparency paper for the overlays on the gauges...where is the red coming from....i think it looks really good and professional and i would like to try to do it for my car if i can figure out what to do.....

 

if anyone needs still, i can tell you the polarity for leds on the 90-92 camaro dash, backlite and warning indicators. i personally put 5000 mcd red leds in mine for backlite and i think 3000mcd for the warning lites and at nite it looks pretty sweet.

but anyway if you need the polarities email me at ***** i can also get pics of the red leds too if youre toying with that color idea. i gotta take mine apart again anyways cuz i gotta realign the leds in there and i might put more for more lighting.

btw: i also put some in my third brake lite, and they looked pretty good but i think something came loose cuz they dont work...wiring looked pretty bad when i first took it apart

 

Alright boys and girls, I found a company that makes guages WITHOUT the yellow coloring. The name is Black Cat Customs. They can do them in white, silver, or (what i was looking for) factory black. Price is $109. Ill be buying these in about a month.

 

Pictured is an example of a mustang cluster they made (dark grey).

 

Just thought id revive this thread as I just got a 92 RS and found it interesting for everyone to know and read about

 

does anyone know how to take the gauge needles off

 

If you use a fork, you can pry them off. You just have to be really careful and take your time. They should slide off the post.

 

alright thank u do u have to paint the back of the gauge or anything something more reflective so the led's shine better and if so what color white or silver

 

I just bought a bunch of red LED's from superbrightleds.com and I tried out just putting one in for grins and so far it look pretty good. I'm gonna finish up the rest of them and see how even the light is across the cluster. If it turns out nice I'll probably stick with it, if not I'll wait until I buy a 145mph cluster and maybe do something like a totally new gauge face. I think if I went that route I'd change the colors like the one that guy made on page 1, but on the empty space I would probably have the print shop make a carbon fiber look kind of like those carbon fiber Auto Meter gauges.

 

that would look real good i think let me know if the red shows up good im just going to go with super bright white do you know of any site or anything i could send my 145 cluster off to and have the faces changed to something like that

 

I've come almost full circle with the LED instrument lights. I first went with blue LEDs. At the time, no one made plug-and-play replacements, so I made my own.



I quickly tired of them. I really didn't care for the blue color. It illuminated the instruments OK, but there were still hot and cold areas. And just like blue headlights, they didn't really throw enough light on the subject.


(Hot/cold spots are emphasized in this photo due to the nature of the exposure. It's a lot more even than it appears.)

I then pulled the blue ones and installed some replacement red LEDs.



These were better with more even illumination. But the red color washed out the gauge markings making the gauges hard to read.

I eventually went with these cool white ones. Even illumination and they lit the gauges so that they were easy to read at a glance. They are a wee bit bright, though.




(It's a lot more even than it appears.)

I did leave the blue LEDs in the gauges mounted in my pillar pod. I can barely make them out in the dark, but they don't affect my night vision. The gauges don't monitor any critical items; just a clock and manifold vacuum.

Now that the smoke has cleared, it was a lot more expensive and time consuming than it was worth. If I had to do it over, I'd just leave the tungsten bulbs in.

 

Where can you get stock replacement bulbs for the guages? My dash is really hard to read at night and was looking for a nice bright stock replacement set.

 

I got my exterior bulbs on line from super bright led. For the side markers 194 style bulb (some are used in dashes) I used the 5 SMD Wide angle bulbs. They are a little longer than a bulb and would need to be checked.

They also have these:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/i...cluster-gauge/

You are correct

 

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...edge-base/200/
Check these LEDs. they come in different colors. I put these in my dash, work great.
These don't need to go in one way or the other.

 

Thanks - I am going to order a set. Anybody know exactly how many of these go in the dash? (I'm at work - can't look now)