Just finished gauge cluster LED conversion!

zammykoo

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haha, ya sorry to dig up an old one. But I just found it and did the modifications last week.

You painted your needles, right? I just replaced the bulbs with red ones and cut out the blue films. It looks pretty good at night, but in the evening they don't light up very much, and in the day I can't even tell that they are supposed to be red. I'm thinking reflective red paint and UV bulbs is the way to go. Any suggestions?
what kind of reflective red paint are you thinking of? if you use fluorescent paint it should work with the UV bulbs.

and I've done the red bulb mod long ago and it worked too. i thought it was ok for a while but got sick of seeing the entire cluster glow red from those bulbs so thats why i went with the white led numbers/marks and fluorescent needles. it is much better
 

Kswest

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Looks great but I don't think I could do any night driving with that stuff lol. I personally keep my console at the lowest brightness for that exact reason.
 


Morales ®

New Member
Very niceeeee... the dash gauge is nice but i was worried about the illumination of the needles...how to do that???? The pointers in comparison of the dash lights wouldl be hiden.... One of the thing I was thinking about was that that you did.....I mean to try out the fluorescent paint + uv leds I think it is ok..... because is not possible to put a led on the feet of the needle...for this We would have to have a transparent needle or something like that.....
 

Morales ®

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Another question about that...
Is there a better dashboard that is interchangeable with the 96-00 honda?
 


leothelion

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OMG i know what im doing this weekend. UV leds and some fluorescent paint. i have wanted my needles to be brighter for SOOOO LONG!!!!! dang, but i have to wait like 2 weeks for the uv leds to come in cuz i got cheep and buy off ebay, oh well. i have some spare leds left over from some stuff, might try out that cup holder led, did you put a momentary IN the holder? thats sooooo cool. where did you get the momentary switch from?
 

_michael_

New Member
Haha. The thread still lives!

I got the push buttons from radio shack, and soldered them onto a blank board along with the LEDs and some resistors (since its all running off 12V).

I have been relatively satisfied with the needles the way they are, but the glare is kinda annoying, and I would like them to be red even when it isn't totally dark. So I got some red UV paint and will be trying that instead.
 

leothelion

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cool cool. just finished that actually, i used orange fluorescent pain from rustoleum, the only place i could find red was online, and i didnt feel like waiting. it was really really tedious to tap off the gauges but it turn out sooo sweet.




will get some night shots tonight
 

Slow89

New Member
What bulb type are the two top ones that shine down on the needles? Are they also #74?


Blast from the past...... Ive searched and searched and for some reason no one ever answers what size the bulbs are at the top of the cluster that shine down.

Anyone know???
 

lethal6

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#74.


Taken from a very old how-to.


these two are the ones that shine down onto the needles....they are #74 bulbs


these are the five bulbs in the back that ight up the cluster 1-#194 and 4 #74

these pictures were taken from OC's how-to

the rest of the bulbs in the back are the warning indicaors such as; low gas, oil, turn signals, highbeams etc...
 


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