LED project part 2... GAUGES REVIELED (56k haha)

[accordfreak]

ok as some of you know i've been working on my BLUE led project beginning with the VDC button and the heater seat buttons. Those were a sucess with no hot spots.. now i have the center console ALMOST complete with over 50 LEDS that had to be changed. I only ordered 50 so i have to order some more LOL.. the navigation panel is only 1/4 done right now but the a/c radio is complete except i have to fix a few dim spots..

and as for the gauges... as you all know it's made up of a ORANGE film.. read below for further details... =)


now on to the pictures!!

lets begin with the center console.. as you can see there are many LEDS.. here i am testing the blue LEDS i just soldered.. works great! oh yeah one more thing these are SURFACE MOUNT LEDS.. i couldn't find any at any store so you prboably have to order them online.



after testing those.. i soldered the rest of the LEDS.. all freakin 35-40 of them!!!


the result..... i have to fix "disc" ," mode" and "am/fm" somehow.. it's not that bright for some reason.


the pile of orange LEDS



OKAY now on to the gauges after many hours of soldering those tiny ass LEDS...

ok about that annoying orange film... ready??
whenever you shine a light through the gauges it's orange no matter what... now here's what you do....


you SAND IT OFF hahaha YUP you read corerectly.. SAND IT OFF.. the orange film is on the back and i had to sand it all off.. then i cleaned it up with alcohol. MAKE Sure you DON'T sand the turn signals or high beam indicator also.. just the gauges itself.. don't worry it won't sand off the numbers just the orange crap. look at the pictures below...

as you can see the orange film shines through with a clear light bulb in the back



and here... i sanded off some of the film already..




and so a WHITE LIGHT shines through!!! whoo hoo



got most of it... as you can see the "x1000r/min" a little big of orange is showing through.. i sanded that off after i took the picture...



after sanding i had to test the blue 5mm LED...testing phase... testing where the hot spots are at and how well it lights up...that's just 1 bulb



after 4 hours of soldering and bending the LED wires....





....i finally got most of it to work!!!




final note... if you're going to buy LEDS.. you have to buy the WIDEST angle which is like 3 bucks a piece.. you can only find those online.. wide angle 5mm LEDS for the gauge.. but what i did instead was sand the LEDs flat and glue on aluminum foil on top of the led so it somewhat spreads the light a bit more even...



ok so towards the end.. i finally realized that silver i35 clock i installed wasn't too great because i couldn't see the needles at night.. so i put the black one back on and modfied it to match the rest...... hehehe





the blue lights matches my twilight blue car hehehe
the end.... []


------------------------
-rest in peace.. =(
1994 honda accord ex
269whp/ 281wtq @ 14psi
now..
TB 6mt w/navi

[Boggie1688]

Looks good....how did u get the flat leds? Are they the ones u use in cellphones?

[ironrice]

WOW nice. I just got one question. Why doesn't the redline show in your tach? Well nice job and thx for posting pic.

6MT Coupe 'The rice is mightier than the corn'

[nokares]

accordfreak - this looks awesome!!! Great job. And thanks so much for posting this thread - I know a bunch of here at 6mt.net would like to modify the interior LED color - I'm one of 'em!
I must admit, I was hoping that it would just be a matter of 'popping' off the consoles, gauge clusters, and buttons, replacing the bulbs and sanding a bit, and then 'popping' them back on again. (And by popping I mean carefully removing by unscrewing and/or unhooking) []


'04 G35at IvoryPearl|Graphite|Premium|Navi|CCs

[nokares]

Today, the bf and I went sniffing around a couple of Ford dealerships - he's interested in the '05 Mustang (he's already got a retored '67). Anyway, my favorite feature of the car is that with the turn of a dial, the driver can change the gauge cluster lights to 125 different colors!! Now how in the world do you think they do that??

'04 G35at IvoryPearl|Graphite|Premium|Navi|CCs

[Dizz]

Tight!
Hey, if you're in Cali... Mines is next!


2004 Clear'd and Creamy Pearl 6MT
Aero and Premium goodness
Graphite's in to get the "lead" out
Stillen CAI/Ztube/EIBACH Prokit

[jah]

This has got to be one of the best threads on this forum. Now, if only Accordfreak were local to assist us in this process. Me being devoid of mechanical inclination, I fear that I'll mess things up if I do it alone. Is anybody in So.Cal that has the skillset of Accordfreak? Anybody wanna chip in on his plane ticket and fly him here for a few days to help us out? =) I'm game!!!

[docron1]

great job!!!

I also wondered why the red tach lines are illuminated at 7000-8000 rpm....

Secondly, have you looked at the HUD display to convert to blue LEDs yet? It also looks like orange film too, would you sand that off also?

Lastly, where is the best site online to buy the different types of LEDs? Details would be appreciated like number of LEDs needed for each part of the dash, what type of LED is needed etc.

The new COLD SOLDER should be good for this since you can control the heat.

thanks again for the great pix and descriptions.....now all we need are the details....

doc


__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ______________

2004 G35c AT / DG / Graphite / Premium(-POS Bose) / Performance / Aero / Alum Pedals / Clear Corners w/PIAA Xtreme White / 6-Wire GroundingGear / Stillen HiFlow CAB / Z Tube / Stillen TD CB Exhaust (soon) / Hotchkis Performance Swaybars / Hotchkis Sport Coils / Passport 8500 / JDM v35 DoubleDIN Dash swap
Panasonic CQ DXE / MTX Thunder Amps x2 / Infinity Perfect 6.1 / Kappa 692.5i / Eclipse SE8363 / Infinity BassLink

DoubleDIN Conversion DIY guide:
http://www.g-owners.com/article_read.asp?id=33

"Never put sharp pointy objects on leather..."

g35driver.com ID: joepaniolo

[BUDDY]

that looks nice. its the little things that count

04 G35coupe/Black/Stone Leather/Premium Pkg/Aero Kit

[jah]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by BUDDY

that looks nice. its the little things that count

04 G35coupe/Black/Stone Leather/Premium Pkg/Aero Kit
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Exactly!

[willthethrill]

I posted this over at g35driver but figured id tell you again I love the Leds!
If you could proved led and resistor specs id like to start gathering up stuff for when i do mine.

[jinetix]

Friend of mine used leds from SuperBrightLEDS.com for his interior/guage lights. I think white would look nice in the guage area also.. =T

[IvoryGT]

the RED LINE disappeared. 7000-8000 didnt show up on the blue picture. I guess you can change everything that had a bulb in it, how are you suppose to change the AC indicator, which is orange LCD?

6MT/Nav/Aero/Prem

[Rocket65C]

Awesome thread. It took some cajones to take that dash apart, start removing LEDs and soldering new ones, but especially to start sanding. I replaced the dash on a '98 Dodge truck and you have to be careful to get the hands of the dials back on correctly, as well as several other nitpicking "details". Non-perfectionists need not apply. Congratulations-everything worked at the end. Next time I get a free weekend and several hrs. to kill, I may look into this further. It looks great. I've always been partial to a blue dash.

[AXA_G35]

i admire your patience and your relentless effort....that's some dedication!!!

btw...it also looks real cool []