Insturment Cluster LED's

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bobscuda67

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Recently I had my rallye cluster out and I changed the dash lights to LED's.
I swapped out the clear 914 bulbs to Zevo amber LED's. I have some before and after pictures taken with the car not running with the parking lights on.
See what you think. I might add some led strip lights at some point.
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Before
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After
 
Proper needle paint is at ebay in a tiny bottle for about 7 dollars. Water base acrylic. Mixing ball in it. More than enough to do all your needles. Aluminum foil is the perfect mask for the screens. I dont use a brush. I have a big straight pin that my wife brought home from mattress factory. I load it with paint and lay it to the needle for flow transfer. The bottle is so shallow that my pin needs to be loaded a couple times to paint a large needle.
Most important "need to know" is about some needles construction, those with a flag opposite the pointer. On the backside of that flag is a dollop of material added for counter balance. Bend that flag at all and the stuff (whatever it is) will crack/fall off. This may not be an issue in simply painting the needle in place. Those vendors who offer screen decals, the videos that show removing needles to install decals, failed to mention/warn.
 
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Yes, they are dimmable and they don't look that faded out in daylight.
But I'll put repainting them on my list.
 
I put some LED's in my 72 Charger and they are fantastic! I'm gonna do it to all the old cars.
Thanks for sharing! great job!
 
Thanks!
They are a bit brighter than the incandescent bulbs and they draw less amperage too.
I am still not sure I like the amber led's yet. It tends to wash out the pointer some. I will repaint them when I take the dash out again this winter to replace some gauges and have the cluster chromed and painted.
I'll probably add some led strip lights at that time but not sure on the color yet.
 
Thanks!
They are a bit brighter than the incandescent bulbs and they draw less amperage too.
I am still not sure I like the amber led's yet. It tends to wash out the pointer some. I will repaint them when I take the dash out again this winter to replace some gauges and have the cluster chromed and painted.
I'll probably add some led strip lights at that time but not sure on the color yet.

I used a model brush and it makes a cleaner job if you can do the needles in one pass.
Otherwise the paint tends to lump up and not be even across the needles.
Also I tried florescent orange, but it was a bit too orange and needed a little red mixed in.
This cluster is backlit with "daylight" LED strip and the three round gauges on the left each have their own LED in them.
They are also dim able but in this pic they are on full brightness.
Obviously your setup is different, but some testing and playing with it can result in some nice lighting.
I almost backlit mine with two colors.
The normal white, and then switch to red for no oil pressure. (red before the engine starts then back to white when the pressure comes up on startup)

The pics are unlit, full lit, and unlit in the car.

clusterunlit.jpg


clusterlit.jpg


dash.jpg
 
Your white gauge faces really make the needles standout too compared to my black ones.
Did you leave the little blue bulb domes in place or did you remove them?
 
Your white gauge faces really make the needles standout too compared to my black ones.
Did you leave the little blue bulb domes in place or did you remove them?

Removed them and painted the inside of the cluster housing white to also get rid of the blue hue.
One interesting thing I found was the daylight white LED's make the green turn indicators on the speedo blue when lit.
I didn't expect that, but I'm fine with it.
 
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