| Better Gauge Illumination. |
Subject: Better Gauge Illumination. by Durango_Boy on 2009/2/12 15:53:11 Okay, gauge illumination has been a long battle for me. When LEDs first started becoming popular in cars I decided to ditch the yellow incandescent bulbs in the gauge cluster and speedo and tach in favor of LEDs. I already had the dash apart so changing them was easy. I simply ordered LEDs from an online company and installed them and went with it. I had two problems. First, I replaced a few bulbs with LEDs that needed to stay standard, and the bulbs I put in were a lot dimmer than the stock bulbs. This was actually for two reasons...which is the reason I took everything apart and painted it all white. First off, the LEDs I was using were low watt basic LEDs that are not any brighter than stock bulbs anyway, and they just didn't have the power to compete. Second, the insides of all the gauges in my car are painted light blue, to reflect the yellow light from the stock bulbs, to make a white light reflection on the gauges. I solved the first problem by switching to more advanced LED bulbs that are higher watt, brighter by design, and higher LED count per bulb. These are super bright and should be a huge improvement. [IMG]http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m242/durango_boy/LEDsLarge.jpg[/IMG] Next, I took everything apart and painted every blue surface a glossy white so it would reflect the light better inside the gauges so more cool white light would make it to the gauge faces. It wasn't all that hard, and while I did manage to get a little over spray on the backs of the cluster gauges...it all cleaned up nice before the install, and it should work a LOT better than the blue paint. In the pic of the individual gauges, I had the mounting plate of the oil temp gauge on backwards...that white side faces down, and the other side is stainless. I changed that after I saw I had it on backwards. I am still waiting for two new plastic housings for the speedo and tach before I can reassemble them and get them back in the dash. Once I get them I will paint them white as well, since they will be blue when I get them. What do you guys think? Will I achieve better lighting? [IMG]http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m242/durango_boy/BlueRetainerLarge.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m242/durango_boy/BlueGaugesLarge.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m242/durango_boy/WhiteRetainerLarge.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m242/durango_boy/WhiteCradleLarge.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m242/durango_boy/WhiteGaugesLarge.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m242/durango_boy/CIMG1119Large.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m242/durango_boy/WhiteTachLarge.jpg[/IMG] |
