Updated pics futher down in thread

I gonna be changing the dingy antique looking white stock backlighting to bright white leds to match my mechanical autometer boost guage . I bought a spare cluster to work on ....these cluster are EASY easy to work on . Theres LOADS of room . I was surprised . Eventually I gonna replace all the backlighting in the car like in the radio , heater controls and all the switches to white led's . It just looks so much better imo .

Heres the prelim pics . I will have another update in about week on how I gonna string the backlighting , how I got rid of the light blue filter on the back of stock guage face , how Im lighting the needles , how Im changing the color of the info center from the stock ancient old school digital blue ect ect .

comparo


How my stock cluster will light up when done


Heres the spare cluster I bought showing the tiny little stock incandesnt bulbs lit up

 

This sounds interesting. Keep us updated as you progress. Maybe while you have everything apart you can figure out how to get the cluster lights to stay on during the day.

 

The dash lights are controlled by the body module and the light sensor in the dash , but only when the ignition key is on . It would be a complete mess figuring that one out I will poke around though and see what I dig up . Ive got around some qwirkier GM wiring , so who knows .

Most car I see that have the white led instrument clusters their lit all the time , they just come on when ket is turned on . That how Im gonna wire my led strings , just run them to switched 12v so it always be on .

 

my friend gave me that idea a couple days ago and got me seriously considering it

 

Mini update ....started modding the stock guage face by sanding off the color filters on the back .

This one shows the difference between how it looks stock and the the areas where the color has been sanded off .


The difference in how it shines lite thru with the factory light blue filter and no color filter at all . The blue filter is what makes the yellowish stock lights look off-white


All color sanded off . The red filter on the small outer hash marks looked pink when lit with a white LED , so I sanded the red off too . Im gonna use a heavier bright red translucent vinyl filter that will stay looking bright red when lit up .


How light passes thru with no color filters at all . The red hashes that remain and the redline in the tach have the color filter on the guage face itself , theres no way to get rid of that . I wanted to keep all the perimeter hash marks red like stock , but I may leave it like this a mix of red and white .


Next step is removing the clear blue slot for the info center and changing that filter to a clear red one so the info center lights up bright red .

 

hmmm very cool idea. Can't wait too see the finish product

 

Started aiming the LED's . Heres a teaser pic . The whole cluster wont be done for about a week . I'm also attempting to change the color of the DIC to red instead of the stock blue/green. I should have my bright red LED's tomorrow for the needles .

Much nicer looking


Im gonna wire it so the guages are lit ALL the time . Most OEM cars that use LED backlighting are lit up at all times . In bright light , the backlighting still shows up perfectly clear .

 

hey man when you do the ac controls take alot of pics i tried to get the blue stuff off but it just scratches it and looks like crap... but i like your gauge idea

 

thats awsome looking! I am assuming when u plug the new pod in, it automaticly resets itself to the actual milege since it is computerized. Not like the old fashioned ones..lol. So when are u gona start marketing these?

later

 

Thanks

The mileage is stored in the BCM NOT the DIC , no matter what cobalt cluster u use ...it will display your actual miles and saved settings on the info center .

 

damn that looks good. you are gonna have t odo a how-to for this. i want to do it in bright blue.

 

Yea , I will when Im done . I will show what I did and where I got the parts . Bright Blue will be much easier for you , u wouldnt need to sand off any of the original blue silkscreen . If u use a white LED with the factory blue silkscreen it would be a really vivid bright blue .

It would illuminate like this . Scroll up to post #5 and look at the comparison where I was holding up to the window and there the color of blue , it would just be a ton more vivid .

 

That looks sick!

 

I did something VERY similar to my old cougar like this. Nailpolish remover mixed with water and a cotton swab might have been easier to remove the color gel though.

Awesome work, I might have to try this, I hate how dim our gauges are

 

That looks pretty sweet. I may get me some new face replacements and a new cluster and start working on something similar. I like the idea of getting a spare one that way you dont have to rush to get everything done and put back together. You should do a "how to" when your all done. I would like to get some orange faces and make the backlight blue instead of the current white/neutral.

 

wow i love it, i might try something like this.

 

Lookin good man, Im going to have to check it out in person sometime.

 

wow that is gonna be super bright. hmmm now time to start hunting for a back up to try this out. looks really good.

 

I just thought of something. Is the odometer record and all the other driver information stored in the cluster or in the computer of your car? I would think with it being digital its in the computer but not sure. Does anyone know? I want to get a second cluster and wouldn't want the odometer to be wrong.

 

theres your answer.

 

Qwik pic of all the guages lit up . quality is crappy , i didnt have time to mess with the cam settings . Cluster isnt fully assembled so some of the light is bleeding a little over to the turn signal arrows , it wont do that when the cluster is all assembled .

 

where are you putting the LEDs? there are the stock little light bulbs there

 

I am very interested as well as to where you are locating the LEDs. Also how hard they are to install.

 

I will take a pic with the gauge face off when I get home and upload it . The 2 little stock incandesnt bulbs Im going to cover up so the light isnt seen . There surface mount soldered and theres all kinds of things around them on the circuit board , I dont chance screwing something else up by removing them . The cluster is lit up by the BCM , so it'd be my luck u get some kind of warning chime or something if all the stock cluster lights werent there ....so leaving that one alone

 

seems too bright. I find factory to be nice, but not everyone will like it, right. good work though.