Gauge light LED experiment w/pics

[LLave]

I am planning on upgrading my gauges while my dash is out, but funds are sort of low so I was thinking about an inexpensive way to improve the appearance of the stock gauges. (although it does nothing for their accuracy of course) I tried to get the shutter speed to accurately show what they look like, I had it cranked to get the stock lights to show up but then had to turn it down to keep the leds from looking like a super nova.

Anyway what do you think?

 

OLD

 

NEW

[strotter]

OOh, those blue ones look handsome. You're aware that it's possible to "reface" the gauges? I did this myself and have been pleased. Check this site: http://www.newtier.com/graber/z-car/gauges.html. I used white acetate in a laserprinter.

[Austenp405]

I agree, the blue ones are a huge improvement. What all went into changing the lights out?

[HoustonZ]

I just did the same thing. They look great, problem is I wired something wrong and now half of them aren't turning on. Time to take the dash off again...

[skipzoomie]

Those are very COOL. More info on how to do it. Please.

[Sparky]

http://www.superbrightleds.com

has direct replacement leds "bulbs" in single or four led variaties. just recently I bought the yellow, white, blue, red and green LED replacements to see which ones I likes best. after removing the gauges from the dash I took them apart and removed the green filter thats on the back half of the gauge housing. then I replaced the stock filiment bulbs with the coloured LEDs one colour at a time so I could see them and make a decision.

 

I sat in my car for hours swapping out colours in my dark garage trying to find the right one...eventually I swapped in the filiment bulbs without the green coloured filters and wow, that was the look I was going for. I like the look of the LEDs but to me there was something very harsh about the light that they put out.

 

the above gauges look good though, I curious if you removed the green filters from the gauges or you just poped in some blue leds.

[RTz]

I like the look of the LEDs but to me there was something very harsh about the light that they put out.

 

Sparky,

 

Curious, did you play with the dimmer at all? Did it reduce the harshness any?

 

TIA

[Clifton]

I originaly removed my green covers to get more light, only to put them all back on because they looked yellow afterwords and not much brighter. These look great , had I seen this then I would copy you but I'm too lazy to go through all that again. I will get some of those super bright leds for my sequential shift light though.

[LLave]

wow, http://www.superbrightleds.com sells some really neat products.

I think I will order some white LED's and some diffused 360deg blue LED's and do some more experimenting.

 

Some more details on the the gauge lights pictured.

The green is of course the stock lighting

 

For the blue, I first removed the green lens then installed 4 super bright blue LED's (2600mcd, 468nm, 30deg) 2 on the left and 2 on the right as evenly as I could get them. I used 4 LED's just to keep the light as even as possible on the face of the gauge. I used a little dab of some good clear silicone to hold them in, which seems more then adequate. I then carefully routed the wires where they would be clear of the gauge's mechanical parts and out the original light bulb hole. This worked ok but when I do it for real I may drill holes and install snap in led holders.

 

Also to help the light reflect on to the face I painted the back side of the front of the gauge with a quick shot of krylon gloss white. But I did that before any photos were taken so the picture of the stock green is after paint.

 

Another thing to note is I am powering the gauge from a 12vdc power supply so it would be like the dimmer switch is on full blast.

 

I was also toying with the idea of installing the LED's in sets of red, green, blue. Then wiring each color to its own dimmer switch. Then by adjusting each dimmer switch I could effectively change the gauge light color... maybe... kind of like what they have going on in the new mustang. But that is 3 times the parts and wiring.

[big-phil]

OOh, those blue ones look handsome. You're aware that it's possible to "reface" the gauges? I did this myself and have been pleased. Check this site: [url=http://www.newtier.com/graber/z-car/gauges.html]http://www.newtier.com/graber/z-car/gauges.html[/url']. I used white acetate in a laserprinter.

Thank you SOOOO much for the download!

[LLave]

If you are going to "reface" your gauges just be sure to use UV stable ink (paper too?) because your typical inks will quickly deteriorate in the sun

[Sparky]

Sparky' date='

 

Curious, did you play with the dimmer at all? Did it reduce the harshness any?

 

TIA[/quote']

 

I did not install a dimmer when I rewired my car, but I dont think that would help. One of the problems I encountered when using the bulb replacement LEDs is that there are dark spots in the gauges, especially in the speedo and tach. if i'm understanding LLave correctly he did not place the LEDs in the stock locations, but rather wired in several small ones around the front of the gauge...LLave correct me if im wrong. I think that that would be the way to do it in conjunction with a dimmer in order to keep the harshness down and prevent dark/blind spots in the gauges.

 

 

 

 

wow' date=' [url']http://www.superbrightleds.com[/url] sells some really neat products.

I think I will order some white LED's and some diffused 360deg blue LED's and do some more experimenting.

 

 

 

They do have some really cool stuff, fast shipping too. I bought one of the 3 LED pre assembled units in red and mounted it behind my rear view mirror in order to replicate the dash/console/shifter lighting found on the newer BMWs...it creates a nice low key red glow on the shifter, boost controller and combo switch. some might call that ricey but it really helps you see certain switches and knobs at night without having to turn on the interior lamp.

 

Nice clean install on those gauges, that looks really good.

[LLave]

if i'm understanding LLave correctly he did not place the LEDs in the stock locations, but rather wired in several small ones around the front of the gauge...LLave correct me if im wrong.

 

Exactly, I placed 4 single LED's around the gauge facing the front so they would reflect onto the face of the gauge evenly.

[Dragonfly]

Here are two pictures of how I used 10mm super brite LED's with a resistor to replace the bulbs in my dash lights. Because the LED's project light in only one direction they do cause dark spots in your gages, the only way that I can think of to get around that is to incircle your gages as LLave did with his.

 

This picture shows the LED with the resistor soldered to the positive leg.

 

This picture shows the resistors leg soldered to the power wire in the connector. If you look closely you can see that the negative leg of the LED is soldred to the grounding tab in the connector.

 

I am using this without the green filters due to the dark areas left in the gages. I used 10mm super bright green LED's in my turn signal sockets.

 

Dragonfly

[bradz240]

LLave you said

"If you are going to "reface" your gauges just be sure to use UV stable ink (paper too?) because your typical inks will quickly deteriorate in the sun"

Are those available from Office Depot or where?

Thanks, Brad

[AK-Z]

 

 

I did this a while ago. used a total of 24 LEDs.

[bradz240]

Here is a link for white face gauges for the zx. I couldn't find it on the hybrid forum.

http://www.edmontonzcarclub.com/

 

Brad

[AK-Z]

They have the electro luminesant (or what ever its called) backlite ones for the 280zx. I don't really see the worth in putting LEDs or printed white face guages in when they already have those. I believe its about $20-$40 without the inverter (maybe with).

[kcelectronics]

I Do like the blue ones :2thumbs::2thumbs:

 

Here is the link to the "White Face Gauge Article" http://www.nk.ca/%7Ezcar/pages/articlepages/whiteface280zx.html

 

Also not wanting to hijack this thread, but I am going to use the same printing process to make my own 260Z E/L gauge set, but I will be using clear sheet not White paper.

[74Adam]

That's pretty cool looking. You know, this is a simple solution but I simply took out the green filters and upgraded the stock lights from 3.4 W to the 4.0W bulbs that H4lights sells. That alone made a big difference and I'm happy with my guage lights. But those LED's are sharp I must say.