Led's for the clusters.

srtgtr34 · Post by **srtgtr34** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 6:27 pm

Ok so I have read all the how to's and write ups for the hvac and cluster leds and have a couple questions.

I already have 3 blue 3led matrix's on the way for the hvac.

So far I plan on buying six hyper white and 2 amber for the turn signals. Any thoughts on this?

Second, I remember reading somewhere that the color on the film on the cluster can be removed by some sort of liquid like lacquer thinner or nail polish remover, Is this true?

Third, What would you recomend for the cluster bulbs I was looking at the 10mm (type B) 194 neo-wedge superstars that autolumination carries, are they any good?

Thanks in advance.

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:10 pm

viewtopic.php?t=37070
viewtopic.php?t=27518

Those should help you out. I haven't really heard much about using alcohol.

srtgtr34 · Post by **srtgtr34** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:32 pm

Thanks, looks like I have the same led's coming as the ones you have.. 6 cool blue's and 2 reds, Hope they will look good.

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:15 pm

I like em

srtgtr34 · Post by **srtgtr34** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 7:29 pm

correction, I ordered the Wled x5's.
Looks awesome zerochad, I'm guessing mine will be a little bit brighter.

Ntyvirus1 · Post by **Ntyvirus1** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:51 pm

lacquer thinner on the gauge cluster, be careful on the HVAC the film is really thin and will wipe completely off if u use too much

Jenni · Post by **Jenni** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:11 am

How have you lighted the odometer blue? I thought it's not possible cause there is no LED?

Donkeypuncher · Post by **Donkeypuncher** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:59 am

The LED bulbs plug into the existing bulb bases, so it works fine. Blue works the best because of the tint on the film, red looks like crap. The parts that are normally red with stock bulbs will be blue though, but it's not a huge problem.

I did mine and it looks exactly like that picture, very similar to the vw's that had the blue/purple gauges.

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 1:17 pm

Jenni - I'm assuming it has a piece of the transparent blue overlay on top of it. the kit that ByVampDesign sells.

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:10 pm

Yeah, that's what I used. Kinda of a rip off for what it is. Just buy some thin blue transparent film like they use in theater lights.

srtgtr34 · Post by **srtgtr34** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 9:14 pm

Well here are some pics of the bulbs, I plan on installing them tomorrow mourning.
They are all Wled-x5 wide angle led's( 6 cool white and 2 red)

Mat00ES · Post by **Mat00ES** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 9:48 pm

hmm, mine are different, dont remember what they were sold to me as.

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:16 am

Yeah, those are the ones I originally had. Their light output was pretty poor compared to the ones srtgtr34 and I have now.

Here is what those inverted cones looked like in my cluster. Compare the gauge light output to the odometer, and to the pic above

Mat00ES · Post by **Mat00ES** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 2:13 am

How'd you get trip blue?

srtgtr34 · Post by **srtgtr34** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 8:04 am

I'm thinking about buying that tint from byvampdesign for the odometer. I have read that blue is somewhat difficult to see blue during the day so I was thinking red would be nice. What do you guys think?

srtgtr34 · Post by **srtgtr34** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 9:19 am

There has to be a trick for twisting these dam led holders out of the clusters, only 2 of mine came out. I am twisting very hard and they oly do a slight twist. Anyone have any tips???

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 10:25 am

I used a set of needle nose pliers to twist the bulb sockets; it worked well.

Matt, its just a tint film from VampByDesign. Its probably easier/cheaper to try it out with something from the hobby store.

IMO I would think Red would be even more difficult to see than the blue. The film is just filtering the light thats emitted by the odometer.

supermike · Post by **supermike** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 1:21 pm

For the turn signal indicators, do they have the same film behind them as the rest of the gauge cluster? Or would they react differently to a different color light?

srtgtr34, what are you going to do with the two red bulbs you got?

srtgtr34 · Post by **srtgtr34** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 7:25 pm

ZeroChad wrote:
IMO I would think Red would be even more difficult to see than the blue. The film is just filtering the light thats emitted by the odometer.

Yeah I noticed that, The turn indicaters are so dim you can barely see them at night. So I guess my options are change the bulb to white or remove the green film.
The cluster came out pretty nice, I just have to fix 1 bulb thats backwards and it'll be perfect. Mine lights up as bright as matts except I still get the red on the tach, gas gauge and temp. I did take pictures but they came out horrible so I'll try again tomorrow.

supermike wrote: srtgtr34, what are you going to do with the two red bulbs you got?

I'm going to take them out for now and put the old ones back in till I buy the odometer tint from vamp and the defroster button. Then while I have the cluster open I will either scrape or use paint thinner to remove the green film from the turn signals.

Tell me what you guys think to this red odometer, defroster and turn signals then blue gauges, and hvac panel. Do you guys think it would look good?

supermike · Post by **supermike** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 10:21 pm

Can't wait to see pictures, I've never actually seen one done with white LEDs, and I think that's what I want to do. The odometer would look awesome red, but it seems like in order to get it truly red, you'd need A LOT of tint, then it would be hard to see in the day. But I could be wrong, you won't know if you don't try. I hope the turn indicators work out for you, green makes no sense IMO. Plus I'm partial to red.

As for the hvac, all the ones I've seen pictures of seem to turn out kind of splotchy, but maybe it's just the pictures. Sometime I'm going to try taking all the film off the back of the hvac cluster and putting red bulbs in. An all red hvac cluster would look great right above my mostly red head unit. Plus I don't care if I mess it up in the process because at the moment I have no lights behind it anyway, I used the power for some other lights. I have all the knobs memorized anyway.

srtgtr34 · Post by **srtgtr34** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 3:06 pm

My leds are here for my hvac and they are small!

I will have installed pics of them when I get done with the bezel. ( I ran into a small issue)

latief · Post by **latief** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 3:22 pm

curious, what are these? i want pictures, because the hvac sucks with regular leds ..

srtgtr34 · Post by **srtgtr34** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 3:54 pm

I think they sent the wrong ones because these definatly won't fit...

latief · Post by **latief** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 3:55 pm

what were they supposed to send you ?

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 3:55 pm

srtgtr34 wrote:I'm thinking about buying that tint from byvampdesign for the odometer. I have read that blue is somewhat difficult to see blue during the day so I was thinking red would be nice. What do you guys think?

I have the Vamp film. At night it's sweet. In the day...what odometer? You cannot read it in daylight.

srtgtr34 · Post by **srtgtr34** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 4:14 pm

latief wrote:what were they supposed to send you ?

He said that they have them in the neo wedges while I was on the phone with the guy. I just called them up and this time they said they don't make them, grrrrr sucky customer service.

By any chance, is their a way to wire these up to work because they look like they would be bright.

LilSparkPlug · Post by **LilSparkPlug** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 6:23 pm

Just go to autolumination.com and pick up the #74 neo-wedge bulbs. I think I've posted that in a million threads already along with pictures. They light up the HVAC great as long as they aren't inverted.

srtgtr34 · Post by **srtgtr34** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:31 pm

For some reason my camera won't capture the birghtness of these leds, they are brighter in person. I think the led for the top of the speedo is a dud because I have flipped it around and it still looks like crap.

The speakers covers are finished I will have pics of them tomorrow. I ran into some problems with the center bezel so its taking longer than I had hoped, it will be finished soon

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:08 pm

Looks good. Yeah that's what mine had looked when that bulb was out.

supermike · Post by **supermike** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:12 pm

Oh nice, that looks great! That's definitely what I'm going to do.