red guage cluster needles how to..

[amolao]

When I took my cluster apart to get vinyl overlays on it I painted the needles Safety orange (spray can), is the color use to paint things like around working areas, heavy equipment,etc. The cluster broke (tach needle broken ) but the needles came out great . They look like my toyota sequioa, black cluster and orange needles. When I get a new cluster thats the look I will go for but I would not take the needles off (too risky) I might just tape and paint, I think is looks way better than the Sharpie way. I will send pics later when I get home....

[matlock]

I also painted my needles red or colored them I should say and I made the "E" for my empty red, and the "H" for the Hot red, just thought it would be different, but I guess a bunch of people are doing it. I like the red clock too.

[Ricer240sx]

i got a Blue needle kit if u want it, i decided to replave the regular lights with Blue LED's so i doint need the needle kit any more!

i payed like $80 for, ill sell them for $50 shipped, i never used them!!

[amolao]

My gauge mod........

[HyperTek]

If my digicam didnt bust id break down my spare stock cluster to take pics. You have to take teh whole cluster apart, and remove teh clock, there is basically a white piece of plastic as the backface to it, and on the opposite side is painted blue (which the bulb shines on). I sanded the blue off and sprayed that side with red Tamiya model paint. Basically when the bulb comes on, the red lights up, where as when it was blue, it would light up white. Pretty cool trick. Im sure you could do green also, just cant get it blue I dont think.

[HyperTek]

hey amolo, I was thinking about getting those overlays, how does it look at night? just wonderin cuz they seem to be glossy. ALso on the the 105 mark on teh speedo, is that a sticker you suppose to put to fill in teh "0"???

I was thinking of ordering some gray overlays to simulate the kouki cluster but it would be glossy and I dont know if that would look good.

[amolao]

Is not really glossy, it just (choice of words use by my wife) "looks fake", Yes she is right sometimes. Is just not the same. The material and detail of the overlay is just not good enough. At night the lightning is good, the light still comes thru and is easy to see. The reason is missing pieces (like the center of the "0"...) is because when you pull the backing of the sticker overlays off it pull those and I didnt even noticed. Honestly I wouldnt reccomend the overlays, the quality is not there, and you can break your cluster very easy when you take the needles off. Mine broke and Im very careful and took my time. It seems like the RPM needle is a lot more delicate than the MPH's one...

[Brian]

hahah cool zelda, i love the late model clusters for 180sx.
digital odo is sweet.
i remember noticing those on my friend's kouki 180sx.

[vvtisupra]

i heard nail polish works well

[cdlong]

ok, stupid question time, do you color the front or the back of the needles? or would either work, just give you a different look?

[amolao]

Actually is not a stupid question, I painted the top of the needle, the back is got a greenish "fluorescent" paint, I didnt want it to loose the bright of the needles when they lights are on so I painted the top part, some people say you can sand it off (the fluorescent paint) and paint whatever color you want. The way I did it I think works and looks better ..................

[cdlong]

i will probably end up doing that soon, when i put on my new gauge cluster cover. i already have a red sharpie so i guess i'm all set.

what if you sanded off the reflective paint (i assume that's what it's for) and put on the red marker or red translucent paint then painted over that with a silver paint for reflectiveness. that would probably work better but sounds like too much work.

[sleep]

http://www.centsibleamusements.com/b...r-sleeves.HTML

Anyone know if those would fit over the bulbs in the gauge Cluster?

[justinhustle]

dont bump old threads =/

bulb condoms are a waste of money, get led bulbs from autodynamic

[Marty]

i think id like to make my gauges light up green like in saab's

[HyperTek]

nah... condoms are the best! wont color fade, and your using OEM bulbs... ill post pics if only i knew how to take night pictures

[the240sxer95]

green lights + red needles thats effen awsome right there.

[brianglawson]

hypetek how did you get your clock to shine red??????

[MurdarioStomp]

scroll up and read. he already said how he did it.

[axiomatik]

Well, I thought that I would add to this old-ass thread rather than making a whole new one, try to consolidate this information in one place instead of spread all over the place. I installed JDM cluster on my s13 recently, and the lighting was dimmer and looked a little pinkish, so I thought I would try some wide-angle LED bulb-replacements. I love the way VW gauges look, so I tried blue first.

Here is how the cluster looked originally:


I first replaced all of the bulbs with the blue LEDs, and it was just too much blue. Also, the odometer and the legends for the warning lamps were pretty hard to read. Another side effect that I hadn't considered before is that my redline completely disappeared. I was hoping that it would be brighter than the stock bulbs, because they were pretty dim, but unfortunately, they are about exactly the same brightness.


So I changed the odometer and warning lamp legend lights back to the bulbs for now.


Next time I order some LEDs, I am going to try white, according to their data sheet, they are about 50% brighter than the blue ones. I'll post results again when I get them. I also plan on replacing the warning lamps with LEDs as well.

[Ghettokracker71]

Holy old thread batman!

[NemeGuero]

Where'd you get your LED bulbs?

[axiomatik]

I got the bulbs from superbrightleds.com. I used the "Single LED Wedge Base Bulbs" (#194/168 replacements) about 3/4 down the page. Next time I order from them, I will probably try the white versions of the same LED bulbs as well as some of the 5-LED wedge bulbs. Because of the way the light is distributed across the gauge faces, you have to use wide angle leds.

And I know the thread is old, but there is good info in here, so I thought I would add to it.

[Lurkable]

There's no reason not to have posted in this old thread. Nice pictures and info.

[ThatGuy]

Awesome nbrindley, that is the same site I was planning to get red l.e.d.s from. Now that I have the results of your cluster, I will be doing it for sure.

[rossfashow]

i want my cluster to look like the sentra vspec ser...

[FaLKoN240]

That looks pretty cool. Definately a way to revamp the old looking dash of S13s.

[SoSideways]

I've been using red bulbs from Auto Zone (or is it Discount Auto? either one, one of the store's lights are of a lighter shade of red, thus looking kinda pinkish, while the other is brighter thus more deep RED) for almost 2 years, they're still nice and bright red, not fading at all. And they were pretty cheap too.

A friend of mine has Autometer Phantom gauges for his S14, and he just bought a set of S14 SE gauge cluster from the junkyard, and we put red bulbs in everything, so now everything matches up when you turn it on at night. The S14 SE cluster is pure sex when it lights up at night.

[ThatGuy]

nbrindley, mine giving us a full run down of all the bulbs when you purchase them. I don't want to pull my cluster just to count lights. Thanks for the info.

[Shawn_of_the_Dead]

man, I hate all you guys. DAMMIT! My guage lights no workie from the the day I bought the car used. I cannot figure it out! I guess I will have to try and swap in another cluster and see if they work. If so, I am going all red with yellow or orange needles.