I just recently got my gauges to the point that I can stand them. Before, it was almost impossible to see the needles on the gauges.

First order of business was to pull the needles off and paint them Day-Glo orange (matches the autometer needles too).

Next, I had to get some form of front lighting to the gauge faces so that the needles could be seen. I first tried the stock bulbs with the blue light covers on them, but found that there just wasn't enough light and went back to standard front lighting. It works but didn't really look right with the cool blue glow from the gauges.

In an attempt to get brighter front lighting in blue, I picked up about 5 of these leds off ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33713

I only used three for the dash lighting and the others will be used in my autometer gauges.

To mount these, I pulled the cluster apart and drilled into the stock housing (white) and into the clear prismatic plastic piece that provides the lighting for the stock bulbs. This is coming from the back where the plastic angles and drilling into the sides of the clear plastic (into the thin part, perpendicular to the gauge faces). I drilled it just big enough that you could press the leds in and have them stay without any form of glue. These Leds were then wired into the dimmer switch on the stock lighting controls. Please note that in all my pictures, the camera is set for a night exposure and thus the lights will look more intense. There is a hot spot to the right of the tach needle, but is not noticeable when looking at it in real time. The needles do in fact look like they are glowing...similar to the effect of being under a black light, but not quite as bright. Needless to say, I'm pleased.




Hand kinda shook..but you get the idea

 

Looks great- I had the old style indiglos where the whole face lit up- although I painted the needles red so I could see them against the white faces in the day. At night they are just backlit by the blue and are seen in silhouette. I like your idea- looks good at night, and doesn't overwhelm you like the older indiglos do.

 

nice!where did u get the gauges?

 

how did you get the needles on and off without messing them up?

 

Here's a pic so you know what I mean:

 

are the gauges still accurate? I previously aware that any physical mass change on the needles can cause an inaccurate reading...

 

Yes, that is why I took a dremel with a small bit and cut a shallow groove into the back side of the needles to offset the negligible amount of weight- I really just "misted" the paint on until the white was no longer visible. Maybe just overkill, but better safe than sorry.

 

I heated the needles with a hair drier and used small flat blade screwdrivers to pop them free. On the small gauges you'll notice that a thin metal rod goes through a plastic arm. This needs to go back together in the same manner. As for the weight; I used a dremel to remove a little bit (on the tach only), but I honestly didn't notice a difference. When I get the microtech hooked up, I'll compare #'s. I will say this though, my factory boost gauge doesn't work since I pulled the needle. I'm going to try and trouble shoot it on the bench and see whats up. However, if it doesn't work, I'm not going to cry about it...who needs to read pressure in mm of mercury anyway??

The gauge faces were bought off ebay and were the silver reverse indiglo's.

 

How much does the weight of the paint really affect the needle?

 

you might be suprised...

 

I heard that the needles are counter balanced, any idea how much they actually would throw off the accuracy.

 

like I said, I took some weight off, but it wasn't scientific by any means. I haven't seen a difference.

 

cool, i care mostly about the tach. Dont really need the speedo to be perfect, i keep with the flow of traffic anyways.