Blue LEDs in the Instrument Cluster

[RacerX]

So far, so good. I personally love the Cobalt Gauge color and decided to do the instrument cluster in blue LEDs to match the A-pillar and center console gauges. The pictures don't do it justice! :D

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/data/579/IMG_05262.JPG
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/data/579/IMG_0527.JPG
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/data/579/IMG_05283.JPG

[jimlam56]

Huh, looks good I guess, but I like the way the MM gauge lights comes from the factory...

[RacerX]

That's what's great though, each one of our MMs has been customized by each of us in small way, but, when you line up a bunch in a row, you can count a bunch before you see one that's exactly like another or totally unadulterated OEM. :beer: It's mine and I love it! Now... back to cutting back my valve seats. ;)

[ctrlraven]

Looks pretty good with blue, just needles to be a lot more red to stand out more. I love my white!

[Mr. Man]

Looks good but tell us how your eyes feel after a long drive:D

[SC Cheesehead]

Me likey! :up:

[DOOM]

Looks good bro! :up:

Time for ol' DOOMIE to step his game up!

Do they make "CHROME" lights??? :hmmm:

[cougar9150]

Like it alot. Been considering going all Blue LEDs on the interior.

What LEDs are you using and did you have to scrape the green off?

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

[RF Overlord]

Do they make "CHROME" lights??? Check with the Ukrainian lighting engineer in that other thread. ;)

[Shaijack]

Me likey too.

[Mercguy04]

I like the look, are the pointers blue as well or are they red?
Good Job in any case
Blessings
Stay Safe
Russell

[RacerX]

Thanks! I'm using #194 replacements from superbrightleds.com. I'm testing out different ones. I had to remove the green and it's a pita. Tried all sorts of stuff, knifes, sandpaper, dremel, acetone, paint thinner and ended up using Oops with Q-tips. I'm not done yet. I'm going to get some small red leds then solder and glue them in places to light up all the red parts. The needles and words.

[MrBluGruv]

That looks REALLY nice, even with what I presume are pictures taken from a camera phone.

If you got the light distribution a bit more even, it'd be perfect.

I wish I had a spare gauge cluster to play with on my Camaro, I'd do the same. :P

[martyo]

That looks awesome!

[cougar9150]

Thanks! I'm using #194 replacements from superbrightleds.com. I'm testing out different ones. I had to remove the green and it's a pita. Tried all sorts of stuff, knifes, sandpaper, dremel, acetone, paint thinner and ended up using Oops with Q-tips. I'm not done yet. I'm going to get some small red leds then solder and glue them in places to light up all the red parts. The needles and words.

Sweet, I got a big bottle of Oops in the garage. How many did you need to replace all of them? May be one of my cheap mods for 2012 along with replacing the door switch LEDs.

I'll be installing my stereo system this winter, using a older Kenwood EZ-500 head unit I already have that lights up the same color blue. When I got the dash and door panels apart it will be a good time to play with this.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

[RacerX]

6 bulbs for just the gauges. I'm going to solder and glue 4 more blues in though to make the light more uniform. A hint too! The gauge clusters remove easily enough, but, take a picture of everything with the car on and running so you can put the needles back on in the right spots. When you put it all back together, don't push the needles too far on because you'll have to take them off to readjust anyway. I really should do a how-to. :D

[capt512]

Got a fix for your uneven lighting, SMD LED strips. When a few of the CV guys (including myself at the time) were putting MM gauges in our CVs we played around with SMD bulbs and strips. We found 2 things, 1 - The SMD tower type bulbs weren't lasting at all, we tried 4-5 different vendors and after 5-6 months if not sooner bulbs were getting too hot and blowing. The light was also uneven as shown.

So we bought some SMD LED strips off ebay (I know right?) for cheap and soldered the wires to the connections inside one of the bulb holders. Then I used hot glue and glued the strip all around the interior of the cluster where light would be needed, then you just twist the bulb holder in as usual and tada! I used it like that for years and no problems. Very even light, and no bulbs burning out.

Might be something to look into...otherwise neato! :)

[Vortech347]

Cool, but the un-even lightning would drive me insane.

[2,4shofast]

Well done, I really like it!:beer:

[RacerX]

Cool, but the un-even lightning would drive me insane.
:D Green drove me insane and I'm ordering more bulbs to fix the uniformity of the glow. They make it look uniform in green by actually applying more or less layers of green paint on th back of the gauge faces. I'll be updating this thread. ;)

[mercuryed]

racerx looking good on the LED mod but can tell you the if you do put red LEDS behide the needles make sure that they are low powered because the red leds will over power the blue and it wont look rite trust ive done 8 led clusters other then my own and i didnt like the way it looked. but yours is looking great so far

[CWright]

Those look really good!

[Mike]

Looks good!!! :banana: