Dash/Gauge Questions

[stingray72]

I started the process of changing the bezel in my 70 yesterday and of course once I got everything apart I wanted to change other things and that brought about some questions ... First of all Truck is yellow, interior fabric is black. And on to the questions ..

1. Can I paint the needles on the gauges? I think it would be cool to make them yellow like the truck

2. Is there a way to make the light through the gauges appear to be yellow? I'd like to replace the glass plastic piece because it's very foggy and is not cleaning very well

and last but not least

3. can the black plastic clips that hold the bulbs be found at autoparts stores? Autozone, Pep Boys, etc?

Thanks guys.. figured while I had it apart I'd get it the way I wanted

[speedracer]

Yes you can paint the needles. The lens is green so changing to light color would be hard. And the bulb sockets ive never seen in stores

[RicksTrucks]

Yes, you can make the light coming through any color you want. You just need to paint the inside of the middle panel - the metal compartment that is between the guages and the lense. When I bought my son's 71 GMC it had an orange glow and we didn't know what it was until we took the guage cluster apart to replace a guage.

[70c10]

You can paint the gauges easily and a new lense makes a big difference. You can pain the inner tin bright white to make the bulbs brighter and I have never seen the bulb holders at my local parts stores. Here is my cluster I recently restored using glow orange paint for the needles and blue led's for the bulbs.

[stingray72]

I can use colored led's for the bulbs? Where do I get those? Right now the faces of the gauges are black. I'd like the light to shine yellow. I'm going to paint the needles yellow also

[Longhorn Man]

Paint the neeedles yellow... that's be sweet.
How many bulb holders do you need? I have a butt load here.
As for the yellow light, I have not seen yellow automotive lights, nor LED's.... HOWEVER.... Take apart the assembly, and everything that is painted that gay lookin seafoam green.... paint it bright yellow. Then, go to the parts store and buy 3 168 bulbs...they are like the 194's, but twice as bright, slap it all together, and be amazed.
NOTE.... yellow lights and yellow needles..... may be a bad combo. Bepending on the intensity and shade and stuff, the needles may just disapear at night. You could carefully trace the needles in black though, that may fix the problem.

[jimmydean]

Napa should have the bulb holders, mine had 2 different styles in it. One was a standard bulb and the other was a blade type bulb.

[Longhorn Man]

the blade type is the correct one

[byrd]

Stingray... Amber LEDs are availible, closest your gonna get I believe, but if you added the white faces like Jim(70-c10) it would look sweet. Then you could go with black needles and get the colors really close and still be able to see everything too!!!Check here
www.superbrightleds.com

[jc]

would green 168 s make much or any differance in a stock dash?

[byrd]

If you painted the inside like everyone has suggested, then yes some, but I would have to guess and say they are 1/5 as bright as the LEDs and the LEDs will outlast the 168 10x over

[jimmydean]

I used bright red for my needles, I think it would have been better with glow orange. I painted the plastic ultra flat black alonge with the rest of my dash. I also replaced all the bulbs with the blade type. I was told the round bulb type were an older style, like '67 maybe?

[Longhorn Man]

I agree that LEDs would be 10 times better than 168 bulbs, I only mentioned that becouse white LEDs aren't really white, nor cheap, and for the yellow light he was asking for, this may be the best route.
As far as I know, there are no green 168's either... just 194s. But again, green LEDs would be sooooo much better looking.
I think I am able to get some LEDs that are 3 led per bulb, and considerably cheaper than the ones linked above. I have them in mine and am doing my own little testing, and so far, they kick @ss. i fond them a bit too bright though, and I am able to turn them down just a little with the rheostat.
I plan on going tomorow and seeing exacly what kind of wheeling and dealing I can do buying in bulk, I may be able to get everyone an awsome deal.

[Sheverlay]

They do have yellow (not amber) LED's, but not in the automotive bulb type, I believe. With a little ingenuity, they could prolly be swapped out, or you could make your own. Here's a place that has them, pretty cheap too, if you buy them in bulk.

http://www.eled.com/default.asp

[byrd]

I use a 6 pin LED's in my dashes and 70c-10 used a 5 pin refractor style which seem to really brighten things up as the 6 pins I use don't seem to be as bright. I even ordered some of the 9 pin and didn't really see much difference in between the 6 and 9 pins LED's. Longhorn I would surely be interested in the LED's you spoke of and am curious to find the brightest LED availible.

[purple gas]

Just last weekend I replaced all my lights in the dash. 2 were burnt out, so I replaced them all, cost about $10. Just the new light bulbs made a big differnece.

[byrd]

Yeah they were prolly covered with years of dust and dirt!!lol,

[Longhorn Man]

If I get over there today.... I'll get you a pair your your opinion. I need to get a hand full anyways for my side markers and my clearance lamps. (9 total)

[70c10]

I got my refractors on ebay (Hong Kong) for about $3 each and you only need 4 for the gauges.

[byrd]

Cool, Andy, just LMK when and I will LYKWIT!! lol

[Longhorn Man]

I actually figured out what all that ment!
I'll try and get there monday.... stuff didn't go as planned today, lots of BS here. <grrrrr>

[stingray72]

OK guys.. 1 more question (today). Is it easier to take the needles off to paint them of just mask everything else off? It seems easier to take them off but how do you get them off the speedo and tach?

[Longhorn Man]

Personally, I haven't had any luck removing them, I normally end up breaking something.

[Brainchild]

OK so where do I get the white gauge treatmeny at,and is that the only color I can get?

[jimmydean]

Originally Posted by Brainchild

OK so where do I get the white gauge treatmeny at,and is that the only color I can get?

I got mine at http://www.whitegauges.net and they can make just about any color for $30 more. Easy to put on and so far I think they looks great. I got them off ebay from these guys.