LED review:Dash yes, Clearance Lights no

[68Timber]

Originally Posted by RuralRoute C-30

My experience?

Gauge needles were painted by taking a couple of pieces of newspaper, slicing a slit in the paper to pass through/around the needle shaft tucking it behind/under the gauge needle while covering the entire gauge in the process. Do it twice to overlap the first seam and should be good to go. Spray as needed and be done with it.

Used a GM red from NAPA as I recall. They do make a difference when 'refreshed'. Mine were a faded orange!

Do the needles come off? Oh yea. I broke one trying to remove it from the fuel gauge before resorting to this paper process.

Fortunately I had a spare fuel gauge from a second cluster acquired from the junk yard as part of this project, (I needed the plastic film circuit board to replace what mice had eaten on mine and got the entire gauge cluster) and went from there. Yes, the needles can come off. Just be prepared for the consequences if they break in the process.

I would stay with the newspaper idea if I do it again. Now I have a spare fuel gauge less a needle.

Hope this helps.

Mark

It does, and thanks.

[kikkegek]

cool man!

I also changed to LEDs for my cluster, but only painted the back of the plastic cover that reflects the light from the LEDs and was already very happy with the improvement. Maybe I'll paint the bezel sometime too.



I also changed my flasher module so I could use LEDS for the front Flashers. Now the Flasher indicators come ON whenever I turn on the headlights (and ofcourse the flashers come on too). I have no idea how to solve this. Maybe change the flasher indicators for normal bulbs?

[Blake_H]

I have spent the better part of 2 hours searching high and low to answer this question.

How do you remove the printed circuit & connectors off the gauge cluster, so you can sand it for paint and clean it? How did you guys clean yours without removing the printed circuit?

Mine is a filthy mess, and I would like to run it through the kitchen sink with a good scrubbing and then sand it so the paint will stick.

Any help is appreciated!

[RuralRoute C-30]

Mine was relatively clean inside. I took a damp cloth, not wet, and wiped it out. Let it dry then spray bombed the inner shell with a chrome paint.


I left the circuit board, that plastic film on the back side alone. It can come off but why do it if not necessary? To clean that part before reassembly I just wiped it off "Carefully" with a soft damp cloth.

I was careful to mask any hole where paint could overspray onto the circuitry. Not sure if it would matter, but why not? Yet all that needs to be reflective is the inner portion of the shell. The backside is mute.

The goal was to just get a shinier background from that light green plastic color. Nothing more. Perfection is not necessary as it will not be seen when it's all reassembled. The goal for this area is one at best to achieve reflective surface only.

Then there is this piece:


And if I did it again, which I will someday, I would have gone ahead and painted the outer plastic shell black as well and maybe detailed the silver trim around the gauges, or in a contrasting color, or left it all black.

Saw a nice one where someone painted it a color other than black to match their dash color...was very well done when detailed out with the trim.

Yet good luck with the project and hope this helps. It looks more complicated than it is. Trust me, I have been there done that too. It gets easier.

Learning that always learning is a good thing,

Mark

[Blake_H]

Thank you very much!! Out comes the damp cloth.

Yours looks good, and that's why mine is apart on the kitchen counter now. Your post was the reason I'm doing this to mine. I had only one good light working on the speedo, so it was time to do something.

I have the one out of my '88 suburban parts vehicle here, apart as well. Trying to decide which one I want to do and re-install in my '87 V10. I have been trying to see if the harness' are the same or not.

Thanks again.

[joe231]

nice work!!
I did something similar, but I used white plastic paint and 168 incandescent bulbs, it was so bright I was afraid to put LED's in it





pics start HERE

[bigwheel15]

So what would be best to choose paint wise? Silver or white?

[joe231]

white IMO

here is a quote from another thread on the subject...

Originally Posted by joe231

I have been thinking about this....took me back to elementary science class....

"White" Light is made up of all the colors in the spectrum, the reason we see color is an object absorbs all the colors in the spectrum except the colors of said object...so if you are looking at a red object, the object absorbs all the colors of the spectrum except red which is reflected so we see red, if the object is blue it absorbs all the colors of the spectrum except blue which is reflected so we see blue, and so on and so on...black, gray, and white are a bit different. When "white" light hits a black object all the colors are absorbed and none are reflected, so we see black, or an absence of color. when light hits a white object all the colors are reflected and none are absorbed so we see white, so gray would be a combination of the 2. half the colors would be absorbed and half would be reflected, in a perfect gray
so by this science lesson, white would be a better reflective surface as it reflects all the colors in the spectrum, so technically it reflects all the "white" light that we can see. which would be brighter than any other color......


if you doubt the science or I didn't quite explain it where it is understandable, google "why we see color" or "how we see color"

[Jonboy]

Is it necessary to paint the front of the cover white too? You can see it behind the lens a little bit. I understand painting the backside of it to reflect on the inside of the cluster, but does the outside reflect light too?

[joe231]

Jon,
It isn't necessary, I painted it all because it was easier than masking the front off.
And it turned out to give the gauges a kinda halo effect that I like.
Posted via Mobile Device

[RuralRoute C-30]

Agree.
Mark

[pig rig]

Originally Posted by bigwheel15

So what would be best to choose paint wise? Silver or white?

joe231 kinda answered this question but I had to do some cost effective research on light reflection and here's what I found out.
you'll get the most reflection from white
now you have the question of flat or gloss
you want flat because gloss has to much varnish in it and the light diminishes as it passes through all the layers of varnish aswhere flatwhite the light reflects off of the pigment itself

also food for thought
flat white has a higher lumination reflective rate then:
mirror
polished metal
or about anything you can think of thats cheep and be used to cover large sq ft

[C-10 simplex]

1) RE: cab clearance/marker lights: But leds last longer?

2) When driving at night you don't want the interior lights to be too bright. Just my opinion.

[T-Bone Tommy]

Does anyone know of anywhere else to get a gauge overlay. It looks like white face gauges will be down for relocation for almost a year?? Any help please.

[Jonboy]

Originally Posted by C-10 simplex

When driving at night you don't want the interior lights to be too bright. Just my opinion.

I would rather dim out too much light than squint to see anything at all.

[joe231]

Originally Posted by pig rig

also food for thought
flat white has a higher lumination reflective rate then:
mirror
polished metal
or about anything you can think of thats cheep and be used to cover large sq ft

that's good to know
Thanks

Originally Posted by Jonboy

I would rather dim out too much light than squint to see anything at all.

that's why vehicles have dimmers

[bucannon]

when i put my LED's in, the dimmer for the dash lights was innefective. all the way turned down was the same output as turned up. but with the standard bulbs the dimmer worked fine. but overall i would rather have LED lights that i can see rather than have standard bulbs that i cant see how fast im going.

[grim626]

does anybody have pics with the red led's

[babyJay]

Originally Posted by RuralRoute C-30

...Saw a nice one where someone painted it a color other than black to match their dash color...was very well done when detailed out with the trim...Mark

Similar sounding to what I did to my 30 4x4 back in May '08. (see green ring around speedo and guages) Used green LED bulbs from vleds, but dont remember the dimming effect mentioned in the last post. I'll have to check that out. Here are a few pics from my interior gut/replace thread.

[babyJay]

never took any night pics of the green LED's because my camera isn't the best at night pics. Might be operator error. Anyhow, here are the pics 2.5 years after the pics from my last post. Also, the dimmer doesn't seem to work on these bulbs.

[Jonboy]

I am going to try the 168 bulbs in my tach cluster. I painted it with white base, so it is more satin, I guess. Can't wait to actually have it in the truck!

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by Jonboy

I am going to try the 168 bulbs in my tach cluster. I painted it with white base, so it is more satin, I guess. Can't wait to actually have it in the truck!

Jon you will be very happy. The LED's are a good idea, but not necessary. The disadvantage of going LED is no dimmer control as mentioned.

I do think we need to look at LED replacements for the interior lights. The illumination inside my cab is terrible.

[78 Chevyrado]

I painted the gauge cluster on my 87 like you did yours, but used a can of chevy orange engine paint instead of the chrome/silver stuff.... it wasnt as bright as i would have liked, but it looked like the inside of a pontiac, everything showed up really red. maybe a good feature for an army truck or something, as they like red lights.

[kikkegek]

Originally Posted by N2TRUX

Jon you will be very happy. The LED's are a good idea, but not necessary. The disadvantage of going LED is no dimmer control as mentioned.

I do think we need to look at LED replacements for the interior lights. The illumination inside my cab is terrible.

You can dim LEDs with PWM. Pulse Width Modulation.

[Adams74Chevy]

Originally Posted by kikkegek

You can dim LEDs with PWM. Pulse Width Modulation.

Yep, it's how they do good LED tail/running lights that need to be on and then bright when the brake comes on or blinker flipped on. It's actually turning the LEDS on and off really quickly for a dimmer light versus a brake light which is constant on usually. There are several good site out there that talk about the circuitry needed to make a PWM for automotive lights, interesting stuff for my future ideas to tinker with once the body is good.