Those with LED's in their dash.

[y5mgisi]

For those of you that have swapped to all LED'd in the dash. As i understand it they are not dimmable correct? That being the case, now that you have had them for a while, do you find they are too bright? Or are they alright? Trying to decide if i should go this route or not.

[INSIDIOUS '86]

Never heard of somebody complaining their dash is to bright
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[motornut]

cheap and ez paint the inside and go from there
i did the 79 in green reg bulbs,seems very bright
put a second set of lights in the 78 red leds ,with the reg whites

[TheApocalyptican]

Due to the way our gauges utilize the light...it's quite hard to make them too bright. If you're really worried, you could do like I did and use UV leds that light up the numbers great, but don't do much the rest of the gauge.

[nekkidhillbilly]

leds dim just not like bulbs its very slight

[ghettoluxury]

I used Blue LEDs in my truck and painted the inside of the housing White. They are not too bright, each bulb has 5 LEDs. I would not switch back at all.

[TheApocalyptican]

Originally Posted by nekkidhillbilly

leds dim just not like bulbs its very slight

This is definitely true. Forgot to add in my post....the way to truly dim leds is by Pulse Width Modulation. Basically it flashes the led on and off. It does it at a speed you won't see. However, you can see the effect when filming it with a camera, or by seeing it with your peripheral vision you can usually see it. There are quite a few OEM led tail lights that use PWM's.

[BLE 'BURBAN]

White faced gauges with blue LED strips behind the FRONT cover is what I did.

[INSIDIOUS '86]

Originally Posted by TheApocalyptican

Due to the way our gauges utilize the light...it's quite hard to make them too bright. If you're really worried, you could do like I did and use UV leds that light up the numbers great, but don't do much the rest of the gauge.

I want to see that!! Get some pics!!!
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[TheApocalyptican]

Originally Posted by INSIDIOUS '86

I want to see that!! Get some pics!!!
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I'm gonna have to try to play with photoshop to get a better color representation. I've tried 3 cameras, and each of them show the light as blue. IRL, it has a slight blue color, but more purple than anything. Also need to get a picture with the correct brightness as my good camera died as I was playing with the settings trying to get a correct pic.

Here's an uncorrected version:



In the above picture, the speedo & tach brightness is a tad dim, but the oil & temp a quite a bit dimmer than irl.

Also, just like BLE 'BURBAN,my leds are on the backside of the front cover. The plug and play leds that go in the back were more purple than UV, and thus didn't have the effect I wanted. I basically wanted the gauges to light up without being bright at all....just legible and visible. I would prefer backlighted gauges, but until I can find some el glow panels that are right, this is the best for what I wanted.

[nekkidhillbilly]

Originally Posted by TheApocalyptican

This is definitely true. Forgot to add in my post....the way to truly dim leds is by Pulse Width Modulation. Basically it flashes the led on and off. It does it at a speed you won't see. However, you can see the effect when filming it with a camera, or by seeing it with your peripheral vision you can usually see it. There are quite a few OEM led tail lights that use PWM's.

that or if you had a few different resistors in line to send less to led. but thats alot of work really and not really going to function with the oem dimmer. but oem dimmer will still work just not going to be a huge change like the regular bulbs when you do cut it down.

[motornut]

78 with reg whites
and red Leds
white works norm
red and white
red comes on with ign(but has a switch to turn off)

[motornut]

79 reg bulbs just green

[INSIDIOUS '86]

Originally Posted by TheApocalyptican

I'm gonna have to try to play with photoshop to get a better color representation. I've tried 3 cameras, and each of them show the light as blue. IRL, it has a slight blue color, but more purple than anything. Also need to get a picture with the correct brightness as my good camera died as I was playing with the settings trying to get a correct pic.



In the above picture, the speedo & tach brightness is a tad dim, but the oil & temp a quite a bit dimmer than irl.

Also, just like BLE 'BURBAN,my leds are on the backside of the front cover. The plug and play leds that go in the back were more purple than UV, and thus didn't have the effect I wanted. I basically wanted the gauges to light up without being bright at all....just legible and visible. I would prefer backlighted gauges, but until I can find some el glow panels that are right, this is the best for what I wanted.

Did you do any mthing else like paint the insides or anything of the sort?
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[TheApocalyptican]

Originally Posted by INSIDIOUS '86

Did you do any mthing else like paint the insides or anything of the sort?
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Well, I have custom gauge faces that I made, but the stock gauges lit up nicely as well. The one thing the stocks had that lit up that don't on mine is the warning areas of the gauges, like the redline on the tach. I also painted my needles. But, once again the stock ones lit up nicely as well. Mine were just faded, so I painted 'em.

[kikkegek]

I went with WARM WHITE SMD LEDS. I think the BRIGHT WHITE LEDs will be to white at night.

And I love my dash now!

BTW I also painted the inside glossy white

[y5mgisi]

Damn! Glad i asked this question! Some of you folks are doing some awesome stuff! The bad part is now i got a lot of thinking to do!!!

[bigsj]

I am getting ready to install LED im my dash were is a good place to buy them.

[INSIDIOUS '86]

Superbrightleds.com
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[BLE 'BURBAN]

Originally Posted by bigsj

I am getting ready to install LED im my dash were is a good place to buy them.

Got all my LED'S from www.v-leds.com

[bigsj]

Thanks for the info i will check them out......

[nekkidhillbilly]

i usually just find them from a place on ebay seems to be best price.

[kelsfine69]

For what its worth...I removed the front black gauge surround with the green on the back and painted it white. I replaced all the bulbs with new ones and It came out 100% brighter than before. I dont know if I would want it any brighter for night time driving. I left the housing in the truck and cleaned the Gauges and polishing the clear lens goes along way...