Painted Needles and LEDS!

[autolover3]

Finally took the time to address some interior modifications

Here is the cluster before.

Needles cleaned and stripped

Did a 2 coat base of fluorescent red, and topped with white on the backsides of needles.

After painted needles

And here is with blue leds installed. Pics are a little blurry and the red in the needles is more noticeable in person.

I went the amazon route and got these for like 8 bucks for 20, versus spending like $5 each on superbrightleds...

Also did door lights, overhead map lights, and courtesy lights

Heres a comparison of old and new

Had leftovers

 

[Big Buttons]

What you use to strip off the orange on the needles? Might have to steal this idea.

 

[autolover3]

Soaked them in rubbing alcohol, I think. Ill be home again this weekend and I can check to make sure. Than used a q tip to scrape off. The speedo and a couple gauge needles were a ***** and lightly scraped with a razor blade careful not to scratch the needle too much.

Also tape off behind the needles and mark where they are for re-install. I double checked all my stuff with scanner at school and gps on my phone to make sure they are all accurate. I used a fork to pry needles off. Used model car paint to paint them from hobby lobby.

 

[Y2KpewterZ]

Nice. I used Tamiya's Transparent blue (model car paint) many many years ago in my old Thunderbird. Wrked well. I even thinned it out and used/painted my door panel lights (this was way before this whole LED craze lol) and it worked surprisingly well too.

 

[Big Buttons]

I have all my interior blue too just never thought of painting my needles.

 

[dave__anthony]

Were those the LEDS also in the cluster, or are those LEDs (the ones you showed in the box) just for the interior lights ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[autolover3]

The box of LEDs are used in cluster and rest of interior. I have 2 more LEDs coming for overhead lights in the back which are a different style.

And also I checked, I used 70% rubbing alcohol to strip needles Big Buttons

 

[2doorfiend]

how long have they been in? any flashing or "duds"? I'm definately going to try this as well! It looks amazing. Where did you buy the LEDs? I've bought a few sets for different cars, and after a couple of months one or two end up flashing, giving out on me.

 

[autolover3]

They have been in for a few months now. So far so good with no flickering or going out. I think I had 1 dud in the pack. I ordered them off amazon for like 8 bucks so not gonna complain. On superbrightleds.com they are like 4-6 bucks per led if I remember right.