red LED lit dash and gauges?

[AWD90DSM]

a couple months ago i came across a thread with a guy that had torn his gauge cluster apart (among other things) and had wired up a bunch of red LEDs to light his cluster. before you yell "SEARCH BUTTON" i have searched for a while looking for this thread. if anyone knows who im talking about or what thread it is please help me out. thanks.

[old_s13]

http://clearcorners.com/240sx/Interior01.jpg

Flight 419, now boarding...

I wish I had info I could share with you, all I can say is that it took a billion hours and lots of LEDs and everything was custom done. I did this as a hobby for myself and dont look forward to doing it ever again.

Good luck!
- Mike

[AWD90DSM]

yup, thats it... awesome job man. :rawk: im definetely going to attempt this. did you just use one led for every place in the cluster that had a bulb? or did you drill a million holes for more LEDs, like it looks like you did? lol

believe me answers to simple questions like this will help me alot... even if you cant tell me things like... what resistors did you use with your LEDs? (1000 ohm?) :hsdance:

[sticky240]

Wow man, that is hot

[twitchy]

bah
red...looks like inside a pontiac grand am

should be blue numbers and red needles

[NervGS]

bah
red...looks like inside a pontiac grand am

should be blue numbers and red needles

Blue numbers, red needles.

Volkswagon?

-glenn

[dori-san]

bah
red...looks like inside a pontiac grand am

Ok, and? You know that Pontiac puts that in most all their cars too right? Sunfires have red gauges and you know why? Because Pontiac is one of the smarter car manufacturers (for this and this alone, I myself hate Pontiac) because the red is easier on the eyes. On a long road trip or something if you are blinking and squinting because of the strain on your eyes, it's likely because your gauges are too bright. Red is just less strain on your eyes than bright blue or green. The reason why I'll never have indiglo gauges, GOD that must kill people at night! Hope all the ricers want horrible vision by the time they're 30...

[TUnity2]

Damn thats nice, I wonder how mine would look w/ green or clear. Any one have pics of the same thing in other colors?

[old_s13]

"twichy> bah red...looks like inside a pontiac grand am - should be blue numbers and red needles"

No, it should be red because thats what I want it to be. Actually, if you look closely the manual HVAC controls has a hint of blue behind the "cold" writing. If you want blue, make blue. I wanted red and so I made red. Why? Because I like red and dont like anything else. Its easier on the eyes and it doesnt attract UNWANTED attention from idiots out here in Los Angeles where shit gets stolen more than you can imagine. Its my idea of subtle and clean.


awd90dsm> "believe me answers to simple questions like this will help me alot... even if you cant tell me things like... what resistors did you use with your LEDs? (1000 ohm?)

I'm not going to share much info on this project because I know how much time I put into it and how difficult it would be for others to attempt to follow. All I can say is that each mfg of LEDs has their own suggested ratings as to what type of resistor to use depending on what voltage you will be running them and how hard you want to drive them. I did not drill holes, I custom fabricated the circuit boards that support the LEDs and spent a lot of time modifying the inner housing to secure the boards. The gauges also needed quite a bit of modification. My best suggestion would be to check out importintelligence.com and talk to Matt, he would be able to do some fun stuff with your gauges WITHOUT the insane amount of labor AND high-cost materials that I spent to do mine. I am an LED psycho and love wiring, I hope its no wonder some of you guys trip out when you see the lights I work on.. I just love this shit.

ps: You guys may want to consider using EL-lighting, its MUCH less expensive and MUCH easier to work with.

- Mike / ClearCorners.Com

[AWD90DSM]

i understand where youre comming from, and i get the picture. believe me, im not going to post a new question for you every day. what you said there was all the info i needed. truth is, im an LED nut as well, and i also love wiring (just not old wire harness wiring...) but i know it took you a long time to do and i dont expect to finish it in a weekend. just lookin for something to keep myself busy with for a while ;)

[citizen]

Reason why red is better for gauges in the nighttime. Red wavelength doesn't stimulate rods in your retina (rods respond to light dark/contrast, ie nighttime). Other colors stimulate cones and rods. So if you look at them while its dark youlose some of our night vision.

[twitchy]

I was in my cousins friends Lexus and it has ths button on the dash and when you press it all it shows you is the speedometer area where the needle is pointing. Every so often it lights up the gas gauge too... that REALLY takes the strain off the peepers

[nocomedown]

http://clearcorners.com/240sx/Interior01.jpg

Flight 419, now boarding...

I wish I had info I could share with you, all I can say is that it took a billion hours and lots of LEDs and everything was custom done. I did this as a hobby for myself and dont look forward to doing it ever again.

Good luck!
- Mike
wow! looks like an f16! you do great work. keep it up

[brokenben]

yea i think old_s13 has won my business for the future.. ive only seen great work from him.

[a2low240]

If you guys are interested in doing the needles, we have a kit to transform them. Special for Zilvia members, use coupon # 6307 at the checkout for free shipping.

www.ImportIntelligence.com

Not a 240 but red.
http://www.bee.net/a2low240/gauges/Intellired.jpg

[Bumish1]

the blue hurts my eyes at night i like the red better haha I WANT ALL RED!

[rednerd]

Red gauges remind me of my old Audi and my old e30 (which was the only thing I really liked about the car). Props, that looks really nice.

No stereo huh, now that is tyt3 Jdm hard core drift style right there... j/k..

[old_s13]

Red gauges remind me of my old Audi and my old e30 (which was the only thing I really liked about the car). Props, that looks really nice.

No stereo huh, now that is tyt3 Jdm hard core drift style right there... j/k..

that item sitting above the HVAC controls is a 40gb mp3 player.. yes, i did have a stereo back in the day. ;)

- Mike

[Red]

You should put your car back together man... It would look nice...

[old_s13]

You should put your car back together man... It would look nice...

hahahah red thanks a lot man, i fuckin laughed real hard with this post. i promise you this, i will.

man, i swear to god.. i'll tell you guys one thing. after the motor/transmission swap i did back in the summer last year, the close of my shop, the opening of my office, making changes with my apartment, a rainy winter, and meeting lots of ladies.. i've lost ALL motivation to do ANYTHING on my car.. other than drive this stripped POS from time to time (i dont drive it too often).

so.. posts like this are refreshing. just to give some insight, i bought about 80 dollars worth of wiring today.. about 1,000 feet of various colors.. all so that i can finish this fucking slop of a car. :)

when it will be done, you will all be proud. i got my new fuse/relay boxes after 3 months of waiting, they came from belgium. i am sure you will all like the final look of my car.

thanks.. quite an uplifting post red. remind me that you made me laugh if you ever need to purchase anything from me, you get a discount for that one.

- mike

[Red]

:o

:) Hehe

Yeah I tore all the stuff out of the back of my car... But now its starting to bug me becus it looks kinda cheap / Loud. I'ma dyno mat it and put it all back in and make my inside plush...

(I'll remind you l8ter I'll need those parking / blinkers with the G4 bumper)

If you have been to my crappy cardomain you will see I already plan to get your stuff... As long as your around tho... So dont go anywhere its guna take me a while to get to the look good mods. After the engine build I sware!

[old_s13]

red, you have been a good inspiration for this weekend's worth of work. I purchased over 1000ft of various color/gauge wires, stared at various USDM and JDM wiring schematics, and made several hundred pin traces on circuits throughout the car. I am pleased to say I now have headlamps. parking lamps, signals, wipers, and a motherfucking pair of Hella trumpet horns.

All I can say is watch your asses on the road... i'm back baby. :)

[AWD90DSM]

you have any more pictures of your dash?

[old_s13]

sure.....

hows this one:
http://clearcorners.com/240sx/Interior02.jpg

:)

[Flybert]

Did you're car come with leather, hence the black door panels? how about the carpet? Dyed or OEM? One day when I can afford it, I wanna get your LED S13 coupe tails. Are the blinkers LEDs also or do you just leave them with normal bulbs?

[sticky240]

damn that steering wheel is nice. If you don't mind me asking, which momo is it?

[old_s13]

the momo is the simplest of them all, i dont care for excessively nice things so i went with the "monte carlo" which isnt made anymore.. i've had that thing for like 8 years now.

the side-doors were reupholstered in black vinyl and the car used to have black leather s14 seats which were good, but now the r32 seats are IMO much better.

oh as for the LED s13 coupe tails, i can make them in whatever arrangement you want.. the project was never completed and i have them here, they are full LED park/brake lamps and i still need to build the signal boards.. if anyone wants them let me know, looking to put them on a kickass demo car that i can feature on the site. if your car sucks, please dont e-mail me..

thanks
- mike

[DuffMan]

I colored my stock gauge cluster bulbs with a red sharpie. :cool:


Obviously thats not going to be as cool as Mike's setup but it was easy enough for a relative smart monkey to acomplish.

[WhiteNissanS13]

when i switched my bulbs, i went for LED's but when i installed them they only shot in certain areas. so i opted for bulbs because the light shoots in all directions.

[misnomer]

hehehe, I was gonna say "When did you put your dash back in?"

Regardless, I had never seen your guage clusters. Damn fine as always.

[old_s13]

here is the new setup

http://clearcorners.com/gauges1.jpg
http://clearcorners.com/gauges2.jpg

I cant wait to get it all back in.

[Red]

Looks nice... :bigok:

I have never seen VDO before... How do you like them?

[nismo2491]

hmmm why do I see 3 temp gauges? oil, water, and what else? air?
KEvin

[old_s13]

top: water temp, vacuum/boost, oil pressure
bottom: intake temp, voltage, exhaust temp

[nismo2491]

ohh ok. didn't even think egt for some reason. how you like the responsiveness of the VDO gauges? I've heard they can be slow to respond to minor fluctuations?
KEvin

[old_s13]

no issues at all with them. they are used on many OEM vehicles from M-B to BMW, so thats why I chose them. i'm not the kind of guy who appreciates big autometer tachometers with shift lights and indiglo gauges. i very much appreciate subtle styling that works. so far, no complaints.

- mike

[nightwalker]

I've wanted the red displays ever since I got a chance to drive a couple BMWs. The red is great for night time. I love to do long drives at night. (Should have called myself "nightdriver"!) hahaha.

So is the red display easily accomplished by just changing to red bulbs?

[idlafie]

red, you have been a good inspiration for this weekend's worth of work. I purchased over 1000ft of various color/gauge wires, stared at various USDM and JDM wiring schematics, and made several hundred pin traces on circuits throughout the car. I am pleased to say I now have headlamps. parking lamps, signals, wipers, and a motherfucking pair of Hella trumpet horns.

All I can say is watch your asses on the road... i'm back baby. :)

HAHAHAHA!!...Mike...those Hella Trumpet horns ain't gonna help you one bit!!...Those women SUV drivers are still gonna run you off the road!!! HAHAHAHAHA.....

Diego
....who's personally heard more than one of Mikes stories about women drivers...hehehe...

[old_s13]

So is the red display easily accomplished by just changing to red bulbs?

clear bulbs with red sleeves, yes.

- mike

[HyperTek]

Just did this today. VDO red sleeves... looks sick. Then moded the LCD clock to be red, took it apart, 1 side is painted blue, sanded it down and sprayed with Tamiya model paint red. Slapped it together, swapped in US odometer into JDM Cluster.

Just gotta figure out how to fix my climate controls, I want to swap em red too, but they never light up anyways, so I gotta fix it.

[sticky240]

were did you get the VDO red sleeves?

[HyperTek]

since your in Moval, go to US speedometer and Odometer (or vise versa)..., its a shop off University.

[Red]

I've always liked the normal light on the 95 240's... But if red does not change your (enter intelligent fraze here) eye things and helps you see better at night, I will have to try them out.

[Ricer240sx]

If you guys are interested in doing the needles, we have a kit to transform them. Special for Zilvia members, use coupon # 6307 at the checkout for free shipping.

www.ImportIntelligence.com

Not a 240 but red.
http://www.bee.net/a2low240/gauges/Intellired.jpg

ive got that kit in blue if anyone is interested!!! i am sellin them for 70shipped!! i am jsut gunna throw LEDs in there so the needle kit is kinda over kill lol

[AWD90DSM]

here is the new setup

http://clearcorners.com/gauges1.jpg
http://clearcorners.com/gauges2.jpg

I cant wait to get it all back in.

thats gonna look sick with the rest of your interior... nice job!
in the pic with the wiring, is that just a random wire harness you
used to wire up your gauges so theyre removable?

I finally took the time to go to the junkyard and pick up a spare cluster / HVAC control. i took apart the cluster completely, cleaned it out, and figured out how im gonna go about doing the LEDs.