What kind of paint did you use for the bezel and rings? Brand? And how did you get the clear plastic off, dremel?

 

Looks good. How did you recalibrate the needles? Or did you not have to do that?

 

the paint for the bezel is SEM Satin Black Color Coat. about 10 bux i think. For the silver i used Duplicolor auto paint, my local autozone had a bunch of silver colors in stock and i chose the one closest matching the original rings around the MPH and RPM. the color is called ARGENT SILVER. and it comes in those little 5-6 oz. spray cans. I could not for the life of me get the masking perfect to spray the center rings. so i taped off what i could and went to the hobby store and bought a couple of fine paint brushes. I sprayed a small amount of paint onto the cap of the spray bottle and with the paint brush started painting the center rings. the clear plastic is only going to come off by dremeling it with a cut off wheel. it is kinda scary at first because u do have to cut into it pretty deep. but u can not tell it has even been removed once all the trim goes back on.

 

i did have to recalibrate them since i removed them. US Speedo has a method to get them back on correctly. the way I did it might be harder, i did trial and error removing and reinserting the needles(since i knew my IDLE rpm, i knew how much gas i had left, i know where the oil pressure and normal operating temp position was) the MPH was a little harder. i had to drive side by side someone going a set speed to make sure i was close to accurate. if u look at the instructions from US speedo BEFORE you remove ur needles it should be alot easier. i didnt bother looking at them till after.

 

Two thumbs up for taking on a ballsy project!

 

Any pics of the finished product yet?

 

I did mine, it is like the most tedious project I have ever taken on in relation to modding my truck. You have to sand, and then wipe it down with acetone, and then sand, and sand. Then taking the needles off, and then flipping around the LEDS if they are in the wrong way.

It took a couple hours, but it is most certainly worth it in the end though IMO. I just wish I could get all the other lights in the truck blue or even white, but all the other ones that I have not replaced you have to solder them in I think.


I know, I know, post is worthless without pics, my camera is broke, but I'm going to borrow one and get some pics up soon.

 

sry pics took so long, my level kit, HID's, and roush scoop came in so ive been busy with that. the gauges look kind of aqua but they are pretty blue. one thin i have noticed is the odometer is ALWAYS blue even during daylight, im gonna have to find a way so that it only turns on with the gauges or headlights at nite. the reason i dont want them on during the day is u can see only a blue circle in the center of the odometer and it looks ugly. at nite it is not noticeable. and yes the needles can not be seen at nite. i need to get some clear ones.

 

I was looking at doing this but then remembered my center console has all green lighting too! :/ Did you leave yours stock or also do the same thing as your gauges?

 

JMO, but the lighting and color doesn't look consistent. Looks blue in some areas, and white in others. In addition, you can see right where the light is behind the LCD; too bright.

 

GotTorque: currently looking at buying the individual LED's to make my a/c *****, window switches etc. blue. The radio itself is coming out next week so i dont have to worry about that. but eventually everything will be blue.


bamorris:there is actually no white at all. just the way the pic came out on the camera everything is blue. but yes since the bulbs are led's the lighting pattern does create "hot spots" where you can see a darker blue than in other areas. but it's not horribly noticeable. and for the odometer led its not that bright but it looks bad during the daytime cuz the blue only shines in the center of the odometer rectangle while the edges look normal, gonna try to fix that though.

 

hmm what about where the guage is supposed to be red, it appears to not show?

 

the red is on there during the daytime but at nite the blue led's make them pretty much invisible. the needles are prob. my biggest annoyance since i'd like to see my speed at nite oh well. the mod is not for everyone and i prefer this over the ugly green one.

 

I don't get it... On my truck, I believe that the needles are actually illuminated. Thus, the color of the guages wouldn't matter. Did you remove the bulbs that light the needles?

 

there aren't any lights for the needles themselves. it shares the light from the gauges. thing is since the lights are blue LED's the color is too dark to illuminate the red. if i were to switch to something like white it would light them up great.