well in lieu of the guy trying to get some business, someone sent me this a bit back, just thought id post it up here cause you guys have been so helpful to me.....of course, i imagine that most of you have already done this hehe

i will be attempting this within a week, let me know if it comes out ok if you do it before then

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How to Convert your Needles to Blue


Please Make Sure to USE THE RESISTOR with this LED. You cannot connect a LED directly to the 12-volt power without using the SUPPLIED RESISTOR.

Parts needed:
LED's from radio shack (Blue 5mm 2600mcd)
560 ohm resistors will work too
Pick tool or Knife
600 to 1000 Grit Sandpaper ( 1 square is all you will need)
Flashlight
Phillips Screw Driver
Electrical Tape or Solder and Soldering Iron
Needle nose pliers
Flat head screwdriver
About 15 mins to 2 hour of time (depending on your skill level – Remember, if you are in a rush, you could break something...and then you will not be a happy camper)


Please read the instructions FIRST (I know that no one ever does, but if you don’t, you could break something or lose something that you will need during this install). This explains how to change your needles to blue.

Do NOT connect the resistor to the LED bulb yet. IF you do, you will not be able to install this LED bulb using the Factory Bulb Plug.


First Lower your steering column all the way. Next, you will need to take the bezel off (the plastic piece that goes around your instrument gauges). Usually this is black. It has 2 screws at the top of the bezel. You must remove these screws first before taking out the bezel.



With the bezel removed, now you will see that there are 4 screws that hold the instrument gauges in place. They are at all
4 corners of the instrument gauges. After you remove them, the gauges will pull directly out towards you. There are 3 wire connection plugs that are connected to the back and when you pull the gauges out, they will automatically disconnect.

They are spring clipped to the back. HOWEVER, do not pull with all your strength, just use a little patience. After these come unattached, you will have to angle the instrument gauges to get them completely out of the dash.



Look at the top and bottom of the instrument gauges. You will see that the clear plastic cover that goes over your gauges is connected via 4 to 6 plastic tabs. Simply push all the tabs in and remove the plastic cover. Now you will see that the black outer trim around the outside of your gauges is also attached via 4 to 6 plastic tabs as well. Push those tabs in and remove the black outer trim. Now you can access the needles.


5. Now use the sandpaper to gently rub away the orange from the underside of the needles. Be CAREFUL NOT TO BEND the needles excessively or you could break them. Just take your time and rub away the orange completely off the needles.

After you have completely removed the orange from the needles. Put the black outer trim back on. Then put the clear plastic cover back on.


6. Its time to change the color of your needles…Now look at the back of the instrument gauges. You will see numerous black and grey sockets in the back. The easiest way to see which bulb lights up what item on ur cluster, is to simply twist the socket out, then shine a flashlight into the hole and look to see what lights up. There are 5 sockets that must be removed for this install. 2 are basically in the middle and then 2 on the outside lower corners. Then there is one more on the far right. This one is not needed. Just remove the bulb and the place the socket back in place. Do NOT JUST GUESS which ones to remove. Please verify you have removed the correct ones by using the flashlight and looking at the front of the gauges to see which ones light up.


7. After you have located the 4 that you need to convert to LEDS, then, remove the factory bulbs out of the factory bulb sockets. Be careful not to break the bulbs in the harness. The easiest way to remove them is by hand pulling them out.

However, sometimes they don’t come out that easy. You can use a sharp knife and wedge it between the bulb harness and the bulb and slowly work the bulb out.



Now, you will take your First resistor and LED and mount it just like in the picture. Remember, to put the RESISTOR on LONGER LEAD OF THE LED. Also make sure to cover any exposed metal with electrical tape so no short-circuiting can occur.



9. Now, do 1 LED at a time. After you install 1 LED, then put the instrument cluster back into the car, and turn on your parking lights. IF the blue LED illuminates then you can move on to the next LED install. If it doesn’t, simply take out the factory socket, and reinsert it so the leads of the led are now touching the opposite contacts. Now put the instrument cluster back in and turn on your parking lights. It should now light. After you have tested all 4 LEDs, to reinstall your instrument cluster and you are DONE!

Kick ass, gonna do it tonight.

ehh, i dont know how blue your needles will get, i changed every non warning light bulb in my cluster (meaning every bulb that lights the gauges) and my needles arent very bright, if i ever get an itch, i am going to paint them white to show up better, any who, let me know how it goes

www.pbase.com/tackimac8/led_stuff

dang.. i guess someone finally decided to do a writeup on it, since i never had.. seems as if someone had/got the same idea on how to rig up the stock light holder to use the led/resister as i originally did..

who'd you get this from btw?

sweet, I might git off my fat arse this weekend and do it, thanks for the writeup dood!

extremely sweet!!!

i bought something from someone online and he juiced me and didnt send everything i paid for so he sent it to me

:D

i just figured id throw it up on here for you guys for helping me out all those times :D

i mean, its really just basic general stuff, take out cluster....scrape away color, change LED...

i would do it this weekend but my car is back in the body shop getting my body kit redone bah :(

some guy offered to do it for really cheap..like 200 bucks...did half it ok but rushed at the end and half the back sticks out...so now i paid a real body shop to redo it heh

i hope it comes out ok

iamnotwhoiam.. i thought that you had a write up on how to do the color conversion some time ago..? ill give you credit b/c a loooong time ago i think you were one of the first to do the conversion. your dash looks tite! when i did mine, i thought i used your write up.

well i never really made a complete writeup, but i did provide some information here and there, and later on made a quick writeup and provided info on the side for those that were interested, but never really did a complete writeup..

its just funny as how that pic above resembles my "idea" of how to rig up the led in the stock holder..

yeah i still love my dash/gauges still look good, and its coming on about a year since i did it.. i suppose i may have been the first to attempt the color change to the gauge cluster, but its possible someone did it before me. its funny when i see stock oragne gauges now :-)