hey guys, I was just thinking how I don't really care for the crappy orange color of our stock guages and I don't care much for the white face overlays either, then I came upon this on the suby forums
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1124644&highlight=led+gel
our guages are built VERY similarly, I think I might try this on mine! Any color suggestions? my interior is black and green

Basically the same as I did only I used many more LEDs so it shows bright white even in the daytime. You can choose your colors as required once you scrape the yellow, black and white ink from the back of the gauge overlays. Display is dimmable from full on to full off.










Here is what the back of your gauge overlays look like.



My homemade LED needle illumination kits.



Final view.

Azdaves method and direct replacement LEDs FTW (#74) If you dont want to sand down the orange filter red LEDs like the ones I have work great. Any other color you need to sand it.

That looks very nice, how well do your needles work after taking them apart?

Originally posted by azdave

what's that green bar above the guages for, does it serve a function or just styling?

Originally posted by RoninEclipse2G
That looks very nice, how well do your needles work after taking them apart?

Needles?

The needles were tricky but they work normally now. With the rest of the dash so bright white I was not happy with the needle glow until I made the LED rings for the needles too. I experimented with UV LEDs on the needles for extra glow but they just didn't look right so I went back to white under the needles.

Here is a test pic of the UV LEDS under the needles. Photos do not capture it very well but the light was too bright at the center. The white LEDs light up the whole needle more evenly.


I used a spare $10 gauge cluster from ebay to do all my testing before I converted my good dash in case I screwed up. I used a GPS and OBDII diagnostic tool to confirm the Tach, Speedo and temp gauges were correct after the install. The gas gauge needle was marked at a known position before removal.

Originally posted by RoninEclipse2G
what's that green bar above the guages for, does it serve a function or just styling?

It is functional. I removed my standard turn signal indicators and now use the 22 LEDs in the long green bar as a combination turn signal/taillight LED display monitor. The entire bar lights up with my marker lights so it is on faintly all the time at night and then brightens for turn signals and brakes. It's never bright enough to over-power the gauges but in the daylight I can easily see the functions.

You can see a video of the display in action about halfway through this video.

Right Click
"Save As" please
http://www.rcaz.com/movieclips/eclipse2.1.mpg

Dave

ok, I'm in shock and awe right now, probably couldn't afford it now but what would you charge to replicate that setup?

(drooling as of now)

thats no ebay cluster that came from me =) at least one of them did, looks like you did something more than I would have with it, i think it sat under my TV for 3 years, still got another one laying there now.