dash lights brighter

[zeiss150]

Hey Z nuts, does anyone have any "bright" (pun intended) Ideas on making my dash gauges brighter? My spedo and tach are great but my other three gauges a pretty dim. are there any other type of bulbs out there? More watts? Any tricks to make them look brighter, and no I dont want to put on white faces. by the way im rollin in a bitch'n 72 240. I dont even know what kind of bulbs are in there now.

Matt-

[thefastestz]

To bring back a thread proxlamus started a while back..

Well i was thinking of LEDs.

I need to further investigate more on this though.

I want to try to put them in place of the stock bulbs.

I have to find out if the ground on the bulbs is uses the casing of the gage.

Not to mention the pain it is to pull them(amp guage/fuel ect.) and such....that alone prevents me from checking it out soon.

[zeiss150]

I think they do have a ground to the case :sleepy: but LED's sound awsome. If you can make it happen let me know. If you want to get to the gauges easy pull your golve box liner out (It comes out pretty easy) and you should have a straight shot to thoes gauges.

Matt-

[ChrisA]

Hey Matt,

I put LED's in all my gauges. Bought the newer "Bright White" ones and set them into the little green bulb housings with clear silicone. What a difference. Yes you will have to find a ground for one neg wire but that's no biggie. I also disconnected the dimmer control and that sends full voltage to the LED's all the time. Project all started because of the dimmer control going bad. I also used some mini Packard connectors on the tach and speedo LED's to ease removal of gauges. Hope this helps.

[ChrisA]

P.S. --If you buy loose LED's from like Radio Shack, you'll have to install resistors to lower the voltage incoming to around 2.5 to 3 volts. 12 volts will fry a lone LED in a microsecond.

[hls30.com]

I am going to work on this too-I just bought 500 ultra bright leds (10000mcd@20ma) with 470 ohm resistors for materials. I am going to replace all of the bulbs in the car except the headlights.

I am going to pull the dash in about two weeks, strip it, and send it for a rework. While it is gone, I will work out all of the particulars of getting the leds in place-if you guys don't get to it first, I'll video tape the installation, and post it! Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Will

[texasz]

Originally posted by hls30.com

I'll video tape the installation, and post it! Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Will

That would be FANTASTIC!! What a great idea! I'm looking forward to seeing this as I'm sure many others are.

[zeiss150]

do they make 12 volt led's that will just plug in or do you have to cut the original bulb sockets and put some new ones? I wonder if an adaptor could be made for the bulb socket so no glueing or sodering would be nessary.

Matt-

[ChrisA]

Hey Matt,

I did buy some green LED's that were already rated for 12 volts. I got them at a Heavy Truck dealership. They werent very bright though. I suppose you could fabricate a mounting device but I figured the clear silicone to be easiest because you can just peel it off if needed. Its worked well for me thus far.

Chris

[59ghia]

Check this place out,

http://www.lightlens.com/coloredbulbs.htm

[Zrush]

To match the theme (Red obviously) of my husbands car. We have the white face gauges. He pulled the bulbs out and I painted them with red fingernail polish (womans touch). At nite it looks awsome. All the quages seem to "glow" red. Of course this was done before they came up with the colored bulbs.

Vicky

[TomoHawk]

Originally posted by zeiss150 do you have to cut the original bulb sockets and put some new ones? I wonder if an adaptor could be made for the bulb socket so no glueing or sodering would be nessary.

I first thought you could drill straight through the holder to insert an LED, or you could insulate the legs and stick those through. It shouldn't be difficult, and you could even use the original wiring or just add one new wire for the whole string (in series). Series wiring for LEDs is different than parallel, tho.

If you measured the voltage going to the lamps, you could buy LEDs for that voltage.

Have you considered trying to repair the wiring you have? Usually, the problem is that the connector(s) are ccorroded and the resistance drops the voltage. High on my 2-DO list for spring, after I get my car back.

If somebody came up with a special chemical or process to reverse the corrosion, he'd be a MILLIONAIRE!! Hopefully ME.