On the drive to work this morning, I was thinking that maybe I should look into replacing the various dash bulbs on my '71 with LED's. I know other people have done this modification, and wondered if anyone could tell me how many bulbs I will need, and what type. Also, does anyone know what type of bulb the map light uses?

Not looking for anything ricey. I am thinking white bulbs, or possibly green for the gauges, hopefully in an inverse pattern.

I'm at work this AM and don't have my FSM handy....

I've already converted most of the exterior bulbs to LED's and that has worked out very well....

Thanks for any tips!

Brian,

I'm getting ready to re-install my dash and wanted to address the dim gauges before I do. I ordered 7 (BA9S-G4) yesterday, 2 each for the speedo/tach and 1 each for the three gauges. My only concern is that they're about 1/4" longer than what came out of my car and I might need to get creative. Here's the website:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/led_prods.htm

I should have these by early next week and will try and post some comparison pictures of incandescent vs LED.

Bruce

Bruce, please let us know how this turns out, the idea sounds like a good one!

I got the LED's in and tried several options with them. These LED's have 4 bulbs clustered together and they're green. They put out a considerable amount of light but the problem is the angle of the light. These were rated at 15 degrees, not enough to spread the light around the inside of the gage. About a third of the gage was brightly lit, the balance faded off.

I tried sanding them down a number of ways but it still primarily illuminates straight ahead. I removed the green plastic light diffuser from the inside of an extra gage but the results were the same. I then installed a regular incandescent bulb without the green plastic diffuser and the results were much better.

Today I've ordered the same LEDs but these are white. I also ordered what they call a wide angle LED, the angle is 100 degrees instead of the 15 but contains only one LED. My gages might end up being lit up with white light instead of the green factory look.

These bulbs install right into the factory socket. They'll be in by the end of the week, I'll post an update once I've had the time to experiment with them.

Bruce

I got the LED's in and tried several options with them. These LED's have 4 bulbs clustered together and they're green. They put out a considerable amount of light but the problem is the angle of the light. These were rated at 15 degrees, not enough to spread the light around the inside of the gage. About a third of the gage was brightly lit, the balance faded off.

I tried sanding them down a number of ways but it still primarily illuminates straight ahead. I removed the green plastic light diffuser from the inside of an extra gage but the results were the same. I then installed a regular incandescent bulb without the green plastic diffuser and the results were much better.

Today I've ordered the same LEDs but these are white. I also ordered what they call a wide angle LED, the angle is 100 degrees instead of the 15 but contains only one LED. My gages might end up being lit up with white light instead of the green factory look.

These bulbs install right into the factory socket. They'll be in by the end of the week, I'll post an update once I've had the time to experiment with them.

Bruce

Welcome to my nightmare!

Will