Can anyone tell me where I can get my hands on some of this stuff? I found an old thread last night where UKMeyers used blue paint to paint some of his bulbs instead of replacing them. Sounds like a great idea because some of these bulbs are going to be a pain. Thanks guys. Later.

Matt

 

Last I saw with that was something about having to order it. I tried it with high temp dish decorating paint That I found at a housewares/hobby-type store. It was made to withstand the heat of a dishwasher. That worked OK but if you paint you need to really let the paint dry a while before you use the bulbs. When I did the bulbs got hot enough to make the paint bubble before it was dry, color unded up kind of splotchy ( in addition to that wonderful burning aroma. You tried a web search for "light bulb paint yet"?

Have you ever considered theatrical lighting filters?. I was doing some stuff with my cluster lights yesterday, and it seems the easiest & cheapest way to chagne the lighting is to cut the filter to the shape of the guage and stick it on with a little adhesive and get some super bright bulbs ( painting, plastic gels, filters dim the lights out well ). the filters (usually called gels by the lighting types) will also give you more color choices.... let you do custom color patterns (like if you had the mechanical odometer, and wanted it to be white, while the speedo numbers were blue; have lettering on your HVAC controls be blue and still have the white part of the temp select dial be white, etc).

Just a thought I had last night....

edit: :editcheck out this lthread

 

RebuiltRunner,
I haven't been able to find that bulb paint. I sent UKMeyers an email, so hopefully he'll respond or see the post on here. I'm starting to lose interest in this mod because it seems like it is going to be a total pain in the ass to do. I started today and replaced two bulbs with some blue bulbs that I bought online. The two were the key ring and the gear shift. Both bulbs seemed to be a perfect fit, but neither of them would work. The key ring is a small 74 bulb and the gear shift a 194. I don't know. Maybe UKMeyers method will work. We'll see. Later.

PS...Do a search on here for bulb paint and you'll find his thread.

Matt

 

I got mine from a local hobby store called Mangelson.
http://www.pebeo.com/asp/prod/fiche.asp?lang=us&id=17
Worked fine for me.

 

Troudt,
Can you email me some pics of your dash lit up at night? That stuff looks and sounds great!! Did you install any higher wattage bulbs, or just paint what was already there? It seems like the paint will dim the light somewhat. My email is MAverett@bham.rr.com Later.

Matt

 

Can either of you two post some of the dash pics once you get em? I'd really like to see the results. Thanks.

 

I'll post pics by this weekend.
I got new bulbs but you can reuse old ones. Look at your local auto parts store and they may have some of the larger bulb in blue.

 

Troudt,
Which bulbs did you change or paint? The reason I ask is because some of the ones, particularly the ones that light up the heater and A/C controls, are really really small and I haven't been able to find them anywhere. I'm worried that the light output will be weak from these painted bulbs and then I'll be screwed because I don't have any replacements. I looked online for weeks to try and find some of these really small bulb sizes and I could not find them. Where did you get them and what sizes (numbers) are they? Later.

Matt

 

The small bulbs are #74 and were available at an auto store.
You might try these if you can't find the bulbs locally
http://autolumination.com/194.htm
http://autolumination.com/74.htm

 

I'm gonna check at Michael's tomorrow and see if they have some of that paint.

Matt

 

Hey guys I forgot I had to delete a bunch of my monty pics folders to make some room so here's a repost of the potatoe paint project. This paint has only been found so far in the UK although I'm thinking there's gotta be something similiar here in the US. I mailed out 7 bottles of this stuff when I was over in the UK. By the way those who got some I never did see any completed projects :cry: Anyhow here's the pics again. I did every single bulb in my interior with this stuff and I have to say it looks awesome. It's the first thing people notice when they get in at night. I rode in my buddies 2nd Gen a while back with the blue indiglo gauges and the nasty green dash lights..ewww







Now for those who dont' remember this thread your probably thinking why in the hell does he have potatoes and painted light bulbs in his oven???? Believe it or not I was following the instructions on the bottle to a T! I figured out later on it was not necessary to cook the smaller bulbs in things like my switches and stuff.

LSUMATT to answer your question I used the stock bulbs. You can dip the bulbs multiple times to get a darker blue and I suppose that would kill the brightness but there's no need to do that as only one coat will give you the blue effect. Them bulbs are easy to get at a dea$er if you screw one up. The ones in the swithes though like the rear defrost and flashers aren't replaceable unless you buy the whole switch though so be careful!!! Ya I made a trip to the junkyard after breaking the one in my hazard switch.. snagged a new switch out of some Toyota van thing..they are all the same in the old ones.. Good luck with your project.

 

Looks like from the picture, that this stuff is what he used: http://www.speeding.co.uk/acatalog/P...Bulbs_111.html (scroll down)

But shipping overseas for a 6pound product adds 20 pounds (convert if interested).

 

UKMeyers,
I sent you an email. Let's see some pics of that dash all lit up!! I searched for a few minutes and the only places I've found so far that carry that paint are in the UK. I don't really want to spend $37 to ship a $7 bottle of paint. Maybe we can find it on this side of the pond.

Matt

 

I took some pics today but they came out crappy. In my 4Runner I only changed the color of the bulb in my temperature controls. On my dad's truck we changed the temperature and the gauge cluster. One thing you want to be careful is to not get the bulb too dark. On the truck the gauge is doesn't light up bright enough. The temperature controls don't have this problem. Later this summer we'll paint new bulbs with a lighter coat. We ended up using a mixture of prepainted bulbs and one's I painted myself so storebought might be too dark for this purpose.

 

Well crap I cant find the pics on my PC anywhere. I think I deleted them because I could never get a decent shot with my digi cam in low light. Sorry Matt...

 

UKMeyers,
Do you have any of that paint left that I could buy from you?

Matt

 

Well, I've ordered one bottle of the blue Savage Neon Bulb Paint. Shipping is 5 British pounds. The total order cost me right at $20. If it works as well as UKMeyers says it works, I'll be very, very pleased. I'll keep you guys posted. It should be here sometime next week. Later.

Matt

 

Matt am I under the impression your good to go?

 

I think on Monday I'm going to call around to some sign shops that do neon signs and ask them if they've ever heard of neon bulb paint. Maybe they will have some advice on where I can get something like that here in the US.

I find it hard to believe that it's only available in the United Kingdom.

-Keith

 

I have some of that paint. Seeing how I am going to rip apart my dash this week to install my XM receiver, now is a good a time as any to hit the HVAC controls. I am also thinking of using blue gels. When I get to it, I'll let you know, and see.