The illumination wire goes 12+ when the parking lights are on. That's what makes the clock dim, and your headunit as well, if it does that kind of thing, when you have your parking lights on. I chose to make my headunit stay the same as well, when my headlights come on because it's dim enough as it is.

Sorry, I didnt' take any pictures while I was doing the mod because I was sorta just hanging out with my friends as I was doing it so I was a little distracted :redface: I can draw a picture or something if you'd like though. It's pretty straight forward.

For the LEDs, I just soldered in the LEDs directly to the contacts for the bulb holders. Those 470 ohm surface mount resistors are hard to find, and I don't know what wattage they're rated for. You should be using something around a 1/4 watt or higher rated resistor. I also hadn't thought of using the SMD resistors at the time either :pat: I did "kill" some of the bulb holders to hold LED though, but I tried my best not to destroy them completely if I ever decide to go back to stock, but I doubt I will.

For those of you looking for 194 and 74s in LEDs:
I discovered
http://autolumination.com/leds.html

Yesterday.
Which size are the ones for the ignition ring, and what colors have people tried behind the gauges. I think there are 3 194s for the gauge cluster, plus a number (how many?) of 74s?

Maybe the ashtry light too? (what size?)

Also, has anyone replaced their interior dome lights with LEDs?
Maybe they'd be brighter...

Those LEDs, can they just be popped into where the bulbs go or do we need to soder in a resistor and LED?

I think they should just be able to pop in...
Seems pretty silly of someone to create perfect fit LEDs if you needed to add in a resistor first...

Dub,
Could you post a night time pic of your truck all lit up in blue? I am starting to get the urge to do this mod once I buy my house. Later.

Matt

the guage cluster uses three 194 bulbs. The ashtray uses the same one as the ignition ring so I guess that's a 74? three 194 LED bulbs probably won't be enough to light the gauges though. I'm currently looking into cold cathodes for that... I found some round ones for case-modding 80mm fans, but only in blue, and Lexus uses white round ones for their new cars, but those are probably like $50 from the dealer since they're stealer parts. Also, I can't find any 2" cold cathodes anywhere for the temp and gas gauges...

Matt, I'll take a picfor you as soon as I can. Haven't had time recently with finals and this math class kickin my :moon: :(

Here's a link to the picture.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/...83635066mVcMiV
It actually isn't as bright as it looks. I set the exposure time to 8 seconds so it's kind of washed out. In person, most of the lights look like how the shifter indicator looks, and the shifter indicator is actually somewhat dimmer than the rest.

Looks great!

Has anyone tried replacing the lights (194s) on their console with RED.

My gauges now (with the reverse indiglo) looks great, but I want the needles to be brighter!! Would changing the bulbs (without doing any repainting of the needle undersides) change the ook of the needles?

I haven't tried it, but I was thinking of going with amber for the BMW look. Would red be a better choice? Or would it make my rig look like a whore house? :laugh:

I did that
 

I did that... Mine's a 2001 and what I did is use needle-nose pliers to break the little tiny 74 bulb and pulled it out by the filaments (only way I could get it out). Then just take your LED and there are two perfectly sized holes to stick the ends through. Solder on a resistor, bend the ends of the wire around like the 74 bulb was orignally, and viola! You have a removeable LED bulb. Easy to twist back in too which is the great part.

Zach

For Dub and wild bill

For the air conditioning controls area,
when you take off the little plastic flap (with the picutres on it for air con heat/cooling controls) underneath is a plastic clear thing that helps shine the light from the stock bulb to the right places on the front.

How did you take that clear piece off?

Thanks!

there's a clip on the right side holding it in. Pull the clip outwards and pop the clear thing out.

Dub,
On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the hardest) what would you rate this mod, excluding the instrument panel? If I decide to do this, I may just get in on the pre-order at Speedhut. Later.

Matt

Wild Bill,

I noticed your tires stick out what seems to be more than some I've seen, and was wondering what backspacing you used for the Outlaws, and what size tire your running? Also do you rub at all?

Chris

So everything but the gauges? I'd say it's about a... 7 or 8. The A/C was a pain to get out. Everything else just takes a long time and you have to have a lot of patience or motivation.

Speaking of which, the gauges are giving me more trouble. I ripped out the LEDs, and put in some cold cathodes . I would've gotten white, but my blinda$$ didn't see the white ones. Anyway, don't try this at home. For some reason, my tach gets stuck when I turn on the lights. I even tried running the cold cathodes off a 12v battery and it still gets stuck, which leads me to think that the cold cathodes create some kind of magnetic interference and when placed close enough, screw up the sensitive needles. The speedometer is fine though, as are the rest of the needles. I really gotta find some indiglos that I like...

I use 32x11.50 tires on 15x8 Outlaw II's. I don't remember exactly what the backspacing was but they only came with one size in the 15x8 so there wasn't really an option. I have no rubbing except when the front tires are stuffed while off road, then they rub that inner rear lip thing.

LSUMatt - Hey if you decide to do this mod, I might be in Birmingham Sep 15 - Oct 22, I'd be more than happy to help you out with anything, I should know pretty soon if I'll be there, it's either Gunter Annex or down in Biloxi.

did you guys take the nedles off the gauges. And if so does it mess anything up when you do so. I also find it wierd that I was sitting in my car and thought about blue dash lights randomly and remembers bills original post a couple months ago. When i came to post questions someone already had and now youve answered all my questions and now all i do is wait to get my lights in the mail and I cant wait to start this project. YOU GUYS ROCK.

Nope,
was afraid to take the needles off, and you don't have too....
Just takes some careful manuevering.

Check out http://gallery.suvfans.com for some install pics

I couldnt happen to find what kind of LEDs were used in Dub's write up. I tried searching ebay with no luck for the frosted ones. I have done the LED conversion on my 99'...a mediocre job on it that is. I decided to redo the setup since this write up is pretty helpful...good job on your hard work Dub.

Old thread this is but I just wanted to let people know that I've finished doing this on the 99 Runner and several aspects are different but not by much. It turns out that the driverside window switch is much easier, being only one PCB board. I didn't get a picture of that because I was too excited when I finished. If anyone requests I'll get one. I just finished my gauges about an hour ago and they didn't turn out so bad. I shouldn't have gone with full blue because they didn't come out that bright but I'm not gonna complain since I worked so hard on them. My friend pitched me a good idea if I were to mix the colors. What DUB did on his was great and if you don't want that mixing of the colors on the gauges, just use aluminum foil to help reflect the light where you want it to go so it won't mix. Well here are pictures and I pretty much followed what DUB put up.
https://webspace.utexas.edu/vota2/Pi...es/LitUp01.JPG
https://webspace.utexas.edu/vota2/Pi...roject/Gauges/
Also included a link with all the work. Maybe I'll redo the colors next year but I had my fill of soldering for one year.