Thanks for all the good comments. OK you guys have convinced me to do a write-up, I should have some time this weekend to put one together and answer all your questions.

 

that is the coolest...

 

Kick a$$!!! A write up is a must (would be great). I especially need to know, or try to understand, the process of the LEDs & resistors. How they work, how they get sodered, etc.

 

Great job dude! I look forward to your writeup!

What I really want to do is somehow graft the light-up needles from a Lexus car onto my dash. Those things are just fun to look at when it's dark out!

 

Wild Bill,

Absofrickinlutely phenomenal. I tried to get that blue look many moons ago, but didn't have the patience to do what you did. That looks great---I'm very impressed.

And yes, you should do a write up or else you will get a million PMs and emails from Vato Loco.

Bob

 

Yeah!

 

Ya, what Bob said !!!!! Outstanding job!!!!

 

Looks like I've gotta' get the "blues" myself...

 

Looks awesome, I can't wait to see your write up.

 

What'd you do about the clock? If you care enough to spend more money to fix the clock, Dakota Digital probably makes something you would like, but they're pricey.

Here's one that looks like the stock clock but in blue. $70
http://www.dakotadigital.com/Detail....umber=ODY-16-1

This one would be kind of neat. Time, Day, Temp. But uhh, $150. ouch.
http://www.dakotadigital.com/Detail....mber=ODYR-16-1

 

OK guys added a write-up here. Let me know what you think and if you're questions aren't answered or if you have something to add let me know. Thanks

 

I read the write-up. Was this supposed to be funny or am I just entertained by immature humor: "For the turn signals and background lights inside, I removed the stock bulbs with the green condoms and soldered in some LED's." Green condoms eh?


Zach

 

Looks really cool man. The only reason I wouldn't do it is, I think it'd blind me at night, lol. I even dim my green lights sometimes.
But anyway, it sure looks nice.

 

Great writeup. Another alternative to the frosted leds is to take a regular LED and sand the round part flat. Then use a higher grit sandpaper on the flat part for more even lighting. The result is a LED that produces a even glow. I don't remember where I saw that, but it was on a forum somewhere.

Thanks for the writeup! Now I gotta figure out if I really want to do this or not...

 

One thing I haven't mentioned is that the stock dimmer does work with the led's. And the reverse indiglo gauges come with their own dimmer. So I can dim the dash lights and indiglos independently of each other. Works out real nice.

 

Does anyone know if reverse indiglo gauges like Bill's are available with a black or white face? I like the "slightly-modified-stock" look I've been trying to think of ways to maybe modify the gauges Bill has to make it black and the only thing I can think of is having a vinyl sticker cut to cover all the silver (and maybe the gear indicator since I don't have that). Otherwise I'm thinking of rigging up blue LEDs behind the stock face

*edit* I know speedhut has the custom thing that they do, but it doesn't seem like the red glows, and they change the font, where as the procarparts one is just a copy of the stock. It's also $120 Sorry speedhut guys, I actually was going to order them and wait for you, but when I checked the website, they didn't meet my super-picky preferences

I guess Vato Loco is off the hook cause I'm the one with all the questions :pat:

 

I am of the same opinion. I like the blue lights but not the silver- or white-faced guages. Any idea on how many lights are behind the stock face? Or maybe we could use one of those blue "light wire" things. We'll see.

Zach

 

I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to just use the blue leds like I did behind the stock gauges and have it look just fine. There's only 3 bulbs back there with green condoms on them, I replaced them with blue leds even though I have the indiglos to help illuminate the odometer and needles.

 

I started converting the lights today I'll keep posting here to give you guys some tips.

Well, I started with the ring of light on the ignition. There's a small bulb in there that I just popped out. The bulb is really tiny so there's not much room for the resistor. Well, here's what I did:
-First, the plastic ring comes out if you pop out a plastic rivet thingy. It's easy to take out. The bulb socket and wire harness unplug about 6" down from the ignition, too.
-I took a LED and cut the legs off really short (like 5 mm each).
-Then I took what I think is a 18 awg wire, stripped about a cm of it, folded it back on itself so it looked like a U, soldered it like that, and cut it off so I had a soldered piece of wire shaped like a U. I made two of those.
-I then soldered them to the legs of the LED. What I was trying to do was to imitate the base of the stock mini-bulb that was in there so that it would slide in just like the stock bulb.
-There's two wires going to the bulb socket. In my 97, the green one was the + and the white w/ the black striped wire was -. I cut the green wire and soldered in a resistor.
-Put it all back together and plugged it in! Looks nice!

Thanks Bill, for being the first to take the leap! I'll do my best to give you guys tips here if you'd like.

Ok, on to the "AUTO" driver's window switch...

 

yes, you see, the engineers at Toyota really have the customer in mind when designing the interior. They figure, "hey, the owner might get lucky at a bar one night or even at the office with the secretary and not have any protection..." So they thoughfully included those in the dash bling-blings.