LED dash question

tony314 · Oct 7, 2009

I am going to sand the colored paint off the back of my instrument panel and was wondering what sand paper grit to use? I'm replacing all the bulbs with LEDs. Also how do I readjust the needles after words?

locovaca · Oct 7, 2009

Don't sand!!!! You will NOT like the results.

You use nail polish remover with a "rough" (in cloth terms) wash/dish cloth. Takes a bit to get through the initial layer but goes quickly afterwards.

As for adjusting the needles, you put whiteout on the gauge faces while in the car for the gas, temp, and battery while the car is off (for temp, you want the engine to be at normal operating temp, obviously). For "oil pressure" and tach you make your marks while the car is idling at normal operating temp. For speedo you have to be creative, most people opt to do it with a GPS and cruise control.

tony314 · Oct 7, 2009

Can I mark the needle positions while the truck is running? Then reinstall them after wards while the truck is running and everything is at normal range? Sorry, calibrating the needles is my big concern.

Ranger4657 · Oct 7, 2009

take a picture of it while its running at oper. temp. then mark... and when ur ready to reinstal warm your truck back up. and refer to your marks and picture.

you can also do it while its cold. there will be no variables in it that way. however do not start up your truck in the proscess... when i put my gauge faces in directions called for it to be dead cold ( as in dont run it for 24 hrs) before the install

key on/ key off is your choice. i used keyon

tony314 · Oct 7, 2009

Ok thanks

I was going to mark them at op temps then remove and reinstall and put the needles on the marks before starting it at all.

Fx4wannabe01 · Oct 7, 2009

SAND! But wetsand it. I did mine wetsanded with 400grit I believe. Perfect results.

Take a pic of your truck at normal operating temp and running at normal warm idle, take a pic of each gauge. When you go back to install the cluster, plug the cluster in w/o needles(except the speedo, more on that later), get it running and up to temp and up to normal idle, then set the needles. Don't push too far though. On the fuel needle, I like to go fill the truck up, then set the needle.

Take a look at my odometer swap/roll/cluster swap how-to...

http://therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45192

nitrofan1 · Oct 7, 2009

I changed my bulbs to blue led's and didn't do a thing with the film on the gauges. Shows blue no problem. Works that way with red, orange etc.... You could go the extra step but why take a chance messin it up?? If it doesn't work to your liking then sand & such.

Hope this helps man & good luck!

tony314 · Oct 7, 2009

I tried it with inverted LEDs and the blue never penetrated the green. Might of been because I used inverted LEDs and not the super bright ones. I seen your post FX. Thanks. Very helpful.

Fx4wannabe01 · Oct 7, 2009

i've never found a wedge, plug-in that worked properly or the way i wanted it to.

tony314 · Oct 7, 2009

That is my issue as well.

Fx4wannabe01 · Oct 8, 2009

i went the solder crazy route using 36 5mm led's.

locovaca · Oct 8, 2009

The wedge bulbs DO work, you just can't go cheap on them. When I did mine, I did a "test run" by purchasing several kinds of bulbs from Super Bright LEDs. I got the single, the 4 front, the 6 front, 4 side + 1 front, and 6 ultrabright side. This is the one you want:

Why? Two reasons:

1. These LEDs are brighter than the normal cheapos you see
2. None of them are pointing up. For even lighting you don't want *any* of the LEDs pointing up.

So in addition to those, I took some aluminum duct tape and lined the underside of the cluster with it to help direct the light upwards. This is from my Accord cluster:

My final Ranger cluster looked like this:

As a reference, my Accord cluster (note the high beams and "key" dummy lights are still regular bulbs)

That is with no sanding, all nail polish remover. For the Ranger, 5 of the aforementioned WLED-6 wedge LEDs, then used the 4 LED colored cheapos wedges for the indicator lights.

tony314 · Oct 8, 2009

Looks damn good. Thanks for the pictures and advice!

dusto2 · Oct 8, 2009

were did you get those leds from

tony314 · Oct 9, 2009

www.superbrightleds.com

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