one

As I am sure most of you have figured out, the dash lighting really stinks in these cars. Mine was so bad I couldn't see it at night without squinting.

So, here's a little tutorial of how I fixed the problem for myself.

First, I actually own www.lextech.org so dash lighting is something I do all day...... for Lexus. I'm going to try some cathode lighting and other options and see what I can come up with for you guy's to DIY your dashes with and get things back to where you can see again. As far as right now goes, I am WAY too covered up to even mess with expanding to other brands. So for the record, I am sticking to Lexus. We'll just DIY here and hopefully this will help someone. I am aware a few of you have went inside and covered the basics, I'm going to try and go all the way here.

It has been mentioned that the "reflectors" are the main problem, and of course that is correct as far as transferring the lighting goes. That old silver paint just wears away after a few years.



Since I use a Dremel for everything around here, I chose to Dremel the old paint off to get the surface clean, besides ..... you can use the diffusion of the sanded surface to your advantage in this case.



I had to make a decision here. Go back with a painted surface or use something else. I decided since I have had so much luck with aluminum before that I would stick with what works best. It has always worked well in the Lexus clusters, and I decided it would do well in this application also. I cut to fit a piece of aluminum and faced the polished mirror side to the side of the Lexan (plexi) that would be catching the light from the bulb.





Then reinstalled it into place.



SO, was all this worth it? Well, once I wiped the dust off the original bulb, pumped the voltage up to above 16 volts, and flipped the switch... This was the best I could get out of the ORIGINAL reflector at it's very best and on high voltage.



On a meager 13.6 volts (3 volts less) with the newly refinished reflector in place i was able to get a 75% improvement in the light, and what you see here is only ONE reflector lit up. Nevermind the fact there are 2 more left to do!

MichelleJD

Nice job

CurlyDE

Excellent write up. I have done this also and love the outcome. My gauges are much brighter now. I think the only thing that I did differently was to use nail polish remover to remove the old paint.

SDGuy

The dremel did a good job, but non-acetone nail polish remover is much easier. Are you aware of this write-up by Clark's garage?: http://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/elect-08.htm

skene

I used denatured alcohol to remove the old paint off mine. It was a fairly slow process, but it did leave a very clear surface. I also used the metalic tape to replace it with, but I didn't take them off the back of the dash when I did everything.

one

Well I don't personally like bulbs. I wanted to cover getting the reflectors back straight, then move on to other options. It looks like you guy's could use a single 4" CCFL tube and get more than enough light. I'm not stopping at the reflectors, I want to see how much light I can really get out of this cluster, and still be able to stand it.

Fortunately the cathodes still dim.

one

To you and the poster under you, the problem I have with that method is that you do not get diffusion. "a nice clear surface" is a BAD thing. You want to diffuse that light as much as possible, and the paint is not nearly as reflective as the aluminum. I have sat here for years testing with a light meter trying to get the best results I can. I highly suggest when you guy's DIY, you use a dremel to diffuse the reflector plates, and use aluminum.

SDGuy

This topic has been well covered on the forums. Most people are using aluminum foil or tape - painting is discouraged in the Clark's garage article if you read futher down in the article.

The most involved kit I've seen is the Flaming Eye kit - perhaps this can give you some more ideas for your experiments:
http://www.flamingeye.co.uk/porsche9...inationkit.htm

Let us know if you come up with something "brighter".

one

I don't see any pics of that flaming kit in finished form (edit, I saw them. That's much weaker than I started with.), but ironically I have been working with LED lighting all night also. I wasn't satisfied with the cathodes when I put them in, so I went to my tried and true LED's.

I had the cluster lit up ton's of different ways. First brighter than I could stand to drive with, all evenly across the face. Then I shadowed the whole face. Similar to the way the stock bulbs do, but only brighter and with 15,000 mcd pure white led's.

In the end, I decided to do the best of both worlds and produce a spotlight effect for the gauges. Since it is my car, I'm going to finally get to do something "my" way for once. With the Lexus stuff I have to keep within popular opinion on things. You have no idea how much of a relief it is to just be able to do it my way for once, where there is no pressure to perform. Here in a few minutes the epoxy will be dry and I'll show you what I ended up doing for myself. It is the exact reverse of a cluster I did on a lexus. (seen below)

chitown928s4

Being in the sign biz and using reflective vinyl. I'm wondering if using reflective vinyl would work better than aluminum foil. I'd be happy to send you some to try out. I think it would look better though.

one

If it is a mirror chrome vinyl, it would be the same effect, but much easier installation.

Here is my cluster. I do not expect it to be the subject of popular opinion, only mine I get so little chance to experiement these days with all the stuff on my plate from morning 'till night, it's nice to break out of the mold and do something different. So, I decided I wanted something that had a "mood" to it. A little different from the average joe's car. I still have a little shadowing to work with. Anyway, here it is

one

That could have been MUCH brighter, but I tuned the led's and shadowing to peak at a certain level. Most of the led's I use are around 15k mcd. They are way too bright for using them to fire the face from the outside. Here's a few other examples of my creations: http://lextech.org/gallery/index.php Most of my wilder stuff has been in the IS models and SC models. I love screwing with this stuff. After I got my EE a few years back, I dove straight in and haven't looked back.

If you guy's are interested in how I did that spotlight cluster with led's, I'll be happy to do a DIY writeup on it. I realize my personal tastes may vary from others.

Royalty

pics?

Weissach

Oh man, what I would give for lexus needles... Here is a picture of my gauges(a 928, but same basic cluster as the 944). It would would look killer!

Jeremy

One -

Any chance you can repost your pics? I'm interested in seeing them. Thanks -

Jeremy