Mark Anderson

Those are dime a dozen and cheap. You said you wanted late. Do you know what years you want?

Perry 951

Thanks for the follow-up Mark. I thought 1979-1983 had a smaller cluster than the 1984-1989, but it looks like they are all the same style as the 944/968. The gauge surround looks to be what changed.

I'm not sure the transition year to the digital elements (1989/1990) but I guess I'm interested in the early clusters. The late clusters would be great candidates for LED lamp upgrades because they are backlit.

dr bob

Tha late ('89+) clusters are a combination of backlit for the LCD 'digital display' sections, the indicators backlit as previous, reflective for the rest as previous. I don't know the 944/968 display lighting. If my feeble memory is correct, the 928 has the illumination brighter in daylight, dims down for night time.

Perry 951

Thanks for that info Bob. It's hard to tell in the photos - I don't see a cutout in the bottom of the surround for the reflectors. If anyone can take a photo of the bottom of a late cluster and the reflector elements, that would be very helpful for me.

dr bob

I'm playing from feeble memory of threads describing some restoration of the clusters, looking for just the right black to duplicate the original effect. Don't trust that though. I can't remember half the stuff I've forgotten...

Ed Scherer

Perry, it sounds like you've got this mostly figured out, but just to be clear...

-'88 clusters are only back-lit, and we've had all the interior LED upgrades for the '89+ years figured out many years ago. See Converting Porsche 928 Interior Lighting to LEDs.

If you're interested in cluster guts for '89+, look in my Porsche 928 Miscellaneous photo collection. There are quite a few cluster-related photos about halfway through the collection.

hopwood

Perry, I converted my 1979 928 to full LEDs and I went with red ones for the cluster to preserve night vision. Works great, I got the kit from jageng.com. Now that I've lived with a bit, I'd love to have the option of going with different colour LEDs. Warm white would be the only white I'd consider, but what I really want to try is amber, or even better, totally configurable colours. Just mentioning so you know that there is already a solid option for 928s but limited to white, blue or red.

Perry 951

Thanks Ed. My initial terminology was incorrect (928 early clusters and the 944/968 late clusters are virtually the same). Your photos were a great resource and confirmed that the 928 late cluster is entirely backlit. I have an early cluster coming from Mark just to be sure.

So... to clarify; the LED reflectors I make replace the OEM plastic reflectors on the 928 EARLY clusters. Once I wrap up the current production run (this is #4) of the group buy on the 944 forum, I'll post information about an offering for the 928. It will be a while as this is just a hobby and I complete a few sets a week.

Perry 951

Hi Hopwood. Jaeger or one of his associates purchased the 7th set I made in 2002 (I shipped to their address in Port Alberni). Interestingly enough, they started offering their kits a few years later. There was another guy on the 944 forums called Flamingeye who did the same thing. There is currently a guy in Thailand offering units on Ebay that has a slightly different internal design but the castings have some mold marks from my 2nd generation units.

I didn't patent anything so they are free to do as they wish.

Also, mine are $90 with free shipping. Jaeger is $120 + shipping.

As for changing color - I could make them with RGB LED's, but I'd have to come up with a controller so you could select the color. That adds to the cost significantly. I played with many different colors when I initially started fleshing out the concept. After sending test units to many 944 guys, everyone settled on the cool white 5000K lamps. Now that I've sourced 3000K warm white lamps and redesigned the castings, feedback has been excellent. I like it much better in the warmer color. It matches the rest of the car.

I actually found the post talking about color choices from January 2003. https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...at-colors.html

Wisconsin Joe

I've seen your thread over in the 944 forum, and I think this is a neat idea.

928 clusters are very similar across the entire production run.
The only real change was the digital cluster in the 89 and later cars.
There are some gauge placement variations, some wiring differences and a few other 'little things', but for what you are doing, any 78 - 88 cluster will give you what you need.
As you know, there was a very significant change in the 944 clusters. The early ones are far more individual gauges in the dash. The later ones strongly resemble 928 clusters.

Not sure if you need to have the actual piece in hand, but Dwayne's Garage has a good write up on the cluster, lights and the odometer gear replacement. He's got great pics of the cluster and how it lights up.

And, at risk of adding fuel to the fire, interior illumination levels are a really personal thing.
From a 'strictly performance' standpoint, the lowest level that the driver can clearly discern the gauges is best. The least amount of light inside the car gives the best view out. And preserves the driver's night vision.

Of course, all the morons with illegal LEDs and HIDs, not to mention the ones who think it's ok to run high beams on the interstate into oncoming traffic, they all make the idea of 'preserving night vision' rather Quixotic.
But on a dark & deserted country road, being able to see the reflecting eyes of the deer in the ditch can mean the difference between a near miss and a crunch.