My Custom Lit Interior...yours? (Updated post #38...Cluster)

NYSpeed Automotive
1

I have done quite a few LED projects over the years. I recently upgraded the interior to my '93 MR2. I have not made many threads in a while so I figured I would share this one…I am curious to see who else has done stuff like this.

Basically I scored a bunch of “scrap” parts that where perfectly fine from my work:

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/llorentz/MR2/Mods/LED/004.jpg
004.jpg1024×768

Gutted EVERY lit piece of electronics in my interior (Not pictured are the Fog Light Switch, Hazard, Dome, Cigarette Lighter, and Clock).

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/llorentz/MR2/Mods/LED/HVAC.jpg
HVAC.jpg1024×768

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/llorentz/MR2/Mods/LED/AC.jpg
AC.jpg1024×768

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/llorentz/MR2/Mods/LED/DoorSwitch.jpg
DoorSwitch.jpg1024×768

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/llorentz/MR2/Mods/Cluster/Gauges012.jpg
Gauges012.jpg1024×768

Then went to town. The OEM light was a dull and drab green. I replaced everything with a bright and crisp white. Not warm-yellowish or cool-bluish white. Just WHITE. Also, where the dim OEM indicators were I replaced with High Bright Green ones. This will give you an idea of what the differences are in brightness (OEM on the Left):

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/llorentz/MR2/Mods/LED/Comparison.jpg
Comparison.jpg869×654

The HVAC was the most involved next to the Cluster. I had to fabricate a PCB to uniformly illuminate the Bezel.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/llorentz/MR2/Mods/PCB.jpg
PCB.jpg640×512

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/llorentz/MR2/Mods/HVACDone.jpg
HVACDone.jpg1024×768

Here is OEM. Same Camera and same settings believe it or not.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/llorentz/MR2/Mods/HVACOEM.jpg
HVACOEM.jpg1024×768

If I was able to swap out the LEDs by themselves I did:

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/llorentz/MR2/Mods/DoorSwitchDone.jpg
DoorSwitchDone.jpg1024×768

Lastly, if I did not have room for a PCB and I could not simply swap LEDs in…I made my own bulbs:

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/llorentz/MR2/Mods/Cluster/LEDDone.jpg
LEDDone.jpg1024×768

I am putting the finishing touches on the gauge cluster right now but for the most part the LED retro-fit is done.

Honestly these types of mods, IMO, are fairly easy. All you need is some Parts, DMM, Soldering Iron, and the basic understanding of circuits. Also, the cars schematic helps quite a bit. Which I have.

Anyone else get into this…?

2

Looks good! I can show you how to print out new gauge faces too. :wink:

3

:tup: very cool upgrade.

4

I replaced all the dome, footwells, puddle, door, exterior, etc with LEDs.

I didn’t get crazy with the lights behind the dash.

http://www.ronoversiii.com:/LED%20Bulbs/door_lights_web.JPG
door_lights_web.JPG450×600

5

That looks great.

Hmmm, I may take you up on that. The OEM guage face is not too bad but there is a slight Blue tinting from the factory that is hard to get rid of. I have thought about changing it.

6

god i want different gauge faces in the trans am soooo badly. the nasty 80’s everything lights up orange grosses me out.

7

Saw this in person, top notch, love it Luke. Way to take care of my old car dude!

8

Nice work man :tup:

9

Looks good…
Where did you order the PCB from?

10

Thanks guys.

I made it in-house on our board router. I used some 2 oz. copper we had lying around but I forget how thick the backing is.

:tup: It is coming together.

11

I thought this was gonna be some riced out dome lighting with different colors and shit

Good work though, looks very nicely updated.

12

:bigtup:

glad it wasnt a mad siqqq ricer thread y0

13

Awesome, Im sick of modding my house its time for a car.

14

I’ve done bulb swaps from superbrightled.com, but never anything half as complicated as that. Result! :tup:

15

:tup: Nice work.

I love seeing DIY threads like this.

16

I have tried superbrightleds.com and autolumination.com. For a lot of applications I am sure they work just fine. But, for me their LEDs where not bright enough for the cluster plus there was no way I would get their LEDs to work in my switches. Rather than go half DIY and half off the shelf that suck balls I just thought it would be better if I made all the lights. That way everything matches and looks consistent.

Thanks for all the comments guys.

17

http://revlimiter.net/mods/gauges.html here is a easy right up for guage faces

18

I think the best part is that that entire pile of parts probably cost $3…
Or are those parts mil spec?

19

I know I have some Photo Sensitive Diodes that probably cost a few bucks a piece. But the majority of these are off the shelf commercial parts. If you costed out how much the parts where that I used in my entire interior the total price would be WELL under $1.00.

EDIT: I looked up the pricing on the resistors and LEDs I used. All the parts I used are less than $0.01 a piece. I used maybe 30 parts but still have a few things up my sleeve. It is funny how much of this gets thrown away daily.

Thanks for the link! My only reserve is pulling the OEM guage face off of the backlit ring.

20

Looks good, I would have probably went with some color other then white because I’m weird.

I love the orange dash of my M3.

Can you still dim those LEDs?