BTOWN4RUNNER

Well, being inspired by Brian (butnut) I decided I would give changing the colors of my turn signals a try! I put in some new gauges last Friday, so I had a good look at what I was doing. The first thing I did was to tear apart the dash and get to the pod that houses the gauges and the signals. This I did with the help of Joey (UKMyers) and his write up . Thanks Joey! After this, then the rest is relatively easy. Inside there is a little piece of green plastic that is the color of the signals. This piece comes right off. I then went out and got the material. Basically all that it is is a piece of a red plastic folder. It is exactly called a Dual Pocket Portfolio by Storex. It is a plastic folder that comes in many colors and is found at Staples. The plastic is clear enough that it does its job (1/16" thick). I used the existing piece to trace onto a piece of this and cut it out with a sharp X-Acto knife. I then had to make some holes in it like the stock one, so I used the tip of the knife as a drill and drilled holes in it.

Now the exact color was a trial and error process. I started out with one layer, ran out and see what I thought. After all was said and done, I ended up using 3 layers of this to get the right color...an AWESOME red! Nice! I drilled holes in all of them and put them on. I did not glue them together, because the cover to the pod holds them in place, plus I did not want to take the chance of having the glue visible.

All in all this was a very simple process and a great mod. It took alittle less than 1 hour and it looks great! The only materials that you need are a sharp X-Acto knife, tools to get dash apart and the folder or anything else that you feel might work! There are several reasons that I did this.
[list=1][*]butnut inspired me[*]Beings as I have new gauges, there is no more green color and alot more red, so I figured this would match the gauges better[*]When I put my new gauges on, the wires could be seen, so I had to take the dash apart to fix this, so why not do it now?!?![*]Red is the color of my 4Runner[*]Red is my favorite color![/list=1]

I love how it looks and the color is great. You can also see the red during the day, when the signal is not on, and it looks awesome as well!

I must apologize for not having pictures, you all might know, but I do not have a digi-cam. I want one for Christmas, and will have to wait to get one, as I don't have the money. The first picture that is attached to this page is one of my dash, taken apart, with an arrow pointing to the green piece that is taken out and replaced with the red plastic. In this picture, you can also see my new gauges! Sorry about the poor picture quality! The second picture that is attached to the second page is the picture of the green stock piece and a piece of plastic that I took the new ones out of.

I love this mod and the looks of it. It was easy and cheap. All in all is cost me $0.94. Not much at all for a great mod! Any questions, please feel free to ask. Again, I apologize for the lack of pictures, but not having a digital camera makes it a real pain! Thanks. :fireman:

BTOWN4RUNNER

Alright, this is the second picture. This one shows the green stock piece and a piece of the red plastic that I cut the new one out of! Pretty simple and the results are awesome! :fireman:

UKMyers

Ryan sweet mod dude! I am going to have to see if I can find some of them folders. Not too many Staples here in the UK but I am sure I can find something. When you were experimenting for the color did you put it all back together each time and turn on your blinker and then tear it all apart to add more layers?? I want to make mine blue to go with the indiglo. Green really clashes with it. Also looking to add a TRD sticker like Chris Steger has if I can find one! Nice mod though!

butnut

Hehe..ya better get a dang digicam Skippy...or I'm gonna... Kool. I knew you'd get something to work. Is the plastic opaque or clear? First time I did mine, I left it clear, and you could see the bulb blinking like a Xmas tree light bogus. Sanding one piece of the plastic with 400 gave it the frosted look to difuse the bulbs 'nakedness' to a nice soft glow...like the stock green. Glad I inspired ya...are your Indi's red? I never knew they made a red...
butnut

BTOWN4RUNNER

Joey, what I did was rip everything out, do the cutting, then hook the pod back up, but without the cover, so I could easily put the new pieces on. That way I could tell. When I found the right #, I unhooked it and put the cover back on then hooked everything back up again! I really like it and you will too. It will look really cool with a TRD logo. Again, thanks for the write-up, I could not have done it without you!

Brian, yeah dude, you did inspire me! I would have never even thought about doing something unless you did it, so thanks! If you look at the 1st picture, you can see my reverse indiglo has alot of red (numbers, redline, etc.). The face does not light up, just the numbers and whatnot, and there is alot more red than before and alot less green than before, and I really like red, so I made them that! Thanks again buddy!

:fireman: