UKMyers

Well I started off today to fix my TRD decal screw up from last weekend on my tachometer. The backing peeled right up leaving only the letters. It looks much better now! Well while I had it apart I started pondering about how to get the cluster background blue. The lights in the back of the cluster are clear with the green condoms over them. Well I made a run to the parts store and lord behold they had blue bulbs. Also while I had it apart I pulled out the small bulb from behind the heater controls and took that with me. They didn't have the bulb but they did have Bulb Paint!!!??!! Never heard of this so I brought it home to try it out. Well the first step of the instructions says to stick the contact end of the bulbs into a POTATOE!!! This is to hold them while you paint. Once they are painted you pop em in the oven for 20 minutes to bake on the paint.. I thought no way these bulbs are going to blow. I bought extras just in case. After 20 minutes in the oven I pulled them out let them cool and the turned out great!! All total I painted 2 small ones in the cluster in addition to the two big bulbs that backlight the miles and needles, the one that lights up on the steering column so you can see the ignition, and the one behind the heater controls. I put it all back together and it's AWESOME ! Only problem is the AC, Flasher, and rear defroster are still green. I took the AC switch all apart and it cannot be changed. The green is painted onto the face so I just removed the bulb. Still need to tear into the other two. The ashtray and glove box have the same type bulbs so hoping to take care of them soon. I am very very pleased with how this turned out!! I will try and do a write-up over the weekend.. Here's the pics!

Here's the blue paint.. I never knew this stuff existed!


Here's the bulbs in the oven. Cracks me up that on Thanksgiving I was cooking light bulbs and taters!!!


The blue heater bulb before reassembly


My digicam takes crummy pics in the dark but you get the idea. No it's not 317am I didn't reset the clock after having the dash apart.


Here's a shot of the whole dash. Again not too good of quality.


And Finally my new and corrected installed TRD decal.. Looks much better now

metal22lica

Looking good Joey! im not sure what his member name is but Brandon was telling me he did this to his 4runner too and he said he also loved it. he also did the Auto trans light to. so did you put some butter and sour cream on the potatoes and eat them?

butnut

Good job. That paint may be what the blue heads are looking for. Uhhhh, not to be a prick, but our former vise prez spelled potato with an 'e' at the end...I don't think he's heard the end of that one yet. ...but since ya found the paint, you get a break from me today...those spuds in the oven look kinda sexy...hint: don't eat the blue mashed potato's...now pass that gravy here!
butnut

tomus1000

Very very cool! Is every light on the dash now blue?

Brad

Looks great. Where did you get your white face gauges and the trd decal?

Outkast`

UKM,
Way 2 GO!!!!! Looking Good Over There!

Outkast

UKMyers

Hey thanks for you comments guys. Now to answer some questions. First off

The Brits actually spell it with an "E" at the end. Same reason the spell tires TYRES and Color COLOUR and so on so there!! hehehehe J/K
I believe they did have some orange paint there. The paint is called Neon Bulb Paint and it's made by a company called Trillogy Limited here in the UK. I imagine there's gotta be something similiar in the states. I bought this stuff at an auto accessories store. They mostly sell Bling Bling stuff for cars.

Tomus yes everything except the background of my hazard lights and rear defogger. I am planning on pulling them real soon to see if they can be changed. I may be stuck with them though.

Brad the gauges came off of EBay.. See the cosemetic portion of the Tech section for a complete write-up. The TRD was made and sent to me by Chris Steger
Them bulb covers look like they would work but they really dull the light output. With the painted bulbs they put out a shine like Christmas lights and alot better color!
Joey

butnut

Well I'll be jiggered...you guys got that funny English thing goin' there eh?...a potatoe interesting. You know, I've tried all kinds of stuff to get the blue color, even with bulb paint, stained glass paint, the biggest problem was getting it perfectly even colored. I'm pretty anal and I've been painting awhile, but this was a problem. I'd always get some white light 'bleed through'...creating weak spots in the color. Does the oven baked spud paint come out perfectly coated? If so, you got a winner. Sounds like it may only be available in your neck of the woods mate...a local product. I'll bet that paint would sell real good over seas...us crazy Americans love those colored lights. You're really trickin' out your Runner eh? Looking good!
butnut

butnut

My experience with the blue condom (yeah I tried those too) is the blue is very weak looking. Because of the natural yellowish color of the nekkid bulb, it's almost blue-greenish looking, on the verge of looking a dull white...like a bad imitation of hyper-white. Not a nice sharp blue. The bulb paint Joey tried may be better at giving a truer blue colour ...I'd like to try that paint myself. Turkey sandwich's today!
butnut

UKMyers

Brian the blue bulbs put out more light for sure than the condoms. After two nights I am very pleased with them. I got my footwell lighting done today too.. Should be some pics up of that later on!

Citykid

I found where they sell it.

http://www.pvdnet.co.uk/interior/pvd.asp

I think I' am going to drop a couple of pounds.
Or a lot of dollars.

UKMyers

Good Lord!:eek: Don't pay that price man! I got mine for 4.99 quid(pounds) If you really want it PM or email me and we can work something out where I will buy it and mail it to you. You can paypal me some $$ or something.
Philly they do have RED there. Same deal above goes for you too if your really interested in it. I have done about 10 bulbs so far and am completely satisfied. I am surprised how easy it is to get to the bulbs. I have done the Ashtray, Glovebox, Hazards switch, rear defroster switch, rear window switch, AC switch.. They are all just little bitty bulbs that take about 2 seconds to smear some paint on.

brandon

you can also buy blue LED's to fit for the 194/186 bulbs. I have not found any LED's that are the size "74" which are the tiny ones that go in the heater controls, ashtray, etc. You can also make your own LED's by purchasing the LED's and resistors from radio shack or an electric store and soldering them in.

On a side note, the LEDs that are sieze 194 are too short and dim to my liking in the instrument cluster, I tried that first. I recently ordered 194 LEDs that contain 4 LEDs in each connection instead of one. At the end of the week I should have some pictures of the final product and information on the brightest/most effective replacement lights if that is what you are looking for.

butnut

Yeah Brandon, post some pics...what year Runner ya got? The only 194 bulb I have in my entire cockpit is on the shifter console...
butnut

brandon

I have a 1990. These are the places where i changed bulbs:

3 194/168's in the center of intrument panel
2 194/168' for blinker lights on instrument panel
2 194/168's for licence plate lights
1 size "74" bulb for heater controls
1-74 for shifter
2 74's for outside part of instrument cluster.
1 74 for cigg lighter
1 74 for ashtray
1 74 for glove box

you can also replace the light that shines on the ignition, but I have not done that, and do not know the size.

I have not checked the front lights, but I think that the parking lights are also 194 or 168's.

While a 194 or 168 bulb will both fit, I reccommend(sp?) using the 168's as they are longer and the 194's are shorter. This is important in the instrument panel because the light touches a plastic part inside therefore making the gauges brighter.

I will take pics soon with everything taken apart as well as the final outcome

Also, you can replace the light on the backdoor switch(it is white). I am not sure of the size (it is very small). You also have to scrape the green part off the top if you want a dif color. On the backdoor window lock switch, the light is green.

All switch lights can also be changed if you really want to take the time and take them apart to change them.
I took the drivers side window controls apart last night. It is really easy to put back together, but getting to the lights looks almost more trouble than its worth. I left them alone.

If anyone would like me to make a write up of this, let me know, as I still have the dash apart since I am still waiting on my pro-fit for my cell phone which should be arriving monday.

brandon

I also want to change the map light and the other two roof lights ( I forgot their real names) to a brighter white. PIAA makes some very bright ones for that as well.

Here are some sites to buy replacement bulbs, although I am sure there are more/better ones out there:

www.lightlens.com
www.autobulbdepot.com

My next plan is to make my own colored ones out of LEDs and resistors. Wonder if that will be any brighter? or too bright?

UKMyers

Brandon it's the same as the bulbs in the ashtray and glove box.


Don't do that!! I tried it and it scrapes the letters right off too of whatever switch your working with. My AC switch now has a nice vertical line right down the letters. For the Rear Defroster, Hazards, and AC switches if you want to change the bulb you have to pull them out of the dash and on the side of them is what looks like a watch battery. You turn it a half turn with a screwdriver and it pops out with a bulb on the backside of it. I changed these bulbs to blue and believe it or not it overrides the green. It's not totally blue, more like a teal color but not at least them switches don't stick out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the dash!

I want to know if there are clear lenses available for the RED lights in the doors??? I would love to change them over to blue!! Does anyone know??

Brandon I've done this too already Look at this thread.

sleepy1405

hey so brian, what are the other bulbs in your dash? Would they be the same for my dash?
I want to change those, after taking apart my dash, well somewhat it looks easy enough to just switch them out

butnut

If your dash looks like mine...at this point, I'd ask Joey if you could buy a bottle of potatoe paint and paint any bulb you can get to. Should be easy enough.
butnut

UKMyers

Potatoe paint I like that I am getting ready to mail some out tomorrow to someone else.. Anymore takers?