I finally got that neon bulb paint from England on Tuesday (after three and a half weeks) and I painted the bulbs behind my heater and A/C controls night before last. Last night, I put them in. When I turned the lights on without the heater faceplate on, the bulbs glowed a bluish green, almost a teal color. When I put the faceplate on, it illuminated teal instead of the stock green. One problem is that the outer part of some of the controls (like the vent direction knob on the right) does not illuminate as bright on the right side as on the left. I'm not sure what's up there because I only dipped the bulbs one time, which is really no different than the green condom that was on the bulb before. My question is what other products/paints have ya'll used that gave you a blue look. I can live with this color because it does match my Dakota Digital gauges and my radio, but I was really hoping to get a blue look to match the Speedhut dials. I think some of ya'll have used a simulated stained glass paint from a craft store. Thanks guys. Later.

Matt

 

Ahhh, crap. I guess no need to send me some. I installed the gauges the other day and got terrible white light bleed on both side gauge faces...looked like tiny flashlights. I pulled the bulbs and used blue Sharpie. It tamed the brightness, acceptable, but the tach and speedo needle is'nt glowing as bright..I can live with it, but finding a nice blue color from a clear bulb is'nt gonna be easy...too dark blue, and any brightness is lost. I may have to try those LEDs one day.

 

Brian,
I'll definitely send you some if you'd like. I wanted to try it out before I sent it to you. I'm not giving up yet though. Where there's a will....There's a way!

Matt

 

Anyone know what the white stuff is on the back of the heater/air faceplate? It's in the same spot as all of the icons and I'm wondering if I need to remove it to get the blue look that I'm looking for. It may be some sort of luminescent material.

Matt

 

OK i spent $25 on LEDs to swap out the gauge bulbs........only thing i was able to change was the ignition key ring,,ashtray and shift lever indicator. LED projects most of its light forward.....it does not look even in gauge clusters... nothing really works right, its just a frikkin light bulb...too much $ and time has been invested in this thing. argh, i guess i can try stainglass paint...lol it's funny how much this is frusturating me.

 

2001MillRunner,
Let me know which paint you try. As you can see, that neon bulb paint really did not do the trick. I'm gonna stop by Michael's this evening and buy some glass paint and do a little experimenting. I really don't know if we're gonna be able to get the look that we're looking for by painting the bulbs. If you look on down at the other posts, I think I started another post about the white material that is on the back of the heater/air faceplate. I think it's what is dimming the light and not dispersing it properly. Keep in touch. Maybe we can get this thing going together.

Matt

 

LSUMATT1514, you selling the paint? I may be interested. PM me.

 

I feel your pain...this SUX for sure haha. trying to coat it blue would only dim the lights and blue requres the most light. I dont think it'd be a good idea to scratch off the white stuff that's painted, i think it's there to define the color of the bulb. I dont think we're ever gonna be able to get ther perfect BLUE that we're looking for unless we modify the unit with LEDs(drill hole&put like 3LEDs in each dial) or high output bulb(would = to more heat) I dunno....maybe indiglo HVAC would be another option but i really don't dig the fact that whilte back panel would clash with the rest of the black plastic panels. Cigarette lighter light is another thing...... also thinking of learning how to solder reisister to led and make my own lights to make this work....argh....again this sux