Blue dash now with write-up
 

EDIT: Added small write-up

Finally finished my winter project, turning all interior lights to blue. Gauge cluster is procarparts.com reverse indiglo. Everything else is lit up with high intensity frosted blue led's. Some switches (a/c and back window) have the green painted on the back of the label insert, so I printed out new inserts with inkjet transparencies (the kind you use for overhead projectors), printed them backwards so the ink is on the backside of the label, followed by a piece of frosted theater light gel so the letters will show white in the daylight, followed by frosted blue gel to help diffuse the led light. The rear defrost, driver side window "auto", and hazard light had color pieces that you could remove without destroying the stock label, I just removed all the small stock light bulbs and soldered in some leds with resistors. Frosted leds help diffuse the light better too so the lights are more a blue glow than a spotlight. For the heater control panel I removed the clear plastic piece behind the panel and installed a row of the frosted leds into the plastic. I spent way too many weekends (a few hours here, a few hours there) to do a ful write-up along the way, but if anyone has any questions or wants to see more pics I'll be glad to help out. Pics and write-up on my website.

Man that is one sweeeeeeeeeet looking interior, I can't wait to get a look at that writ up, post and let us know when it's up for reading, I really want to do that same set-up I just had no idea where to begin. Way to go I can't wait to follow in your footsteps, aprox. how much did it all cost f you don't mind my asking?

Oh man thats amazing! I hope you get the chance to upload the write up. Good job :bigok:

Heh I said I didn't have time to do a full write up :). But I guess if enough people are interested I'll jot some stuff down.
The only thing I spent money on was the led's (around $12 for a 25 pack) and the resistors ($.99 per 5 pack at radio shack), for the theater gel colors I got a free sample kit that contained more than enough gel material to do what I needed. The reverse indiglos were about $30.

That looks damn good!!!!!!!! One of these days I gotta do the same to my interior. Looks way better than the stock green. How hard was it to do it all and did you leave the needles on your gauges alone or did you change those as well?

Wow, that's great work. It looks fantastic! You're now the envy of alotta people on these forums!

Hey hey!
 

Now that's a BRIGHT idea (yeah corny I know). It sounds like it wasn't too tough either, just really tedious and time-consuming. I remember seeing Butnut's blue turn signals a long time ago but I didn't want to do it with only the turn signals. I have to say I'm jealous! Also, a few Q's. How many mA's were the LED's rated at? I think I have a few 20 mA superbright ones left over from when I put auxiliary blue LED accent lights in my corner lenses, but they're really high output: 5500 mcd's. Did you just use a few frosted ones from Radio shack? Also, I know LED's usually only can handle only like a 3V power source, as opposed to the 12V source powering the stock green ones. What was the Ohm rating on the resistors, and were they all the same? Also, what colors were the bands (been a while since I've worked with them)? Maybe I'll reconsider Butnut's and your idea now. It'd go nicely with the other blue lights I have!

Zach

AWESOME:eeek: Job well done and looks so sweet.
Now i need to get my butt in gear and finish my blue light mod. I have the reverse indiglos and did the turn signals blue when the cluster was removed.

Wild-Bill you really should do a wrte up even if it is just a bunch of jotted down lines and descriptions, I work well with pcitures, but if your really descriptive then I think you can pull together a good wite up that will help us all be the envy of all 4Runner owners out there. That is tooo sweeet for words. Let us know if you do get around to making a write up, I can see that I will need to learn some electrician jargin to pull his mod off too, hmm time to read up. Way to go.

wow!

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, pretty!!!!!!!!

Agreed. It looks phenominal!! Yes, please put together a small write-up for this!

Al

that looks bada$$

:bowdown:

yes very sweet lookin

Thats awesome!!!! :bigok:

The only reason why I havent ventured into changing the interior color was because I'm picky and having some lights still green(heater, window switch, etc) would drive me insane. With that said, you solved the problem, now I just have to get the balls, time, and patience to do it (and get back to the states).

Here's an idea, package all the pieces and instructions in a kit and sell it! I know I would buy. ;)

That looks incredible!!! Some tips would be great! I also wanna know what type of LEDs and resistors you used. I would definately buy a kit if you packaged and sold some :bigok: I didn't switch any of my lights for the same reason as Lifer, but I've always wanted to so that I could match my footwell lights and my headunit.

That looks really great! Nice work!

Excellent Work!!!

:eeek: that is too pretty, i have been wanting to do the same thing with mine since my panasonic deck is that identical blue. that is an awesome jobe dood. very very nice.

OK... now that is the S@&*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please grace us all with a writeup of some sort... c'mon don't go getting all quiet on us now. We need ya`!

Great Job,

Outkast`