So I started this thread to help answer any and all questions on running a LED setup, one like I have and a how to on how to paint your overlays including how to take them off properly. I'm hoping this will help cut down the questions to John and I. Just want to start it off, I didn't come up with the idea, I got all my overlay information from John, so thanks John!
What's needed:
- 7mm socket to remove bolts to get to the gauges
- T15 torx head
- Assortment of sand paper (100-2000grit, depends on how you want yours to turn out)
- Rubbing alcohol
- Transparent glass paint
- 5mm LEDs (# depends on how many you want to wire in)
- 510ohm resistors (They're cheap, just buy 100 or so, usually like $3.50 shipped on eBay)
- Hot glue gun
- Soldering Iron
- Solder
- Double sided stick tape
- Beer (:lol
Total time: about 9-12 hours not including drying time and re assembly after the drying has happened.
I'm going to go ahead and start with the gauges out of the truck. I'm sure you can, at this point, find out how to take them out if you're going to attempt this easy, cheap mod!
There's 7 torx bolts you need to take out with I believe its a t15 head.
Also when you take the needles off the gauges, use something like a golf ball divot repair tool, this worked well for me. Some may say to use a fork, that also works. BEFORE YOU DO ANY OF THIS, it's best to warm the truck up to the normal operating temperature and either make drawings, or take pictures (this works best) of where the needles sit/lay. Once you pop the needles off this is the only way to get them back in place when you put them back on. I saw to do this when it's warm because that way you can be precise in putting them back where they belong.
Once you pop the cover off, you have to slide something under the over lays and BE VERY CAREFUL to take your time on this step. You can pull up too hard and kink the overlay and it won't lay flat and screw up the needles. I used my pocket knife, that i've done twice now and it worked awesome.
Once you get them off, they'll look like this.
Now I didn't take any pics of me wet sanding the back side of the gauges, but that was a heck of a lot faster than scraping off the all the factory tint with my knife. Just go to the hardware store and pick up an assortment of sand paper, I used 220 grit and wet sanded the gauges. It turned out real nice and makes a real great surface for the glass paint to bond to.
Once you've done this to all three over lay pieces, it should look something like this.
You want to continually check the over lay by holding it up in the light making sure you get all the factory tint off of the over lay other wise you'll end up with uneven coloring with the LEDs and the glass paint, not to mention it will make the tedious job you've done look hack.
Then once you've done that and are ready for the painting process, make sure you wipe the surface down with some rubbing alcohol to prep it to make sure the paint sticks well to the over lays. Then it's all up to you to decide what you want to show what when a light is behind it. For this setup I'm going to be running all red dummy lights (turn signals, 4wd selector indicators, speed control, seat belt, airbag, ABS, cruise control, battery, brake, check engine, etc) and the speedometer, ammeter, oil pressure, battery, fuel and tachometer will be painted with blue. Just for fun I painted the kmh purple to sort of make it a little bit darker than the mph.
The heater panel works the same way. There's a few ways you can do it, one way is the way I did it by just painting the areas I wanted to show color through the back side of the black plate. The other way is you can actually take the sticky over lay off the front of the panel it self and paint it. I've done it both ways and found it's easier to put the paint on the back side of the black piece leaving the over lays on.
Next you need to pop off the three sections that control all the needles. I didn't take pictures on how to do this, so I'm going to trust you can figure this one out. You start by pulling up on the outside sections (the ammeter gauge and the fuel pressure gauge; and the fuel gauge and water temp gauge). Then it's the same process for removing the middle section with the speedometer and tachometer. Then you're left with the white piece to the gauges where you can get to the very back of the gauge panel and the back side of the gauge panel (where the ribbon is that controls everything).
This next part is what may take some time, but knowing how to operate a continuity tester really help out! You need to find out which side of the 6 194 bulb holes is the positive side. Again, this may take some time and you may get frustrated at this part. I marked all the sides with a plus to indicate which side was the positive side. This is vital for installing the LEDs in the right way. LEDs have polarity meaning they will only work with current flowing in one direction. If you hook them up backwards, no worries, nothing will happen, just flip the leads and you'll have power. Important note with LEDs, the longer lead for each LED is the positive lead. This is the lead that gets the resistor.
If you can see good enough with the picture, you can go off that gauge exactly if you have the ST gauges like these or the silver 03 gauges. The positive side of each 194 bulb hole is exactly the same.
For this next step, I ran a 5 bulb cluster in my gauges, in this setup I ran 6. To optimize the resistor you can run 3 LEDs in series (resistor soldered to positive and that negative of the LED goes to the positive of another LED, then that negative goes to another positive of the 3rd LED then that negative gets grounded). Proper resistance Ive found is 1/4 watt, 510ohm resistors. Again, they're cheap so just buy a bunch. The leds I used where Shanes 13,000mcd rating 5mm blue LEDs. The trick is to sand down the tip of the LED flat to help dissipate the light evenly; when the LED is not sanded down and the has the rounded tip on it, it creates a beam forward, limiting the surrounding area of light. The 6 LED cluster can look like this, or how ever you want it to look, this is what mine looks like
the insert it in from the front towards the back of the gauges and bend the resistor leads and the negative leads and solder them to the board/ribbon to their appropriate lead that you have already marked.
This is a brief picture of what you'll need to do the job lol
After I finished up all the 6-194 holes with 6-5mm LEDs, I took it outside and tested it. It looks a lot like this when done.