Colored gauge needles

[GSTdOff]

Has anyone seen the colored guage needles on 2gs?? I have seen it once,, with stock gauge faces the needle was blue. It looked sick. Anyone have more pics or know where this can be done??

 

[UrMyStlkAl]

www.importintelligence.com


Or you can scrape the orange off the back of your needle and paint it whatever color you want.

 

[cuttheduck]

All import inteligence has are small leds that they charge like 80 bucks for.

You just sand off the orange on the back of your needles, paint white.
Then take a small grinded down 3mm led and i drilled a small hole next to the needle and positioned w/ superglue. Looks good and holds up for under 10 bucks for all the needles. the needles look like little blue glowstix now. Either way works but you always use your stock needles

 

[SexyDSM95]

I went about kinda differently then you ^^^
I spray painted my needles candy apple red (it's a translucent spray paint) and my fuel/water temp light up perfectly but for some reason my tach/speedometer needles don't. I put the same amount of coats on and I used white LED's. Please don't tell me to go back and do everything over

 

[dynatos]

can you get us a pic of that?

 

[FiReBReTHa]

All import inteligence has are small leds that they charge like 80 bucks for.

You just sand off the orange on the back of your needles, paint white.
Then take a small grinded down 3mm led and i drilled a small hole next to the needle and positioned w/ superglue. Looks good and holds up for under 10 bucks for all the needles. the needles look like little blue glowstix now. Either way works but you always use your stock needles

im near positive they arent.

they are specially designed Rings that go around the Needle post that light up, not just LEDs because EVERY car would have install issues because of depth as well as these are universal kits.


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[SexyDSM95]

im near positive they arent.

they are specially designed Rings that go around the Needle post that light up, not just LEDs because EVERY car would have install issues because of depth as well as these are universal kits.


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Yea today at work (ha!) I was researching everywhere trying to find ANYTHING similar to the small circles with leds or whatever in them like import intelligence sells. No luck yet and that is probably on purpose so they can keep their business.

 

[cuttheduck]

No, My neighbor brought some and I can even throw on crappy pics if you dont believe me. I put them in for him.

They are like a round sticker. On that sticker is a REALLY small led kinda sautered on the sticker.. The led isnt flat but it is so small that it clears the needle easily. Probaly the size they use for leds in indicator leds and the like.

Theres one led on the ring for "small" gauges and three leds on the rings for the large gauges. They are wired in a series and individual strands of wire form the positive and negative which then go into one. they then just connect the wire to a "project box" that I saw at radioshack and a dimmer like switch they sell there too. You really could make the EXACT thing if you get some small LED indicator things

 

[dynatos]

after playing with it it wouldn't really be that hard to do. you can get some t1 leds that are small enough for that. you can even grind some of it down to un focus the light. Linrose makes leds that are pretty bright and in the t1 size.

SexyDSM95, can you get us a pic of the red needles? i'm really curious how that'd look. I've been thinking of blue gauges with red needles..

 

[SexyDSM95]

No, My neighbor brought some and I can even throw on crappy pics if you dont believe me. I put them in for him.

They are like a round sticker. On that sticker is a REALLY small led kinda sautered on the sticker.. The led isnt flat but it is so small that it clears the needle easily. Probaly the size they use for leds in indicator leds and the like.

Theres one led on the ring for "small" gauges and three leds on the rings for the large gauges. They are wired in a series and individual strands of wire form the positive and negative which then go into one. they then just connect the wire to a "project box" that I saw at radioshack and a dimmer like switch they sell there too. You really could make the EXACT thing if you get some small LED indicator things

Wow if I only had a better picture of what they look like I bet we could figure something out if Radio Shack definately has the parts. So the circle pieces are like stickers that just hold the LED's? How are they secured on so they don't fall off the needle

 

[FiReBReTHa]

SexyDSM95, can you get us a pic of the red needles? i'm really curious how that'd look. I've been thinking of blue gauges with red needles..

check out any VW dash

 

[SexyDSM95]

after playing with it it wouldn't really be that hard to do. you can get some t1 leds that are small enough for that. you can even grind some of it down to un focus the light. Linrose makes leds that are pretty bright and in the t1 size.

SexyDSM95, can you get us a pic of the red needles? i'm really curious how that'd look. I've been thinking of blue gauges with red needles..

Dude I would but my tach/odom needles don't light up properly only the gas/water temp. Still trying to figure it out or just break down the buy the Import Intelligence needle kit hyper red.

 

[SexyDSM95]

check out any VW dash

Actually the MKIV GTI's are orange but look reddish...where is my TUBING!

 

[pc talon]

Dude I would but my tach/odom needles don't light up properly only the gas/water temp. Still trying to figure it out or just break down the buy the Import Intelligence needle kit hyper red.

Sandy, you need to break down and do it.

 

[dynatos]

oh that is nice...

unfortunately, radioshack doesn't carry any leds in the t1 size (that are nice, anyway) - Linrose is a company that makes them, i used them for my interior blue led replacement lights.

One thing i tried, though, was shining two leds up each entry point of the clear acrylic back of the gauge, which worked really well actually. Indeglo gauges block all rear ambient light, so that could work.

Also, if you could get the led underneath the acrylic, and aim it up at the needle, that would work really well too.

pc talon, i'm assuming you have the needle kit from II, it is a film with surface mount leds?

EDIT: here's a pic of that led if anyone cares (sorry for the horrible pic, it's my celphone)

 

[pc talon]

The LEDs from II are tiny!
They have a bit of sticky vinyl on the back that adheres to the clear plastic behind the gauge faces.

 

[dynatos]

you can buy those too - i wonder how hard it would be to make them. They are just surface mount LEDs, and you can buy a strip of ten for like 3-5 bucks.

 

[pinknuggit]

ohhhhhh, I like the blue key hole light.

 

[SexyDSM95]

Sandy, you need to break down and do it.

Paul, since your car is broken how about you give me YOUR kit :laugh:
Anywho what everyone else is saying real interesting and maybe I will attempt to make the LED thingies on my own. If you could just give me part numbers to the LED's that you think would work and the circle sticky thingies to mount them up to I can probably make something happen.
P.S. You guys see my 2G cluster mod yet mwahahah

 

[SexyDSM95]

The LEDs from II are tiny!
They have a bit of sticky vinyl on the back that adheres to the clear plastic behind the gauge faces.

Oh BTW I have smiliar gauges to you and I forgot what color you got for your needles. If that is the orange I think I will attempt the hyper red....

 

[pc talon]

Oh BTW I have smiliar gauges to you and I forgot what color you got for your needles. If that is the orange I think I will attempt the hyper red....

It is red LEDs w/ red paint on the needles.

 

[SexyDSM95]

Ahhh ok for some reason it looks orange in those pics...I wonder what would happen if I kept my candy apple red that I have on them now and had those LED's... Let me post a picture so you guys can get a better idea what I am talking about.
Also I will take a pic of my HVAC I know some of you wanted to see it's only ONE led from superbrightleds.com the 74 led direct replacement:

 

[cuttheduck]

Wow if I only had a better picture of what they look like I bet we could figure something out if Radio Shack definately has the parts. So the circle pieces are like stickers that just hold the LED's? How are they secured on so they don't fall off the needle

Yah, that is written confusing as hell, srry. One of his took an early crap and we replaced it so maybe I can dig up the old one for a pic w/ a $15 camera.

They don't actually touch or stick to your needles in any way. You remove your needles, then center the carbon fiber lookin sticker thingie over the hole and put the needles back on. The led just stays in one place so the light isn't really that even. For example gauges like your gas gauge are brighter in the middle where the 1 led is actually located and much dimmer when full or near empty.

The led is still smaller then the T-1 leds shown above. Its not a round shape but just like someone ground down a T-1 led so the electrode is ALMOST exposed. I think they were brought and sold that way however because they looked uniformed and untampered w/ though its been awhile so maybe I didn't look closely enough for that possibilty

Theres no reason you couldn't drill a small hole or indentation and mount a small grounded down T1 led underneath the needle using superglue. When I say underneath I mean you would remove the needle and mount slightly off the needle's mounting hole. So if you were looking at your boost gauge for example you would mount an led a few mm to the right of the hole the needle itself mounts in. The led would still be close enough to the needle center area that it would be invisible and hide underneath the black round base of the needle. This is pretty hard if you're not that good at electronics and the wiring will be kinda a pain since you want to only use single strands of wire. The import intelligence wires are all itertwined and get tangled together including positive and negative. They dont short out i found because they have a thin layer of something on them that doesn't conduct electrcity. theres different ways to do this. You also MUST scrape off the stock orange on the back of the needles and paint them white to reflect the light.

 

[WSU99GSX]

What size led did you guys use to replace the key hole one?

 

[cuttheduck]

I just used a regular 5mm one. You could probaly use a T-3 a little easier too. Any decent non-radioshack led will do.