Indeed Hyena, that does look good with the white backing - i may have to change my blue LEDs for some white ones, or even attempt that cold cathode idea for a more even look. BTW, i'd like to get hold of a steering wheel like that, as well as paint my dash like yours - any chance you could help me out? Cheers mate

It's an AU XR momo wheel, they're available on ebay and from FTG occasionally.

Those LEDs work a treat. I've got a new cluster to play with so, I'll be doing some more 'stuff' to it. I'll keep y'all posted.

With the 14,000 8mm LED's the light is actually quite even and you don't really notice any light or dark spots. I don't know why it shows up on camera like that...

Re: the black dash, just pull it all out, give it a good rub over with metho or prepsol and then spray it with gloss black spray paint!
If you're referring to the rest of my trim and the dash itself (rather than the console surround) then that's done in black vinyl spray (about $15 from supercheap) I also did my airbag cover with it and as you can see it looks pretty good (you wouldn't know it didn't come with the wheel)
The red wheels you can get in a few places, altho they're a bit harder to find than the other colours. Keep your eye out here in the for sale forum or ebay. I got mine from Amber I think, and I think xr8 dismantler had some too. Mick Webb has them on ebay for $295 which isn't real cheap, but cheaper than the $1400 odd ford want for them!
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... BIN_Stores

BTW, if anyone else wants to do the white led conversion using 8mm leds don't pay $4 for them at Jaycar and the like! I can get them for under $2 each so if anyone wants some PM me

What kind of printer do i need to print these out and hyena how hard is it to do the LED's you used?

I used the ones shoony had done at a professional printer. They look and feel like that powdery finish photopaper you can buy for inkjets but when you cut it it's stiffer and more plasticy...

I'd try it with just a decent inkjet or colour laser if you have access to one, or as others have suggested pay a few bucks and get them done at officeworks or the like.

The LEDs weren't that hard. As I said they're the perfect size to drop straight into the hole and soldering them straight to the large metal contacts on the back of the board holds them there. Getting in with the tip of the iron is a bit tight and you'll probably end up melting the plastic a bit if you're not really careful and quick, but it's the back of the cluster which no one will see and it won't damage anything if you do melt the plastic case a bit anyway. I found that the easiest way was to get heaps of solder on the iron and then quickly feed more solder onto the leg you're soldering and it'll stick. This would make a mess for normal component soldering but because of the large size of the contacts it's not a drama. If you're slow or don't have enough solder it won't stick and you'll end up melting through to china

You have to make sure you get the polarity right with LEDs as unlike normal globes they have only work one way around. After I removed all the globes from the dash I plugged it back in to the car and measured the polarity of all the contacts so I could solder them in with the correct polarity the first time around.
I took a photo once it was marked out showing polarity of each socket and I'll post that up this arvo when I get home to save others the trouble.

Did you use any resistors for the LEDs? our are tehy running straight from the cluster.

Which AFAIK, provides a variable voltage as determined by the position of the dimmer switch. But it could be up to 12V!!!

BTW: I'm looking at getting some of those LEDs for my new cluster.

edit: did you frost the LEDs? I noticed rom the specs they have a rather wide (for a high-brite LED) 15degree beam. But IMO still too narrow.

Of course I used resistors! There'd be several smouldering 8mm holes in my dash now if I didn't I used 510 ohm resistors which could probably be dropped a bit, but they're safe @ 510 ohms and are plenty bright enough anyway. The dimmer drops the brightness a touch, but not as much as normal bulbs (and I never use it anyway)

They're soldered direct to the contacts on the back of the cluster that the bulb holders normally contact with - ie the brackets in this pro diagram > (O)

What specs are you looking at for viewing angles ?
They go out the window when you frost them anyway - which I did do ...with a dremel

Great, you didn't mention using resistors anywhere, I kinda figured you did because of the aforementioned smoldering issue.

/me rubs hands together and laughs an evil laugh.

i wish u could make that for my au2 that would look awesome in my girl lol

all that's needed is a hi-res scan of the original dials, and then anything can be put on them. Means of course someone has to pull apart tehir cluser and scan them in.

is this possible for this to be done to a BA

probaly, I'd assume they use a removable dial face - since they're different for stock/XR/FPVs.

You could do it all in one sitting if you're organised. Pull the cluster out, scan the faces, design and print new ones, then cut them out and whack em back in!

Here's the picture showing the cluster polarity for anyone else looking to do the same



this probably should go in the led conversion doco too...

What size are these supposed to be printed out as? Mine keep printing out as a whole A4 sheet.

hey hyena with the 14000 whites do you know what rating the resistors where?
And where they like the narva inbuilt with the plastic casing?
it lookes bloody good mate and its nice and bright.