I read the Sticky's, and the general consensus is to replace the OEM bulbs with LED's. Has anyone ever just tried painting the OEM bulbs with paint to get the desired effect? I have used this method before with turn signal bulbs in clear housings that I wanted to be orange, and it turned out pretty well. Just wondering if anyone had tried this in lieu of just swapping our for LED's.

 

If you're gonna take the time to disassemble everything why not just solder on LEDs or 194 bulbs? The paint will eventually burn off and you'll be stuck with doing it all over again. Do it right the first time so that can be the only time. It's up to you though.

 

Im not adverse to doing the wiring/soldering, but ive heard complaints that the light they emit doesnt spread out too well, leaving "hot spots" and "dim spots", even after sanding the bulb to help diffuse the light. And i couldnt imagine the paint would burn off. I used model airplane paint on turn signal bulbs before and never had any problem with it. Granted they dont stay on constantly so they never got that hot, but i cant imagine that little OEM incandescents can get hot enough to burn through a little paint.

 

Trust me, the paint will burn off. If you have a spare 194 laying around then do this quick test. Solder some extension wires to each of the legs and then connect those wires to the positive and negative battery terminal. Within less than 1 minute, those 194 bulbs should be hot enough to burn your fingers. Try placing some electrical tape on the outside of the bulb and you'll see it begin to smoke and then melt. You can also use permanent/magic marker on the bulb but they all end up burning off in the end. The paint you use must be transparent so the light can shine through so you can't use high temp paints becuase they are too thick and block all light. Incandencent bulbs are the way to go but if you want LEDs, make sure you solder several LEDs per bulb hole and spread them out. That way you can avoid hot spots and get a move even lighting effect. Have fun modding. It should look good when you are done regardless of what method you choose.

 

cool. thanks for the tips.

 

There are NOT 194 bulbs behind the AC controls. They are much much smaller, like the size of a match head. I painted mine about 4 years ago and they are still deep red. Here's a blurry pic:

 

My bad HybriDSM. For some reason I thought I remembered that they were 194s there too like the tach/odo bulbs. Since you are painting LEDs, and LEDs produce little/no heat, painting them will be ok and faster than resoldering all of the LEDs.