After many hours and some stupid mistakes I finally finished. I used the blue 5 matrix led in the back of the gauges and white single leds behind each needle. I also left the tips of the needle un sanded to have some contrast during the day.

(the pics are a crapy because i used my cell phone)

Also, I wanted to make my needles look like red ones on the 03 max. I was thinking of painting the needles with a red transperant paint. Does anyone know a better way?

 

looks very nice. sorry dont have an answer to your question though.

 

Use a red magic marker. Also look in hte howto's for a how to on to make LED needles and put red leds in there.

 

Those are the instructions I used, but I used white leds. I didn't use red leds because the color would mix with the blue and get pink.

 

you stated that you put white leds on the back of the needle, why not red?( I'm not sure about this)

BEAT ME TO IT SORRY>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

looks nice

 

Well, the led will be so close to hte needle it won't mix.

 

How are the gauge hot spots in real life (not cell pictures) with the 5 matrix LED?

I may think about switching from my superbrightleds.com 4 LEDs bulbs...

 

needles look hot. Congrats.

 

dude that looks flawless. i know the camera quality is not great and all but looks good

 

There is hot spots are very minimal...its the same amount as with the stock bulbs.

 

So you used 5 matrix leds right?

 

god i wanna do that to my car so bad, i wil be soon.. looks great man, get a digi cam and get better pictures tho!

 

Nevermind you did. Looks great!! Im ordering my leds tomorrow.

 

just out of curiosity. how long did it take you to clear the needles out? i tried using sandpaper underneath them but it wasnt doing anything. maybe i wasnt trying hard enough because i didnt want to mess the cluster up.

 

.....................

 

not long ...I recommend a large grit first...then finish with something smaller

 

that does look VERY good.

 

nice thas my next project

 

Wow thats is very nice. Hmm..Think imma try to do something like that.

 

dam that looks swett. i have my gauges all blue

 

Looks so nice, I want to do the needle led's, but dont want to mess the needles up while sanding the orange off of my needles.

 

i dont understand. am i missing something? there arent bulbs directly behind the needles. i feel stupid.

 

I tried using a red led. The gauges didnt mix, but the needle's red mixed with the gauges blue and I got pink.

 

I have 194 led's in my guages with a single led for each one and the needles on my guages don't light up. If I replace them with the ones with the 4 led's or 6 led's, will that provide enough light for my guage needles to light up?

 

I have intalled 4 LED in one on my 96 max. It looks pretty good. I think one of the LED is not lighting up on my gauge. I'll have to take it apart this weekend to get it back up. My dash takes 5 LED, I'm not sure how many your 98 max will take. Also, it looks pretty good when you put the 4LED on the door.

 

My needles are orange, will it look wierd since I will have the new blue led's in them? I dont want to sand them, because I do not want my needles to get messed up.

 

The needles wont look wierd. It just will not be as illuminated at night compared to stock. But I think if you do the needle mod w/o sanding the needle the needles will illuminate better.

I'm thinking of painting my needles with a transperant red paint.

 

You're right, there aren't bulbs directly behind the needles. You have to put them there, it doesn't seem too tough though... Don't feel stupid, it's a good observation.

Here's the link (taken from the stickies) to show how to do it:
http://www.petah.org/maxima/gauge.htm

 

If I do all white led's the orange needle should illuminate just fine correct

 

Yep, it should. Adding an LED light behind your dash shouldn't change the color of the needle; you're just making the white lighting brighter.

 

Nice dash.

I got questions about that matter:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=346066

 

I’m surprised to see that most people are using 4 leds instead of the 5 led.

I got the 5 Led and it look great at first but now they’re flickering,

I think I got a batch of defective Leds.

I Have the revere glow gauges and decided to make it match nicely with hyperwhite leds.

I’ll post pics when I get home!

 

well done !

i think this is the best color combo for the gauges, or maybe white numbers with blue needles.

 

Those look nice. I have basically the same thing with red LED needles. However, I can't ever take a good pic of the cluster cause it's either too dark or too bright. Anyone got tips on how to take a good pic?

 

looks great man, just use a red sharpie on the needles and you will be all set.

 

So you have red leds behind your needles? Didnt the red and blue mix?

 

Yes, red Import Intelligence LED needles. No, the red and blue contrast quite nicely and stand out very well. There are some dull pics on my website, but they don't do it justice.

 

good job