Hey guys, well here is the complete write up on how I changed the color of my center console and dash without soldering or buying new lights. Pretty harmless and you can always go back to stock pretty fast.

First of all you have to take the whole thing apart. So you can go to http://carstereohelp.com/stereoremovalNisMax0.htm to get the instructions on how to remove the stereo. If doing for first time the top vents are really hard to remove so be careful.

Once the unit is removed, I just took it back to my house so I can work in it calmly, and there are a lot of small little screws that preferably should not be lost. I have the bose unit so I don’t know if the setup is different for the stock unit. Once you take out the unit it should come with the heater/AC and the stereo controls/CD/Tape player.

1.Unscrew the two plates on each side that hold the Ac/heater together with the CD player.
2.Once those are off separate the two units.
3.(a) Start with the head unit.
a.Take off the screws that hold the plastic black cover in place.
b.Once those are off take off the plastic cover (it should just snap off)
c.Once off you should now see the green plate with a bunch of little screws holding it. Unscrew all of them (I believe there are about 14 of them)
d.Then take off the plate.
(b) This is the procedure for the heater/AC
a. Unscrew any screws that you see (around 6-7 )
b. And take off the white plastic.
c. Then turn the unit over and take off the thing on the slider…should come off pretty easy. Then you should be able to take off the black plastic that covers the unit.
d. After that you should take off all the buttons that control where the air is coming from.


4.After all the above steps are completed, you now have access to the insides of both units and the buttons.
5.Next pick which way you would prefer to do it.


A.Use tape and a marker (your color preference)
a.Tape has to be clear otherwise its gonna look weird…
b.Take the tape and color it the color you want. Try and make it even so you don’t have any streak marks on it. Then cutout little pieces of it that would go inside the buttons. Make sure you cover the white part inside the button.
c.Then use enough tape to cover the main display on the main console.
d.Then put all the buttons back in and put the stereo back together and inside the car and enjoy.
B.This is a little trickier. Only thing you will need is paint.
a.You will have to keep disassembling both units until you reach clear plastic pieces that look weird and have wholes in them where the LED’s go
b.Once done, take those plastic pieces out and use the paint (also your color preference) and paint those “holes” or “spots” where the LED’s go. (reason for that, is those are the main points where the LED’s light goes to and if that point is colored then that specific color will be spread through the whole clear plastic and into the buttons.
c.Once colored all the spots or holes put everything back together and into the car.

I personally prefer to use the tape method since it makes all the buttons color look even while I was unable to make the paint method achieve the same kind of “evenness” Plus you will still have to use the tape method to cover the main display.

Hope this helps people who want to change the color for the main display. If you have any more questions please post.

Enjoy!

-IgS

p.s. if you want some examples check page 2 of my cardomain site

 

im guessin you made it blue to match the neons and the indiglos, right?

 

exacto!!

 

I was thinkin of goin red, we'll see what happens

 

i liked the all orange look on my old bmw. But with my max i think i would go with blue as well. Looks nice man.

 

orange...no, red... yes

 

green...no

 

pic's plz I can't visualize it.

 

go to his homepage

 

and umm for the red and the yellowish looks i found a cool thingy as i was doing this whole thing

Once you take the whole thing apart all the LED's inside the console have dark blue "condoms" on them....(and provide green light...go figure) but anyways if you take those rubber things off, it will give you a nice orangish color for all the buttons, but i would not have any ideas on how to change the main display.....

hope this helps if anyone was wondering

-IgS

 

cardomain is down,,,YET AGAIN