Now that i did the window switches in blue i moved on to the other lights in the car, so today i took care of the ACC, rear defroger, Crouse control, and the dimer switchs.



Im going to do the gauges and the key ring next, followed by the radio. That should look good when its done.

 

that looks pretty good, is there something you can do about your stereo LED's? or maybe its just the picture that makes them not match up that great

 

Ill get to it eventualy, but i think i might have to take the radio apart, but i ran out of LED's so it has to wait a bit

 

Looks great! Was it easy to do? How long did it take ya?

 

it was pretty difficult, but doable, took me about 3-4 hours with every thing

 

That's not too bad... were you working alone or with someone? I took me less than forty-five minutes (all together) to get the rear door switches and passenger switch done, but that was with help. It took me forever to do the driver side door alone and it was a pain in the ***.

The end result is worth it, though - it looks great (although the red "hotter" button stands out a bit). I'm mainly worried about getting the climate control unit off in the first place without damaging it (I've said before that I have a bad history with pulling dash pieces off ). How difficult was it?

(sorry for the all the questions, but I'm curious since I really like the way yours came out)

 

did the whole thing my self, the hardest part is getting the top part off, where the hazard switch is, but after that taking every thing is pretty easy, just take your time and dont rush it.

See if this helps any

 

hey that looks great! could you tell me exactly what the led's and resistors are called so i no what parts to pickup. i dont wanna f*ck my sh*t up. thanks

 

Yep, that helps loads. I was hoping you'd have a picture of what the board looked like, because I was worried about that too. Three days until I have enough money to order my spoiler and CAI (and then probably a week or two waiting for them to get here) - this'll give me something to do in the mean time.

Thanks.

 

those look like 3mm leds... are they?

how many mcd's are they?
what voltage are they?



i would also like to perform this mod eventually. just not sure what brightness led to put it.

thanks

 

These are 3mm led's, i had some left over from doing the window switches. The put out 1500mcd and are 3.5 volts. and as far as resistors i ended up i used 330ohm resistors, but you can use anything from 300-360 with the leds i picked. Make sure the math is correct.

 

That looks really neat

 

that looks tight

where can i buy these leds at?

 

I did mine 3 days ago.
Looks tight, but it's kinda dim right now.
But my stock control swich lights were burnt out so I needed replacement anyways, so I went with the Blue LEDs.
In radio shack They sell the LEDs (3.7v, 2600mcd: $3.99 each)
You need 4.
Resistors (330Ohm, 1/2 watt) for .99.
And you need a soldering gun (7.99)
I say, it's well worth the time and money.
I like my climate controls blue!

 

has anyone done the manual controls?
or are they bulbs?
same w/ the drive indicator on the auto maxs'

 

looks good

 

Yeah, I'd like to see some pics of that too, I'd even like to see some pics if you guys tried that or anything else w/ red LED's (window switches, etc, that is, if it'll look good lit at nite in red, a-la BMW)

 

geo1317 check mail.

 

Looks great Geo. Similar to how mine looked. I think I'm gonna do mine again. One thing you might try, I'm gonna too, is to get some transparent blue plastic, and cut it to size to fit inside the displays of the radio and A/C control. I hope it will turn the aqua/teal display a little more of a true blue to better match the leds. Looks real good though. I wish I could post some pics. I think I'm buying my girl a dig camera for graduating from Maryland this semester (yep, graduating the year the Terps win it all).

 

Sorry for the blurry pic. I painted the little bulbs with "clear red" hobby paint.

 

that looks tight

thanks for the pic

 

looks good nice job. I thought about doing this but decided if i want to see red and blue dash i'll go sit in the wifes passat...

 

hey ben... does that paint eventually crack or flake off??

i would imagine it would work just as well on the bulbs beind the gauges as well if it wont crack or fade over short periods of time or use...

jason

 

DONT GET ME WRONG..

The thing looks tight as hell but you HAVE to change the temp meter and radio display to blue otherwise that GREEN is making the whole setup ugly!

I decided to do this setup but couldnt figure out how to change the temp reading color from green to blue. Its better to have everythign in one color so if you are opting blue then way to go..

and if this is on ur order plan then my bad :-D just my 0.02

 

I've had mine in for at least 18 months now with no fading or cracking...and my guage bulbs are generic Autozone red blubs...

 

I know how to deal with the LED's but can someone tell me what order I need to take my dash apart on a 95 GLE?

 

When I had my climate control apart to do the blue LEDs and writeup, I also bought some clear relatively dark blue plastic which I put in the clock and climate control. I didn't have nearly the effect I hoped it would. The displays are a tad bluer (not really noticeable) but they are also ever so slightly foggy now. I'd re-do it with something else, but I don't know what else to try to get them to glow blue.

 

thebigsadler, check this pic witch tells you how to make the bulbs, its a bit tough to explain, it might take some imagination, but other than that all you really need to do is to take the ACC unit out of the center console. You dont have to take it apart, but it makes it easier.


Max4Speed, as far as making the green blue i think its realy imposible unless some one can make a custom screen for us. actually now that i think about it, if you take green and yellow, dosent that make blue? maybe ill try putting a yellow screen over it tomorrow

 

Thanks for the info, I'll post if I have any success.

 

You're close. There are three primary colors and you get derivatives of those by mixing. Blue is primary and so is yellow. I think it's red, blue and yellow. So yellow and blue make green but yellow and green would make a lighter green. I could be wrong but the logic is there. Good luck. LEt us know if you have any success.

 

Pop the plastic piece off of the shifter area (the piece around the P R N D 2 1) pull that off and it will expose the ashtray screw. Remove that screw. Pull ashtray out and to the left, be careful to make sure that the two clips behind the ashtray didn't fall underneath into the console area- it makes a really annoying noise while driving.

Now you can pop the piece with the clock on it- out and up from the climate control piece. This is held by two clips on the left and right side. When you have removed that, place it on top of the dash, you can just leave the hazard, clock, and defroster wires attached.

Now that you have the upper and lower portions removed, you should be able to see 4 screws holding this entire unit together in one piece. 2 upper right above the climate controls and 2 below the stereo area. Take those 4 screws out. You can now take out the huge middle assembly. Its a metal rack with the climate control and stereo attachments.

After that you're free to remove the climate control unit or the stereo, just be careful taking out the wire harnesses. Each unit will be held by a few little screws.

Make sure u give yourself a lot of room and take your time- don't lose any clips or screws.

If you are talking about the dash removal- gauge cluster and all- thats a bit more complicated and I won't really go into it because I'm tired. You can find instructions for those with the search func i believe.

Hope that helps.