Gauge lighting

[Slowleak]

I got Kevin at Classy Guages to overhaul my speedometer and it came back all pretty. I decided to try some different leds to try and light up the actual speedometer face, not just the gauges. Nothing really helped.
Having nothing better to do, I tore into and lined it with some led tape that I had laying around. Here’s some before and after pics.

Nice and shiny with new paint on the rim and needles, gauges calibrated, and bouncy needle fixed…

Put some bright leds in and still can’t see the speedo.

Lined it with dimmable LEDs all the way around.

Now it lights up and dims nicely

I have some light leaking into the turn signal indicators which I need to block and some dust on the face, and I need to add some connectors for the wires and it’s ready to go.

 

[.94 OR]

Looking pretty darn good.
I need to do some work on mine.

 

[ared77]

You do some amazing work Mark!

 

[Slowleak]

You do some amazing work Mark!

Thanks Norm! I guess I’ve got too much free time.

 

[Shimmy]

that looks great!! cool idea!

 

[SLOWnEASY]

That looks really good. This makes me think about the suggestion to paint the back of the dashboard white to help see things when working under it. If I ever have my dash off I might just put an LED strip up in there to help me see in the future.

 

[Slowleak]

That looks really good. This makes me think about the suggestion to paint the back of the dashboard white to help see things when working under it. If I ever have my dash off I might just put an LED strip up in there to help me see in the future.

That would work well. The tape sticks great. Almost too good.

I added a ground wire, grommet and bullet connecter which I will plug into a socket adapter so I don’t have to modify any wiring. I can use one of the existing bulb sockets for power and I taped over the other bulb holes. Won’t have to mess with wresting those bulbs and sockets back in. Just plug up the bullet connector and I’m in business….

 

[.94 OR]

Source for the LED strip light?

 

[Slowleak]

Source for the LED strip light?

Had to dig thru my Amazon history but I found it. Make sure you get the 12v version of whatever you order or it will not work if another 12v led in on the same circuit. I found out the hard way.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GFQCW5C/?tag=classicbroncos-20

 

[Shimmy]

i really like how its a warm white and not the bluish LEDs of modern era.

 

[Slowleak]

i really like how its a warm white and not the bluish LEDs of modern era.

Yep. 4000k is a good natural color. Bright enough to not be yellow but not blue either.

I made some small foam donuts and put them around the turn indicator lens between the outer face and the speedo face. That blocked the light that is bleeding thru into the green indicator lens. I’m going to test all out again when it gets dark tonight before I install it.

 

[DirtDonk]

So they dim with the standard dimmer rheostat on the light switch? Or did you add a special LED dimmer control?

 

[Broncobowsher]

I've used a ton of that LED lighting for projects for many years. 2700k is about as warm as you can find. but 3000K, 4000K are highly available as well. And for the LED look, 6000K and 6500K also exist. Color changing RGB also exists, but you need a driver for those. I avoid them, they never look that good to me.

It takes a little more shopping, but a higher CRI also helps. One of those things people often skip over when they are shopping Lumen and color temps.
There are waterproof versions. Generally avoid these unless doing actual outdoor installs. They trap heat in (kills the LEDs), and make doing electrical connections much more difficult.
For a tight area like the gauges, check the cut line spacing. Some can be cut in very short increments, others can only be cut several inches apart.
Expect to need to keep at least one incandescent bulb in the system to put enough load on the dimmer for it to function.
Newest trend is COB lights. It is just a bunch of little LEDs spaced really close to each other. At normal output it looks like a continuous strip of light. If you dim them down really low you can see all the little spots.

Probably a few more things I am not thinking of right now.

And if you want to be really trick about it, Electroluminscent lighting strips. I used these on the gauges on my boat. Used to give a soft glow to the inside of a center console. But much more limited for color choices. Must use a driver module. They were first used as gauge lighting in the mid 60's on the Dodge Charger. I've used some of the adafruit stuff before https://www.adafruit.com/product/41...fZ67BDJBG3qitpiQQonAE1Vzpz9XsvmDyUNPCZYKMqZ_z

 

[Broncobowsher]

So they dim with the standard dimmer rheostat on the light switch? Or did you add a special LED dimmer control?

I was typing as you asked this, they will dim. But you may need to still have a regular bulb on the dimmer to load it enough.

 

[Slowleak]

So they dim with the standard dimmer rheostat on the light switch? Or did you add a special LED dimmer control?

They dim with the light switch just like the bulbs did. I did not change anything outside of the cluster. I will use one of these bulb socket adapters to give me a positive wire coming out of one of the original cluster lights sockets. Then a bayonet connecter from the positive wire to the led strip. Don’t need the ground wire No cutting or splicing…
I tested it and it works fine with the gear shift indicator switched to a led. That and the lights for the dash knobs, the light bars, are the only other things that dim. So, everything I can change to led is led now with no dimming problems.