Here is the finished dash conversion to blue LEDs (hyperwhite used in instrument cluster). Thanks goes out to Nate of www.ledautomotive.com. I made several modifications to his kit which he might incorporate into the future versions he offers for sale. He wants to strike a balance between ease of install and a total custom look, so some of my mods probably won't make it into the off the shelf kits. I was a custom audio installer for 15+ years so admittedly some of my tweaks score extra points on the detail chart but would be too complex for the average installation. Even "as-is", his kits are very good and I'd highly recommend you give your car an illumination upgrade.

 

Nice Looking LED

 

do they have anything similar to lexus dash....not a fan of blue dash

 

looks sweet, how much total?

 

that looks great, howd you do it?

 

You can do the whole dash with Hyperwhite. I went with blue because my Pioneer Premier head unit came with all blue LED illumination and for the past 3 years it didnt have a factory look because it didnt match the awful yellowy color of the stock bulbs. Now the color is all tied together.

 

www.ledautomotive.com has a "how to" section. It would take me way to long to do a write up about each of the mods that I did to his kits.

 

Not sure what the total was because I added some extra LEDs to Nate's standard kits. Going with just his kits, I'd guestimate about $200 to do everything.

I dont think he offers the window switch or memory seat kits just yet, but he may offer them soon....

 

do you live near CT by any chance?

 

Beautiful! Been waiting for a while for this. Time to contact Nate. Thanks for posting this up. If it wasn't for this thread, I probably wouldn't remember until I visit V6P.

 

Dude this looks sick!!! How long did it take you to do? You have to rip up the entire dash right?

 

Yeah I live in Fairfield County CT.

 

no way what town

 

Thanks. I did the car in stages over a 4 day period. The car was driveable in between (as long as you dont mind driving with the dash panel off for a few days).
Dash illumination for climate control and clock was done first day. Cluster took a second day (only because I have a radar that I remoted in the speedo gauge a while back and with all the ribbon cable already running in there it slowed down the process), then I did the power sunroof, fogs, cruise switches another evening, and then did the door switches and memory seat over one full day this past Sunday, primarily because I had to make up the kit as I went along (the memory seat switches required much planning because there is only one OEM light bulb and just replacing it with a single LED wont spread out enough light to illuminate all three parts of the switch. This is where the skill kicks in).

If you just go with Nate's kits, you could do the dash in a weekend (not counting all the door switches). I would seriously not recommend trying to jamb the whole job into one day. Taking time pays off. Less chance for a screw up, and if you bother to aim each LED, you won't get any "hot spots". LEDs are much more directional than standard lighting, so you really have to aim the LEDs carefully otherwise you'll end up with some overly bright areas and some dim areas. It all depends on how perfect you want your job to come out.

 

Near Bridgeport.

 

I work in Norwalk so maybe I'll check in at your Calf Pasture Beach meet in May....

 

tats crazy i live in norwalk, where do you work, you should come check out the gtr, ill probably have it at the meet

 

holy crap that is awesome! ive always wanted blue or white leds for my dash b/c i absolutely hate the ugly green we have. Was able to fix it with the reverse indiglo gauges, unfortunately, i have no experience soldering, and other than the gauges and a few other things, not much electrical experience here so it wouldnt work out too well.

but wow, that looks beautiful man, im amazed you got it all in only 4 days, that looks sooo nice...the work definitley payed off.

 

Wow, that looks incredible. Definitely on my list now for summer mods

 

sorry to go off topic but whats the "gtr"?

 

If you just do Nate's kits as-is, you can finish in less than half that time. Th extra time came from all the mods i did to the standard kit design.

 

Did you take pics of the back side of the instrument panel (speedo, tach...)? I wanna see how many LEDs you have and where you placed them.

 

For the cluster, all LEDs are in their stock locations except for the following: 3 additional 3mm LEDs were used.

Two above the radar detector display, mounted parallel to the speedo gauge, each firing about 100 degrees backwards (to fill in a dark spot created above the display due to the position of the stock LEDs and the way their light was being slightly blocked by the radar display) - in a 'standard' install (no radar) you probably wouldnt need these extra LEDs.

A third LED was used at the bottom right of the Tach, to light up the shift numbers "1", "2" and "3 (the rest of the shift indicators get light from an LED in the stock bulb location. This mod is needed because unlike the other cluster bulbs that can be removed from their sockets, Acura, in their infinite wisdom, simply soldered a bulb down in this location. (I have no idea what Acura would do if you brought your car in to have this bulb replaced; probably try to sell you a whole new cluster). After desoldering the bulb, I soldered in an LED and left it standing up about and inch, aiming it about 45 degrees away from the shift numbers to avoid it being spotty or brighter than the rest of the illumination.

 

How are the gauges on the eyes at night? Is the blue distracting?

 

that looks great! did u lose the dimming feature?

 

Didn't think about that. Honestly, I think that is the most useless feature in a car.

 

not for me, the color of the gauges and what not is so ugly to me, i prefer to put it as dim as possible.

 

the nissan skyline i have in my avatar

 

the LEDs are not at all distracting because the intensity is just right. I used to have the reverse indiglos from Austin 519's 2002 groupbuy, and those were very distracting.

 

The dimmer still works although with the correct resistor values used for the LEDs, its perfect at full intensity. Most of the resistors are 470ohm, but the climate control display and the "on" indicators are 910 ohms. A little exprimenting beforehand helped me to choose these values. The goal is to make everything have the same luminace so it all looks uniform.

 

HA! Yeah I know what you mean, and thats why I did the LED conversion. When a 21k 2005 Honda Accord has a brighter dash, I knew I had to step up and do something about that....

 

great setup

 

Lemme know if you are going to do the LED conversion. I may be available to help bail you out if you get stuck.... or, for the right price, I could be persuaded to do the install for you.
But then again, there would be 2 very cool cars in the same town (Norwalk) and it might be more than the town can handle.....

 

yea i might just have you do it for me, yep, norwalk might just blow up

 

Not sure how old you are or how long you've lived in Norwalk, but I used to work for Harrick's Radio during the 1980's and early 1990's on Main St. by Dunkin Dognuts. I think its a 'Boomer McLoud' nowadays --- What a terrible name for a car audio store. it certainly doesn't convey any sense of quality.

 

looks good.....what is that display in the center of your speedo?

 

Trust me, it's a good trade off. He wants to see your LEDs and you get to see (and maybe even ride in) his GTR...don't walk there, RUN to meet up with him

It's another name for the Nissan Skyline from Japan...I only wish I lived in CT

 

oh ok, i know where your talking about

 

well the gtr isnt mine, its a good friends, however i do have one getting imported soon, sorry to the thread

 

Radar detector display module.