How To: Make your gauge cluster brighter and clearer.

Hey everyone, as you can see from my sig, I've recently been uploading some of my personal write-ups on different things regarding mostly EF's.
Heres my How To on making those gauge cluster lights really shine. Unfortunatly enough, and I'm really sorry, my motor is out of town getting built, so I don't have any before and after pics. But please be assured, it looks MUCH brighter and clearer.

Lets get to it.
You'll need:
-Small screwdriver. the screws are phillips head, but if it's small enough you can use a Flat head.
(Thats it!)

1. Start by locating the 4 screws that hold the gauge cluster cover on.


2. Remove them-



As for these two, just pop the little covers off and unscrew them.


3. As you start to pull the gauge cluster cover off, you'll feel some tension. Don't yank on it. Just look back behind it and you'll notice that your Hazard switch, Light dimmer, and rear defroster switches(if it's an SI) are holding it. Just unplug them and it will come right out.







4. On top of the gauge cluster you will find a small white plastic strip, the bulb housing. Unscrew the 2 screws holding it down and lift it up.





5. With this up, you'll see a reddish colored light defuser. Remove it. As you can see, that light defuser does a lot more than just turn the light the color orange. it actually blocks the majority of the light from the bulbs.


And thats all!

If you want color in your cluster, take a piece of plastic, whatever color you want, and cut it to size and put it where the OEM piece was.

Like I mentioned before, check my sig for other How To's, and as always, Comments are welcome.
-Andrew

any before or after shots?

There were a couple great pics posted up on H-T a while back.
Let me see if I can find them(it might be later tomorrow before I can get to it though)

-Andrew

I wonder if you could do the following,

Cut a piece of plexiglass to the same size as the stock light difuser, then cut inside it to which you have a rectangle with no middle, then put a colored saran wrap over it and shove it back it.

it shouldn't defuse too much light cause of it's thinness however, it should give you the color you want.

thanks, i was trying to figure out how to get my gauge cluster brighter.

hmm.. i think i'll try and make mine amber on my EG.. i'll figure it out

NightCat said:

I wonder if you could do the following,

Cut a piece of plexiglass to the same size as the stock light difuser, then cut inside it to which you have a rectangle with no middle, then put a colored saran wrap over it and shove it back it.

it shouldn't defuse too much light cause of it's thinness however, it should give you the color you want.

Click to expand...

I've seen people do that, and it works great!

Go for it, and remember to take pics!

Hey man, this is a great Thread. Good Work...

Thx

Good stuff. I'll be doing that to my car. I love DIY (cuz I'm BROKE!).

Great write-up!! definetly will be doing that...Thank you

Ur welcome

I did it on my car. How much trouble did the dimmer plug give you? I couldn't get it out so I just lowered my wheel and moved it. I love it though and eventually will make it blue.

Amber FTW!!

What did you do to make it amber?

for my EG cluster, i just bought amber bulbs and replaced the others with them

Nice. Where did you get the bulbs?

Autozone, but i've heard you can just scratch the blue thing off the bulbs that are in the cluster and color them with a red sharpie and it gives it a darker amber color..

I know this thread was last active more than 7 months ago, but just for anyone reading this and thinking about doing it, it's the shit.

this is during the day too

wow i really want to do that now lol...i want green ones...anyone know where u can get green saran wrap lol? is it the same steps in an ef?