The13Bats

I have seen lots of posts on people who buy or do it themselves and use led strip to light up their gauges, I too play with that led strip a lot but what I am curious about is feedback and pictures from people who used old fashioned "peanut" 194 incandescent bulbs either colored or colored LED bulbs that fit in the 194 wedge socket,
I am mostly curious about the color red and purple and true purple is hard to find they sell pink/purple that is far more pink.
Thanks!

tpfarm

Hey Bats;
When I got my '73 it had blue Led's (I think they were Led's) in the gauge cluster and regular clear bulbs in the speedo/tach. I changed a couple of gauges and while I was in there I replaced the blue with regular clear bulbs, I didn't like the blue hue coming from the dash , I'm old school.

The13Bats

Lamp color tastes aside, did the blue light the gauge enough to see it?

A am doing purple interior lamps but fear looking at purple or blue dash lights wouldnt work for my eyes, I am also thinking red if it would light the gauges enough to see them,

69Vett

any led color can produce everything from dim to superbrite,
Note typically leds in cars are not dimmable, without a special controller,
your light dimmer switch will not work on LEDS.
depending upon the exact led used, typically the more surface mount leds $$
within the led package provide brighter light.
leds are also rated in brightness, usually in Lux or MCD.
if you believe the manufacturer spec's.
my best advice buy a couple and try them , first.

The13Bats

Thanks but I know my LEDS 101...was asking about them or regular bulbs in the dash, you know just some real world feedback, in fact I would rather use old style colored lamps, if I wanted led I would do the rbg smd stripes with a full controller.....

69Vett

they also make bulb covers in muti colors,
frequently used in pinball machines, here is one source for bulb covers.
good luck.

http://www.marcospec.com/control/key...NG=bulb+covers

tpfarm

Yes I could see them, but it didn't seem to be as bright as the clear bulbs. hope this helps.

68/70Vette

About light bulb filters.....leds are all monochromic. If the filter bandpass is slightly different that the led light frequency (monochromatic color), the filter will only serve to attenuate/block the light. The "white" leds do have three monochromatic colors..red, blue, and green. If you put a "red" filter over a white led, the red filter will block out the blue and green, so that only 1/3 of the white led will pass through.

For a while white leds didn't exist, since it was several years after red and green leds appeared, that someone...some Japanese I think...where able for the first time to make a commercially practical blue led. When blue leds came into being, it was possible to populate an emitting array with red, green, and blue light emitting diodes.

............

I have leds for my console instruments and lights in the shifter console. I still use incandescents in the tach and speedo. This way I can dim my tach and speedo lights with the stock rheostat dimmer. My main reason for using leds was to reduce current flow through the rheostat. The stock rheostats are marginally rated...with a full complement of incandescents, the stock rheostat is subject to burning out..had one burn out on me. So to reduce max current flow possible through the rheostat, I used some leds.

tpfarm

Reminds me of when I was a teenager working with a TV repairman back in the mid sixties and would go to a custormer's house to repair a TV and they would have put a red or yellow transparent film over the screen so they would have a color TV. True story.

94hokies

Here is my thread when I did it. End of the thread has side by side of the white LED vs the blue. I ended up putting blue in the speedometer and tach and whites in all the center console gauges. It is no problem seeing them clearly at night.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...nt-lights.html

John 65

I put white LED's in the center gauges of my 77.

They were so much brighter than the stock bulbs they reflected blue light caused by the blue paint behind the gauges. Took the cluster apart and painted the backing white, now they light up real nice. Huge difference, much much better for night driving. They also dim and don't get hot.

I tried new factory style bulbs prior, but they were just to dark for me.

The13Bats

Thanks that helps a lot,
I would dig purple but purple is a hard led color, it's close to uv but some venders call pink purple so...but I like the blue in yours