carriljc

I received my inexpensive strip lights and disassembled my dash to commence the conversion and get rid of those incandescent lamps.
(these guys:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Kohree-RG...t-fo/136646087

Here's a couple of pics. Still on the workbench. Need to go get some 5/8" grommets & plugs, a new capacitor (broke the once that's attached to the tach body), and a 12 vdc to USB socket or connector.

Anybody know what size capacitor I need?

Not permanently attached yet. Just scotch-taped to inside of housing because I wanted to check and see where they worked best. Housing has been cleaned with alcohol so the strip should attach well once I'm ready.

Here's the pics.

'75

What a difference, like night and day

carriljc

Going to leave them on all night. Just to see how they do. They've been on an hour or so and nothing has gotten hot so far...so that's good.

I'll check the strips again in the morning.... I might just RTV (or hot glue?) them in place.... I'd hate to have tear apart the dash if that self-sticking glue doesn't last.

I'm going to have to find that capacitor to replace the one that sits on the back of the tach tomorrow.

TimAT

How long are the strips? I've got my dash out right now replacing wire harness so the timing would be perfect..

carriljc

The strip of lights is 19.7 inches. The oddball part is that one of the strips comes with like 6" inches of extension, and the other with like 6 feet (yes FEET) of extension. From the controller there are then about 20 inches to the USB connector.

Below is the image from the website... I did NOT notice this image until after I received them.

20" of LED strip is just about perfect for our vehicles speedo & tach.

I'm considering painting my housings white to get better light reflection ....hmmmm.

I'm planning on mounting the little box immediately to the right of the tach. That way the USB connection will be accessible from behind the center console.... super easy to disconnect.

Richard454

I did the same-

A trick to install- use silicone but a couple of dabs of hot glue will keep the lights in place while the silicone sets up.

I just bought a roll of lights-less than $20. Cut and soldered the ends.

Used the LED strip in a lot of locations-

carriljc

Richard454 - I was thinking about painting the inside of the housing WHITE.... since I can select multiple colors (not that I will) with the controller.

Just wondering how you decided on the color for your housing?

And thanks for the pointers on hot glue & silicone.

Tiger Joe

not on vettes, but on chevy trucks of the 70s, I have used the rattle can chrome on the inside of the cluster to help brighten it up.


seems to have worked very well

Cool bean

@Carriljc, I'm going to paint my tach & speedo housing rattle-can white.

On my '74, I already did the wiper switch, hvac, and shift indicator housing in white. On the edges of the plastic lenses there is blue paint from the factory. this blue paint, mixed with yellow glow of incandescent bulbs, makes the green looking light. In my case, i was replacing the all the gauges with Autometer and putting led lights in. I wanted the console, gauge cluster, wiper lights AND speed & tach housing to match in color, so all reflective surfaces are going to be white.

I don't have pics yet of speedo & tach housing, but will post when i have them.

carriljc

Well, this is quite pleasing. I let the paint cure for a few hours and then temporarily installed the LED light strip just to see how it looks. I changed to several colors and I took picture of the White LED and the Green LED.
(NOTE: The housings were a different colors because I have an electric tach from a newer model.)
Take a peek:

I then took everything apart again to leave the housings in front of the heater so that the paint gets nice and dry. I'll start putting things together tomorrow. I'm quite sure that I am now going to do the Center console also. Haven't seen any instructions to see how a light strip would work on that though.
Cleaned up the wiring behind the dash too..... I'm am going to use 2 lamp leads to feed these strips... I gather 1 would probably be enough, but what the heck.

Richard454

My 71 has the green - tried chrome and white but the original color looked the best.

Another trick- put the metal part in the toaster oven for 30 minutes at 180-200º and the paint will be cured.

Richard

carriljc

Here are a couple of pictures.

The 2-sided taped seemed to stick fairly well, so I did some spot-gluing with a hot-glue gun.

I think I 'm going to like this ok.

carriljc

Well, those incandescent lamps for the center gauges look quite pathetic. Guess I'll blow another 10 bucks and get more strip lights to see what I can do with the center gauge cluster.
Here it is being powered by the vehicle:

7T1vette

I have a "theory" and would like some input from folks on the Forum to prove (or disprove) it.

I think that older owners tend to like the gauge lighting more subtle...not glaring in your face. But, it seems that younger owners tend to like very bright gauge lighting.

Yes or No????

'75

55 here, getting older and I like the dash lights brighter.

ddawson

I like dim yellow. Even on my new cars I like to have it as dark as possible.

I love when cars have red dash lights.

mrvette

Many moons ago, I put white overlay plastic on my speedo/tach, not long after fabbing up my custom white face gauges for the center/console....and some months later got GREEN LED plug in bulbs for the entire setup, of course they don't dim but in fact, I don't want them to, and so ALL the indicators are green now....signals also.....

and with the white face gauges....look OUT!!!!!!

age 72 now, bought my '72 in '95........

Cool bean

I'm going for brighter, cool white to replace the stock yellow. 40's, knocking on the door of the great 50's. 'Not sure if that makes me older or younger in this context. But if it supports you hypothesis, I'll take younger! (I don't think i used an emoticon yet, so here's my chance.... )

carriljc

I'm old, but I like them bright. BUT - these things are dimmable anyway. AND you have multiple color choices too.

I was just going to live with that dim incandescent lighting, but those annoying lamps are a pain to keep in and I got tired of living with this or that lamp not working. Then, I saw these strip lights for like 10 bucks and decided, ah, what the heck? Not only that, I can always put the lousy lamps back in.

My next project will be the center gauge cluster--- see how that goes?

Anyway, here they are in RED while I was testing them on the counter:

Cool bean

Carriljc: When I did the center console, I replaced all the gauges because I wanted to update them (based on what I saw in other threads here on the topic of after-market gauges. In doing so, I used the sockets that came with the Autometer gauges and upgraded the bulbs from superbrightleds. (I tested with the leds from the local auto parts store).

Here's a few pics contrasting the incandescent and LED bulbs.







Autometer gauge, LED bulb.



Autometer gauge, incandescent bulb.





C3 Center console, Autometer gauges, LED lights.



C3 corvette 1974 console lenses with stock blue paint on edges.


"while I was at it", I painted cleaned the hvac, wiper, shift indicator lenses. I took off the stock blue paint and replaced it with Testors white model paint. This gets rid of the blue 'glow' when using the cool white bulbs and also helps reflect the light through the 40-something lenses. This way, the light will match throughout the dash. (no after pics...its still a work-in-progress.)
For the wiper lense, I squeegeed the white paint into the embossed letters.