My friend changed his dash cluster lighting from green to red on Saturday but did not use bulb covers, leds or coloured bulbs. Instead, he used paint. :eh: Bought some cheap red spray paint and:

- Buy 4 brand new bulbs.
- Removed the cluster and then the 4 existing bulbs.
- Removed the existing bulb covers.
- Removed the bulbs from their little recess and chuck or store them away.
- Sit the NEW bulbs on a clean rag on the fence.
- Sprayed one side with sweeping sprayed to get a light cover, holding the spray can 30cm away.
- Once dry (dries very quickly), turn the bulbs over and do the other side.
- Once the other side is dry, pick them up and hold them in the sun. To ensure an even cover, just do a few more very light sweeping sprays.
- Make sure they are completely dry and then reverse the above process until your cluster is installed.
- The paint cover should be very thin and the bulbs areusually only about 5w so the paint shouldn't drip. But if you are worried, perhaps use heat resistant paint instead.
- Wait till night time and voila! Purdy huh. :)

Um.. that's just stupid? At least if you are going to paint the globes, use proper translucent glass paint designed for glass and ceramics, suitable for high temperatures.

Regular spraypaint is just going to heat up, burn, and darken. Your globes will eventually give out hardly any light and leave dried flakes of paint all through your instrument cluster.

Well said.

Perhaps if we look bigger picture, we could see that, whilst there is room for improvement for sure, there is some potential to get a better result than through using leds which are expensive and don't give an even spread of light across the cluster. I'd just thought this was an idea worth sharing. Obviously not. lol

If anything, this was random idea which seemed to work ok. I saw it the night after he painted them and it looked awesome to say the least. As I said in my previous post, if you are worried about dripping/flaking, use heat resistant paint. If anyone has a better idea or a better variation of my friends idea please share it.

Dont be bugged about it, at least you did tried and shared the info. It is just that as the above said, its probably not advisable to do it that way.

Question: can the bulbs of the instrument cluster be changed to coloured ones individually?

Yeah use LED wedge globes; available in both T5 and T10 sizes from Autobarn etc, with a diffuser lense for even light spread. They were $10/pair T10 and $8 pair T5 from memory, so all up $28 to do all the globes and they will outlast any incandescent globe. They gave even color across my whole instrument cluster, so very happy with them.

You can't do this for TJ II and later though? I've heard conflicting reports of LED backlighting. Looks good Billy!

What car/year/model is that?

Um.. that's just stupid? At least if you are going to paint the globes, use proper translucent glass paint designed for glass and ceramics, suitable for high temperatures.

Regular spraypaint is just going to heat up, burn, and darken. Your globes will eventually give out hardly any light and leave dried flakes of paint all through your instrument cluster.

Do the bulbs even get that hot?

Anyway, looks good for now. Hopefully it stays that way. If not then at least you know what to do next time.

Yeah use LED ; They gave even color across my whole instrument cluster, so very happy with them.
:doubt: Any pics to prove it? and Bill, your cluster looks great. :P

What car/year/model is that?

It's a 92 Cressida GLX. He also did the tiny bulbs that sit behind the HVAC and the satellite radio controls in red as well. So apart from his aftermarket HU and the gear selector, the entire dash glows red.

Hmmm... Not sure if it will work well for Magnas... 3rd gens anyway (TE-TH that have globes). The globes shine on a light conductive plastic. Whatever colour you change the globe to just tints this plastic slightly the colour of the globe. Usually it's a yellowy-white light. I put blue globes in mine, turned it peppermint... the blue just slightly tinted the standard colour light.

:doubt: Any pics to prove it? and Bill, your cluster looks great. :P

Don't need to prove anything; they are a standard LED wedge globe with 12V input, inbuild resistor to drop voltage, and concave plastic lens. If you don't believe me simply don't do the mod.

Hmmm... Not sure if it will work well for Magnas... 3rd gens anyway (TE-TH that have globes). The globes shine on a light conductive plastic. Whatever colour you change the globe to just tints this plastic slightly the colour of the globe. Usually it's a yellowy-white light. I put blue globes in mine, turned it peppermint... the blue just slightly tinted the standard colour light.

I have seen pics of a 3rd gen with blue LEDs and the cluster was definatlly a nice neon blue, although that person didn't use light defuser lens so the light wasn't evenlly spread.

I have seen pics of a 3rd gen with blue LEDs and the cluster was definatlly a nice neon blue, although that person didn't use light defuser lens so the light wasn't evenlly spread.

Was it after TH though? Think it would be easier from TJ onwards as they use LEDs in the first place and were made to be able to have different colours ie red for the VR-X etc.

Was it after TH though? Think it would be easier from TJ onwards as they use LEDs in the first place and were made to be able to have different colours ie red for the VR-X etc.

Only the TJ II's & TL/W's. I've been trying to get an answer on this for some time, but no one seems to know. After taking mine apart, I can see why. My fuel gauge is out of whack now :cry:

Only the TJ II's & TL/W's. I've been trying to get an answer on this for some time, but no one seems to know. After taking mine apart, I can see why. My fuel gauge is out of whack now :cry:

sorry, yeah, you're right there. TJII onwards changed cluster... what are you trying to get an answer on? Give me the specific question and I'll send my old man an email... he's an engineer at Mitsu, so can get you an answer from someone in the office that would know.

It's a 92 Cressida GLX. He also did the tiny bulbs that sit behind the HVAC and the satellite radio controls in red as well. So apart from his aftermarket HU and the gear selector, the entire dash glows red.

anything like this...i just changed the globe covers from blue to red....its a little pink but i am gonna put an extra cover on it to make it more red. sorry about the blurriness

sorry, yeah, you're right there. TJII onwards changed cluster... what are you trying to get an answer on? Give me the specific question and I'll send my old man an email... he's an engineer at Mitsu, so can get you an answer from someone in the office that would know.

Cheers, really appreciate that. I'll try and get some pics tomorrow

anything like this...i just changed the globe covers from blue to red....its a little pink but i am gonna put an extra cover on it to make it more red. sorry about the blurriness

Yep, but his is really red, with no orangey or pinky at all. But this could well happen to his over time though. The main suprise though, was how bright and clear the cluster was. I mean even with new bulb covers, I found that the light fades towards the sides of the cluster and it usually duller. I too swapped my bulb covers to red mid last year and after a few months they started to turn orange. Then I swapped them to blue which I have now and they have gone a dark green. :confused: I am going to wait a little while and see how his fairs before I attempt doing this on mine.

I was thinking, if the bulbs do get really hot and due to the thin paint cover, it may not flake but instead bake into the bulb. As such, the red could be permanent or at least more permanent that bulb covers. Have to wait and see I guess....

^^ The paint flakes off, that's what happened with mine until I switched to LEDs.

i wanna do this to my screen like Dj_Unkown did but in blue, can someone post a photo of wat the globe looks like and maybe a DIY guide??
cheers
Rhys