Well guys, I'm finally finished with this bright idea.
I started this project on 12.28.07.
Here it is 02.03.08
I tried a lot of different bulbs.
The 8 watt filament bulbs got to hot. Even the stock 2.2 watt bulbs give off some heat. Feel your fuel gauge.
Led's seem to be the answer. No heat, instant on, use a fraction of the power and most likely will out last the car.
I've learned there are a lot of new types of led's out now. I'll be attaching a photo that shows some of the ones I tested.
I replaced all the stock E10 filament bulbs with led's.
The led that worked the best was the one that reflected a light pattern of 180 degrees. The color made a difference too. The white/blue (cool white 8000k) lit up the gauges the best. The stock filament bulbs give off a soft yellow-ish (warm white) light.
Painting the insides of the speed and tach barrels gloss white also helped reflect the light to the front of the gauge. Nothing could be done about painting the inside of the fuel gauge because of the way the light reflects off of the two piece gauge front. I did not take the oil/water gauge apart. It appears to get light the same way as the fuel, via a straight shot down the light tube in the back.
Here is a believe it or not. The green directional arrows can be clearly seen....in daylight. Whodathuhk.
Same goes for the blue and red plastic gems in the bottom of the speed and tack. Clearly seen in daylight.
To balance out the reflected light (from the effort of the single bulb) in the top of the speed and tach, I added one more led to the back side, bottom of each gauge.
OK, enough blah blah blah. Show me the before - after /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
These were taken at night, in my unlit garage. No flash