sorry to make everyone wait so long for this diy, hopefully i can get the pics together soon.... but heres the text at least.... where it says "pic of..." is just to make it easier for me when i go to add the pics
It took me about a year and a half of working on this here and there, figuring out how to put everything together. It was tedious and frustrating but the end result is worth it, and hopefully this should make things a lot easier on anyone who wants to do try this.
the basic plan of attack is to make 4 clusters of 3 leds each and place them behind the guage faces to light up the needles. clear the green tint from the back of the gauge faces and place indiglo sheets behind them to light up the numbers. i decided to go with white numbers, but if you use a white indiglo sheet you can easily make them another color by putting colored acetate between the indiglo sheets and gauge faces or painting the back of the faces.
quick led heads up:
it would be 1000x easier and a lot cheaper to just install led bulbs for backlighting, so i wouldn't think any less of anyone for going that route. I chose indiglo because it lights more evenly (no hot spots) and it can be dimmed more effectively than led's.
since led's need to have the polarities correct you will need to know that, for the backlighting bulbs positive is up, for the gear indicator lights positive is the side closest to the edge of the board
now.... on to the goods....
parts list
for just the lit needles you will need.....
extra set of gauges (i recommend having 2) ~$30-$60
loose leds for lighting the needles (12 used) buy plenty of extras, at least 25 (ebay) ~$10
wire ( 24 gauge or a little thinner) ~$6
solder ~$3
heat shrink tubing (smaller sizes) ~$3
rubber glove, plastic wrap or similar thin, flat, flexible non-conductive material to insulate the led's
large needles (i used large needles from 92-93 sentra, there's 1 per car so find 2)
small needles (i think i used 2g? eclipse needles, the curvy one with the hump on the hood)
paint for needles (i used $1 acrylic paint from michaels/jo-ann's shhh don't tell anyone i was there)
others have used model paint or nail polish
non-acetone nail polish remover (removes paint from needles and back of gauge faces)
(do not use acetone!! it will destroy the plastic parts)
for indiglo backlighting you will need
indiglo sheet (i used an A4 sheet) ~$60
indliglo inverter (ebay) ~$12
female connector for indiglos
metal crimp terminals (KK standard crimp terminals .156 from Fry's) ~$3
for led d4 light and open door indicator backlighting you will need..
neo wedge base led bulbs ( www.autolumination.com Tail Light Brake Light Turn Signal LED Bulbs or www.superbrightleds.com) ~$3-4
colored acetate to cover the d4 light. (tap plastics) ~$2
keep in mind for most parts you will need extras, I know I did
Tools
soldering iron
hobby knife
drill
scissors
wire cutters
wire strippers
needle nose pliers
12V power supply (to test light things)
alligator clips (to test light things)
patience
patience
patience
patience
patience
the biggest issue is the needles, very finicky and easy to break in many different ways. the best way i found was to use 2 skinny flat objects to slowly pry up on both sides of the base at the same time, as mentioned in ghost's glow needle diy
ok instructions....
on your extra set, remove the screws on the back from each individual meter (3 each)
now pull off the front cover by pressing in the black tabs all the way around the outside
remove the inner bezel and you can now remove each meter(gauge)
carefully pull the end each needle over the stopper (below 0) and take detailed notes/pictures or where it naturally rests.
93-95 type I speedo resting position
93-95 tachometer resting position
91-92 speedo resting position
91-92 tachometer resting position and a cool looking photo
another thing you can to is to put a mark on the shaft in the direction the needle should face. you can make room for your marker by sliding the metal cover off of the back of the gauge.
pic of sliding off cover
once the needles are off you can take the gauge faces off, they are held on by double sided adhesive right in the middle. i used my pocket knife to slowly slice/scrape through it. now use the nail polish remover to clear the paint and shading off of the back of the faces.
pic of cleaned back face
the easiest way i found was to use a q-tip to spread it over the area and rub it in until you feel the paint come up, then wipe it off with a paper towel, you have to wipe kinda hard so make sure you don't put the gauge face down on something that could scratch it
with the gauges apart you can start working on the led sets that will light up the needles.
i made a chain of 3 led's and one resistor for each needle.
to start i flattened and bent the posts for each led,
you need 2 bent one way and one bent in the opposite way
arrange them like this then solder them up and clip the excess posts
make sure you get the polarities straight. if you look closely inside the led, one post is connected to a small terminal (+) and the other is connected to a much bigger post(-)
for the resistors I used 560ohm for the speed and tach, and 680ohm for the fuel and temp.
connect the resistors to the (+) side of the led chains, i made hooks on the ends of the posts before soldering to make the connections stronger
then i connected a length of wire to each end, i hooked the ends here too
pic of hooked connection
put one chain down over the needle post of each gauge and bend the leads so that it sits flat and centered over the post
pic of clusters in place w/ removed bars circled
use wire cutters or scissors to remove 2 of the bars to make a path for the wires now for each side determine a good spot for one chain to connect to the other, on mine it was just outside of the shell. i made 2 connections: 2->1 on one side then 3->1 on the other side.
pic of full chain with reduction connections circled
i used a candle to burn the wires at the connection points, then scraped the residue with a knife to expose the wire, then i wrapped the ends of the other wire around the bare spot
diagram of connections
pic of mid wire connection
now solder it and cover it with heat shrink to complete the connection. then i did the same again to end up with all 4 connected.
keep in mind that these connections should fit in the space underneath the circuit board with the turn signal, high beam, etc lights on it, so that you end up with just a pair of wires coming out of the vent slots there. i found a good place to connect them was the overhead lighting board, where the #74 bulbs go but don't solder them in place yet...
pic of overhead lighting board
before the final install i cut circles out of a vinyl glove to put underneath each chain to prevent it from shorting out against the windings.
heres the left side with the insulating vinyl in place
and the right
on the small needles i had to shave off an extra piece from the post, i used a knife to slowly scrape it down. if you want to repaint your needles you will have to use the nail polish remover to take off the old paint, i used a q-tip. be careful to support the length of the needle so you don't snap it off. if you use the big sentra needles, be very careful near the base, the black cap is very brittle. i painted mine with metallic blue sapphire mixed with a little but of ultramarine blue to darken it a little. try not to put too much paint on the big needles, it could throw off the balance, you can test them by trying to stand them on their posts, they shouldn't tip over.
once you have the needle lighting all done remove it and set it aside somewhere safe.
i put a blue led into the d4 position and a white led into the door indicator. i used neo-wedge based led bulbs and transplanted them into oem bases.
oem bulb on the left, retrofitted led on the right
you have to trim the base to accommodate the shorter leads on the led bulbs. you also have to make sure you get the polarity right or else it won't work. for the gear indicator lights, all positives are next to the edge of the circuit board. the door indicator's positive post is on the right if you are looking at it from the bulb side.
pics of positive and negative sides
the d4 light was too bright on its own so i replaced the green cover with 7-8 layers of blue acetate
to dim it a little. i sanded one layer with fine grit sandpaper to give it that translucent look.
It took me about a year and a half of working on this here and there, figuring out how to put everything together. It was tedious and frustrating but the end result is worth it, and hopefully this should make things a lot easier on anyone who wants to do try this.
the basic plan of attack is to make 4 clusters of 3 leds each and place them behind the guage faces to light up the needles. clear the green tint from the back of the gauge faces and place indiglo sheets behind them to light up the numbers. i decided to go with white numbers, but if you use a white indiglo sheet you can easily make them another color by putting colored acetate between the indiglo sheets and gauge faces or painting the back of the faces.
quick led heads up:
it would be 1000x easier and a lot cheaper to just install led bulbs for backlighting, so i wouldn't think any less of anyone for going that route. I chose indiglo because it lights more evenly (no hot spots) and it can be dimmed more effectively than led's.
since led's need to have the polarities correct you will need to know that, for the backlighting bulbs positive is up, for the gear indicator lights positive is the side closest to the edge of the board
now.... on to the goods....
parts list
for just the lit needles you will need.....
extra set of gauges (i recommend having 2) ~$30-$60
loose leds for lighting the needles (12 used) buy plenty of extras, at least 25 (ebay) ~$10
wire ( 24 gauge or a little thinner) ~$6
solder ~$3
heat shrink tubing (smaller sizes) ~$3
rubber glove, plastic wrap or similar thin, flat, flexible non-conductive material to insulate the led's
large needles (i used large needles from 92-93 sentra, there's 1 per car so find 2)
small needles (i think i used 2g? eclipse needles, the curvy one with the hump on the hood)
paint for needles (i used $1 acrylic paint from michaels/jo-ann's shhh don't tell anyone i was there)
others have used model paint or nail polish
non-acetone nail polish remover (removes paint from needles and back of gauge faces)
(do not use acetone!! it will destroy the plastic parts)
for indiglo backlighting you will need
indiglo sheet (i used an A4 sheet) ~$60
indliglo inverter (ebay) ~$12
female connector for indiglos
metal crimp terminals (KK standard crimp terminals .156 from Fry's) ~$3
for led d4 light and open door indicator backlighting you will need..
neo wedge base led bulbs ( www.autolumination.com Tail Light Brake Light Turn Signal LED Bulbs or www.superbrightleds.com) ~$3-4
colored acetate to cover the d4 light. (tap plastics) ~$2
keep in mind for most parts you will need extras, I know I did
Tools
soldering iron
hobby knife
drill
scissors
wire cutters
wire strippers
needle nose pliers
12V power supply (to test light things)
alligator clips (to test light things)
patience
patience
patience
patience
patience
the biggest issue is the needles, very finicky and easy to break in many different ways. the best way i found was to use 2 skinny flat objects to slowly pry up on both sides of the base at the same time, as mentioned in ghost's glow needle diy
ok instructions....
on your extra set, remove the screws on the back from each individual meter (3 each)
now pull off the front cover by pressing in the black tabs all the way around the outside
remove the inner bezel and you can now remove each meter(gauge)
carefully pull the end each needle over the stopper (below 0) and take detailed notes/pictures or where it naturally rests.
93-95 type I speedo resting position
93-95 tachometer resting position
91-92 speedo resting position
91-92 tachometer resting position and a cool looking photo
another thing you can to is to put a mark on the shaft in the direction the needle should face. you can make room for your marker by sliding the metal cover off of the back of the gauge.
pic of sliding off cover
once the needles are off you can take the gauge faces off, they are held on by double sided adhesive right in the middle. i used my pocket knife to slowly slice/scrape through it. now use the nail polish remover to clear the paint and shading off of the back of the faces.
pic of cleaned back face
the easiest way i found was to use a q-tip to spread it over the area and rub it in until you feel the paint come up, then wipe it off with a paper towel, you have to wipe kinda hard so make sure you don't put the gauge face down on something that could scratch it
with the gauges apart you can start working on the led sets that will light up the needles.
i made a chain of 3 led's and one resistor for each needle.
to start i flattened and bent the posts for each led,
you need 2 bent one way and one bent in the opposite way
arrange them like this then solder them up and clip the excess posts
make sure you get the polarities straight. if you look closely inside the led, one post is connected to a small terminal (+) and the other is connected to a much bigger post(-)
for the resistors I used 560ohm for the speed and tach, and 680ohm for the fuel and temp.
connect the resistors to the (+) side of the led chains, i made hooks on the ends of the posts before soldering to make the connections stronger
then i connected a length of wire to each end, i hooked the ends here too
pic of hooked connection
put one chain down over the needle post of each gauge and bend the leads so that it sits flat and centered over the post
pic of clusters in place w/ removed bars circled
use wire cutters or scissors to remove 2 of the bars to make a path for the wires now for each side determine a good spot for one chain to connect to the other, on mine it was just outside of the shell. i made 2 connections: 2->1 on one side then 3->1 on the other side.
pic of full chain with reduction connections circled
i used a candle to burn the wires at the connection points, then scraped the residue with a knife to expose the wire, then i wrapped the ends of the other wire around the bare spot
diagram of connections
pic of mid wire connection
now solder it and cover it with heat shrink to complete the connection. then i did the same again to end up with all 4 connected.
keep in mind that these connections should fit in the space underneath the circuit board with the turn signal, high beam, etc lights on it, so that you end up with just a pair of wires coming out of the vent slots there. i found a good place to connect them was the overhead lighting board, where the #74 bulbs go but don't solder them in place yet...
pic of overhead lighting board
before the final install i cut circles out of a vinyl glove to put underneath each chain to prevent it from shorting out against the windings.
heres the left side with the insulating vinyl in place
and the right
on the small needles i had to shave off an extra piece from the post, i used a knife to slowly scrape it down. if you want to repaint your needles you will have to use the nail polish remover to take off the old paint, i used a q-tip. be careful to support the length of the needle so you don't snap it off. if you use the big sentra needles, be very careful near the base, the black cap is very brittle. i painted mine with metallic blue sapphire mixed with a little but of ultramarine blue to darken it a little. try not to put too much paint on the big needles, it could throw off the balance, you can test them by trying to stand them on their posts, they shouldn't tip over.
once you have the needle lighting all done remove it and set it aside somewhere safe.
i put a blue led into the d4 position and a white led into the door indicator. i used neo-wedge based led bulbs and transplanted them into oem bases.
oem bulb on the left, retrofitted led on the right
you have to trim the base to accommodate the shorter leads on the led bulbs. you also have to make sure you get the polarity right or else it won't work. for the gear indicator lights, all positives are next to the edge of the circuit board. the door indicator's positive post is on the right if you are looking at it from the bulb side.
pics of positive and negative sides
the d4 light was too bright on its own so i replaced the green cover with 7-8 layers of blue acetate
to dim it a little. i sanded one layer with fine grit sandpaper to give it that translucent look.