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Glowing Needles w/ Indiglo DIY

12K views 18 replies 14 participants last post by  HeyChef 
#1 · (Edited)
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.
 
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13
#2 · (Edited)
indiglo's...

trace each gauge face onto the back of the sheet, don't forget to trace the holes too. make sure you draw lightly and do not use a sharp point, if the coating gets scraped away, the scrape will not glow. i used a mechanical pencil, i held it at an angle and scribbled on some paper while spinning it to take off the sharp edges.
pic of sheets with terminals cut out

also make sure have the terminals stick out beyond the edge of the faces. for the temp gauge my terminals stuck out from the bottom right corner, tach: top left, speed: top right and fuel bottom left. now slowly and carefully cut out the shapes. use light pressure and make several passes rather than going through all at once. the connectors worked like staples for mine, i had to use pliers to modify them.
pic of modified and unmodified clips and box

solder them onto the wires first before connecting them to the EL sheets. the clips i used were not sharp enough to go through the sheets on their own so pressed them down in place to mark where i needed to make slits and cut them with the hobby knife before pressing the connectors through.
pic of connected clip

i ran the fuel and temp wires along the bottom of the cluster and the speed and tach along the top.
i cut many small pieces of heat shrink and used them to keep the wires nice and neat.

along the edges...


and out of the bottom

drill a hole on the left side just above the connector for all the wires to run through. if you get an inverter with 4 connections, you can just put female connectors on each pair of wires and be done, otherwise you need to make connections like before. i made 2 connections both 2->1 and then i squeezed both remaining pairs of wires into 1 female connector.
pic of EL reductions

reducing down to 1 connector has the added beniefit of leaving other connectors on your inverter open in case you want to put indiglo in other places later,

when you first install the gauges you will need to adjust the needles so its a good idea to leave the front cover off, you can either leave off the whole cover, or remove just the clear cover by removing the screws and slowly prying around the edges to break the glue
i noticed that the needles jump to a certain spot when i turn the key to acc, so it might be worth the trouble to take your gauges out, remove the clear cover and the needle stoppers. then re-install them, turn the key and take notes of where the needles jump to, especially the speedo.

now drive your car around to warm it up and take note of your speed at different rpms (i.e. XXmph at Xk rpm) then back in the driveway take notes/pictures of temp, rpm, and fuel levels.
if you want to keep your original mileage you will need to remove the odometer from your original gauges and transplant it. so set aside a full day for final assembly.

now remove your original gauges, and disassemble them: front cover, bezel, all meters, open door indicator and finally the odometer then set the odometer aside.

now disassemble the new gauges: move the indiglo cutouts off to the side then remove the meters and door indicator and odometer.

install your original odometer, and the door indicator, and the meters. now remove the clear plastic plates from the meters so you can install the needle lighting and insulators. now you can replace the clear plates, indiglos, gauge faces, bezel, and front cover minus the clear screen. now you can finally solder the needle lighting to the overhead lighting circuit board.
pic of overhead connection

the top half of the 194 bulb connections are positive, so follow that wire to see which side to solder your positive lead to. bend the wires into a hook then press it down with the hot soldering iron into the solder joints before adding more solder.

and now to install them in the car, feed the indiglo wires down the hole in the left side of the cluster opening and make sure the needle lighting wires don't get caught on anything.

once its slid all the way in make the 4 connections to the cluster. then connect the dimmer switch on the cluster bezel, and flip on your parking lights, with any luck your needle lights should turn on. turn your lights off. to connect the indiglo inverter, connect the positive to the connector on the bottom of the cluster, the 2nd wire from the left on the row towards the from of the cluster,
pic of bottom cluster connector

and then connect the negative to any ground connection you can find, flip the parking lights and with a little more luck your indiglos should light up, now start your car if its cool, let it warm up. now lightly place your fuel, temp, and tach needles in their noted positions.

place the speedo needle so that its near the bottom right corner of the 0 for 91-92's for a general placement. for 93-95's turn your key to acc before placing the needle a little bit below the middle of the 0 or wherever you noted earlier. now... TEST DRIVE!!!

take your time adjusting your needles, never push them down all the way even if you are totally sure they're right, they will move out of place when you push. oh and don't try to adjust your needles on curvey roads, find a straightaway
once they're all set, you can go back and replace the front cover and call your gauges 100% done


daytime...


no needles


all on
 
#14 ·
I'd buy that for a doller!
 
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