Ok, started my led project, here are some pics

[Sketch o5]

so did you end up getting the white out off the gauge faces?

 

[talontsiawd]

yea, it isnt expensive at all. but its a thing where if i do it, i have to do it all in one day, so thats alot of man hours for me. cuz i need to drive my car everyday.

I drive my car everyday. So i do a bit at a time. The only thing you really have to be sure you finish if you plan to drive the next day is the gauges if you sand them. And you can do the cluster and then the climite controls on different days. Or the other switches. I've only done the cruse control so far outside the climate controls and the gauges. But if you are just doing bulbs, it will only be like an hour or so. I think i've spent 12 hours tops, and it would be shorter if i did it all at once.

 

[talontsiawd]

so did you end up getting the white out off the gauge faces?

Um, yes and no. I have where any of the guages have changed places-fuel. But the other marks are still needed until i deal with the needles (if i do). Just some paint thinner and your good. White out isn't hard to get off, you could problably just scrub with water to be honest.

 

[talontsiawd]

nice LED project dude. i plan to do one myself. any tips before i do it? i don't mind soldering or taking pieces out but as long as i can put them back together. about the gauges deal, i'm scared to rub alcohol over it just to remove some of the black stuff out. so i guess i'll leave the gauge as is.

Honestly, if you arn't going to sand the gauges, it got past alcohol, you need no skill at all. Just replacing bulbs. If you are doing blue it should be fine, you should get a nice blue with no modification. If you are doing white, it will be a pale blue like in the first pics. But yeah, no solding, no hard disassembly, just replacing bulbs. You don't need to take the gauge cluster apart at all, you don't need to modify anything, etc.

For the climate controls, its a bit different. You will have to solder. There are 3 ways to do it that are fairly easy. One is do it the ledautomotive.com way. It's onlined on the site. The second way is to try to soilder the leads from the led to the contacts for the bulbs. This will require you to take apart any pieces or switches. Load the contact up with solder and then solder the leads. I did this for the clock and cruise control. I did it because i wanted to keep the stock bulbs intact. Its pretty frustrating though. The third way is to tap everything off pins on the harness to a particular part. Or pins on the circuit board. I used the circuit board. For two reasons, first, it's much easier to remove things when you need to. Secondly it keeps the stock harness intact. You need to be able to use a multimeter at a basic level for this.

My only real tip is have all the bulbs. That and remember to use resistors when needed. All the wedge bulbs you probably need to purchace online should have resistors. Make sure you use the right resistor. If you are unsure, there are calculators online. I just ask my older bro as he does this for a living.

 

[talontsiawd]

Oh, and one more thing for people who are planing to do this and don't mind modification. FOr the climate control. If i did it over, i'd not only buy all the wedge bulbs, but i'd drill a hole and use an individual led for each switch. It would come out sooooo nice this way. I might do it in the future, but it's another $20 or so, i'm going to hold of until i do everything.

Also, this is a great place to buy bulbs- http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-...t=CAR&keywords=&cart_id=2595226.29407&next=50

Somone really needs to do the UV Blacklight bulbs. I bet that looks really tight. I'd imagine it would give off a very vibrant dark purple with the filters and just a real nice color with nicely accented needs when the guages are cleared. That on a black car would be sick.

 

[shavedaccord]

Here is mine in blue LED's incase your wondering. This is before I removed the orange on the needles:

and with them fully dimmed:

after I removed the orange:

and give me a few minutes i'll run outside and snap a few pictures of what they look like on after the orange is removed.

 

[shavedaccord]

ok I suck at taking pictures but here you go:

 

[talontsiawd]

I posted but it disappeared. Looks great. Nice job. Makes the stock green on the cluster look not so nice though.

 

[shavedaccord]

Yeah I just done the cluster for now sooner or later I will make my way to the rest..still debating I might mix in some red on the cluster.

 

[dynasty]

i used to do lots of LED projects on my 4runner. but yea, it's totaled. plan to work on more LED projects for this accord. i just love beautiful lights. =)

question. on the full center dash (climate control, jog wheel of the CC, EVERYTHING). how many LEDs did you used?