I want to repaint my interior lights, but how?

[Wiscon_Mark]

Help me out here, can i repaint or do something cool to my lights to make em match my interior better? (not green, but maybe blue or something?)

[Pwise2326]

I've never heard of anyone wanting to repaint interior lights, but you can do a couple different things to match the scheme. First off you can find yourself some bulb condoms to change a white light to a blue light, costs a couple cents less than a blue bulb and looks eh. You can b, get new bulbs (or LEDs which seems to be the better choice). IF you really just want to change the backlight on teh speedo and tach and such, unfortunately you have to sand down the green film thats behind the face plate on the cluster. You can't really remove it without popping the needles so that causes problems and makes it a PITA. You really need 3 people to do this (or a decent weight source to lay on the face overlay), slide a piece of sand paper (rough side up) under the face overlay, have the 3rd person press down on the face overlay where you want the sandpaper to make the most contact (aka on the numbers, lines, etc that show up green...take it easy on the redline film...that may be important) and kinda do a 2 man sawing motion with the sandpaper on both sides of the face overlay. doesnt take much to sand away the green film, so once thats all done you can either replace the bulbs with something a different color or get some LED's in the color of your choice (easier to do actually). IF you want to skip the sanding, theres a post somewhere on nasioc or scoobymods on which LED colors mix with the green to shine through the best (red was pretty bad, but blue shined through the best IIRC). Do it up and let us know how you fare out, I think changing the colors in the HVAC controls is much easier to do, there should be instructions on the thread of how to do it. I'll post up the link when I get it if someone doesnt find it first!

[Wiscon_Mark]

I realized that besides my guage faces, there aren't all that many lights in my car, so i think I'll just go with reverse glow guages and see what I can do about LEDs behind all the other stuff. It might look nice, who knows? :wink:

[Pwise2326]

IF you don't mind spending the cash and want something unique to around here ...well definatly Wiscon, try to get your hands on a JDM RS-B, or RX gauge cluster, the back lighting is different and your speedo will read in kmph which would be kinda neat. It should hook right up with little modification, just make sure you find one from a 94-98 Liberty or Legacy depending where it's sourced from.

[Wiscon_Mark]

considering I have a dollar bill in my wallet and about 1.50 in change in my pocket right now.....well...there are more important things, like gas
My birthday is coming up though...hopefully i'll get presents in cash :twisted:

[Pwise2326]

yeah usually when one turns 16 you stop asking for GI Joes and Legos and ask for sweet cards with either cash, check, or credit information concealed within. Christmas cash funded almost 50% of my suspension!

[slip]

IF you really just want to change the backlight on teh speedo and tach and such, unfortunately you have to sand down the green film thats behind the face plate on the cluster. You can't really remove it without popping the needles so that causes problems and makes it a PITA. You really need 3 people to do this...

It's a lot easier than that. On the back of the gauge housing there are a bunch of silver screws (5 on the speedo and three each on the tach, temp, and fuel gauges). Once you pull those off the guages can be removed individually, making it a much easier and a less time consuming task to sand down that nasty green stuff without having to worry about the needles. Having the gauges out also allows for other mods. There are several little "walls" that stick up next to the bulbs that restrict light, if removed the bulbs are able to spread light through-out the entire housing. I removed those "walls" and also lined the inside of the housing with reflective tape (metal tape) so as to use as much light as possible. I didn't want my gauges to be lit from the front but only from the back so I removed that clear plastic piece that lays on top of the housing (that refracts light to the gauges faces) and the end result was pretty cool. Brighter-than-fatory back lighting (i chose red like the newer Subarus) and an even distribution of light for each gauge. Not bad for less than $15 and a couple hours of work, plus it was a one-man job. 8)

[Wiscon_Mark]

The Reflective Tape was in back, just reflecting, so how did you change the color? Did you apply a red film underneath the guages or something?

[slip]

here's what I did start to finish

-removed the housing
-removed each of the gauges
-sanded off that green film on the back of the gauges
-removed the small "walls" by the bulbs for even light distribution
-lined the remaining inside walls with reflective tape
-put in some red bulbs
note: the bulbs were more pink than red when lit so I took a red sharpie and went over the numbers/notches on the back-side of the gauges so they would glow a deep red like the newer Subaru cars
-removed light-bending plastic piece on top of the housing
-sat back and enjoyed the results (important step)

[Wiscon_Mark]

Okay, great! I will do this! Can you show us some pictures, and where can I get these bulbs?

[slip]

I got mine at Advance Auto parts but I know you can buy them other places, even Wal-Mart has them

[Wiscon_Mark]

okay, I tried taking my dash apart to get the cluster out and it won't come out...the wiring is stuck in the back, and there's not enough room to reach back and disconnect the harnesses! What do I do?

[slip]

Hmm. I could get my hand back there but just barely. Try using a flat head screw driver to pop the clips free. On mine there were three big plugs on the back of the cluster (one on the driver's side and two on the passenger) and two small plugs, one on each side.

[Wiscon_Mark]

okay, I removed that plastic piece that reflects the light onto the front of the guage faces, but now my needles are hard to see....what should I do?