Black light Opera lighting on Gauge cluster?....

[LunchBox04V]

I just had a thought while I was sitting here in pergatory (Romulus Michigan, DTW airport).

First, are there black lights that will fit the bulb sockets for the opera lighting on a BD, BG, and BK guage cluster?

Second, do you guys think that if the guage needles were painted matt-white, that this would be a a viable option for something different as far as guage lighting?

I know that it is a little different, I was just wondering what you gents thought.

Thanks

[MoclovFlop]

I had a long drawn out answer for you explaining what you can probably do, but then i came to a conclusion.

You don't want to stare at UV lights when driving at night. Don't do it.

Now I will say there are ways to change you lighting using filter gels (like what's used on stage lighting) and painting your needles a reflective color will work. VW Carbio's had that type of thing stock, a "blacklight" type filter and florescent paint on the needles for the effect you would want.

shown here:
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2008/01/DSC01119-2.jpg

But like I said, the lighting in our cars is meant to reduce eye fatigue. Think about how hard it is to be in a room with nothing but black light for more than a few minutes... it's no fun. So a black light for instrument lighting wouldn't be fun. If anything, go with red (even easier on the eyes than green)

[LunchBox04V]

Ok right on there! Good point. It was just a thought that I had...... The human eye can see the most shades of green, which happens to be the color that the factory lighting! I was just pondering ways of modifing the original stuff. I would really like to switch to a blue light, kinda like what you pictured above. I just wanted to get a nice blue color. I know, I should get in on the group buy and just get some reverse-glow, or EL-glow!

[LunchBox04V]

Sorry, random thoughts pop into my head...... I know that changing the bulbs in the back of the guage cluster wont do the full job. You have to also sand away the green paint back there.

Thought is........ what about disabling the lights behind the guage cluster(removing the bulbs), removing the green back lighting, and placing blue lights in the opera bulb positions. What do you think...... would it be too dark???

Maybe this calls for an experiment.......

[Huffer]

You mean replace the green with white light and replace the opera lighting with blue?

[Reason]

My friend took out all his bulbs and solder blue LED's all in the cluster. It took him sometime, and he said he would never want to do it again but it came out great.

[02legacygt]

check out the thread right below this one https://sl-i.net/FORUM/viewtopic.php?t=8125

to check out what im doing! https://sl-i.net/FORUM/

with Reasons permission, and i still need to talk to him i will have them for sale if he lets me to anyone who wants them in any color... alot easier and way cheaper than you doing it!!!

[LunchBox04V]

Wow! Those guages look really good!

What I was thinking for mine was having no rear lighting (behind the guages), and putting blue lights in the opera lights. I think that it would look like the picture in the second post on this page. I think that it would be a look cool. Just a thought, trying to do something that looks good, and is short of a lot of work and rewiring.......

[Wiscon_Mark]

There are no special lights for the opera lighting - just some plastic pieces that move light from the rear of the guages to the front - like those cheap plastic fiber optic knockoffs. You know what I'm talking about?

You'd have to change all of the cluster lighting to that to make it look consistent.

It's a 194 bulb type if you're that curious though...

[undasighted]

5-way blue LED 194s came out great on the celica. they cover a lot of space and with 3 of them being used in there if you could have looked in behind the gauges it would have been fully iluminated. I'll have to try to find some night pictures of how it turned out. You can get 194s on ebay for dirt cheap. Make sure to get double the max amount of bulbs that are needed back there. LEDs seem to burn out (or whatever it is LEDs do) more often due to some sort of excessive power draw. Then again, I'm no electrical expert. Just remember reading about a bunch of guys on 6gc burning theirs out. Mine have been in for a year and I have one that comes and goes, but the bulb is still fine.

[Reason]

LED's draw less power and last 100,000 candle hours. I'm sure some "burn out" before hand but not enough to be weary of buying them. I had one unhappy buy with LED's so far. My eBay LEDs lasted the longest. I have a set of LED bulbs I had for almost 4 years now.

[undasighted]

part of the reason I bought so many was because so many bulbs in the car were 194s, and I wanted to be able to switch out anything I found that used them.

[Wiscon_Mark]

Good LEDs use very little power, and last forever. I'm sure it was a case of a bad batch, or defective product that caused them to burn out quickly.