Since I don't have enough time to do everything at once, you guys will get this in pieces. The writeup has already taken longer than the actual process, In my estimate. Here goes:
What you will need:
- Phillips Head Screwdriver
Standard Screwdriver
Small Phillips Head
Colored Sharpie / Colored Paint of your choice / Bulb Condoms of your choice
(if replacing bulbs) 4 bulb #194s
Sandpaper / Dremel Kit (recommended)
Note: This will not require you to remove your needles.
Step 1 (Removing the guage cluster)
Unscrew the following screws on the guage bezel:
Now you will need to remove the wiring harnesses from the Cruise/defrost/foglight buttons
Press the tab on the wiring harnesses to pop it free:
Now you need to take out the screws holding the guage pod in the dash
(the two screws on the top, the photo only shows one as the clip for the second screw is missing and it can't be used)
(identical on the left side)
Now tip the guage cluster forward so you can get at the 3 big harnesses on it.
Pull the clips up with a screwdriver and push the harness back and it'll pop out.
now that you can pull the cluster out farther, you can get at the remaining two small harnesses and pop them out of the back. Now you can remove the cluster.
Note for automatic tranny drivers (poor souls ) : you may have another wiring harness on the back for the indicators, I'm not sure.
You want to move the steering wheel all the way down, and pull the guage cluster out the right side, with it fairly upright. It's a bit of a squeeze, but you can pull it off. Just be careful, because if you crank on it, you'll rip your dash material:
:? :?
Now, we get to the real work...
Step 2:
Undo the braces that hold the top of the guage cluster together (screw at the bottom of the 2 metal pieces)
Then take the back part of the cluster off so it looks like this:
Here is the back of the cluster:
You want to remove all the brown bulb holders (6 of them, 4 big, and 2 small [ones in the center])and replace the bulbs with the color of your choice and/or color them with a sharpie/paint. If you're not replacing the bulbs, you need to take the condoms off of them and then color them. Replace all the bulbs.
Note: you can't really see that the two small bulbs in the center are brown in the picture, but those are the ones you want to replace/color. edit: They are #74s. I do know that they ARE NOT #37s.
Now, remove all the silver screws in the back of the cluster. They are what is holding the clusters in place. DO NOT REMOVE THE NEEDLES OR THE BLACK SCREWS ON THE FRONT! It isn't necessary and removing needles is bad.
Take the guage out, and sand off the back two layers on the guages. There should be a silvery layer, followed by the green junk that colors your guages. Dust the junk off after sanding it all down, and then color the back with the color of your choice (in this case, red).
Photo of the guages lit by natural white light:
You can see that the bulbs aren't even the real factor in lighting, but every advantage counts.
Before you reinstall the guages:
There are walls that restrict the light to certain areas, and you may break them down. You can do so by hand fairly easily, and some might require a little work from the dremel tool, but try to get rid of some of them for more even, brighter lighting. I also used metallic tape to reflect the light towards the guages
Repeat the sanding process with all of the guages. To test the guages, plug just the necessary part back into the car, and see that everything works.
Now reinstall everything in reverse order, and enjoy!
Notes:
The parking light switch tends to be triggered, so you have to remember to shut it off when you have everything reinstalled.
Also, your trip odometer will probably be incidentally reset when you remove the guages.
Good Luck!
Here is a link to another writeup that uses a different take on the lighting that will help with unevenness: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=22903