Anubis

love the choice of colors..

shimz350z

very well done indeed. Great Job!

SEzzz

mpowers

iTrader: (7)

thumbs up!

Acree

iTrader: (29)

old_s13 - that looks awesome man. absolutely gorgeous.

since i dont have nightshots yet, i figured i could atleast give a
brief run down of the process.
first: one thing i wanted to make sure and do is chose LEDs that
were as red as possible. that means chosing the farthest
wavelength away from orange as possible. i believe the LEDs i
got were around 640. pretty much as red as you can get. i think
you can go 660, but not with surface mount LEDs. anyways, here
is a link to the surface mount LEDs that i used. they are a direct
replacement to the LEDs that nissan used. another thing, when
doing the ac controls, some of the LEDs on that board are right
angle surface mount. there are 3 optical rings that are illuminated
with 12 right angle SMD (surface mount diode or led), these rings

light up the dials. here is a link to the right angle. i ordered 50 of the
first kind of LEDs, and 25 of the right angle leds. total came to
right at 50 bucks with shipping. here are the right angle SMDs.


second: the soldering.
before starting, make sure that you have all of these, because i
used them atleast once during the project. aside from your
normal selection of tools that you will use for taking apart the
vehicle, you need a 15W(or something very low like 20, you dont
want to damage any of the circuit boards) soldering iron,
desoldering braid, tweezers, and solder that is somewhere
around 60/40. any thicker than that, and it will be difficult to use.

something very important that you must pay attention to is the
polarity of the LEDs. although the LEDs that are in the car and
the LEDs that i linked to look identiical, the polarity marking is
reversed. if you look closely at one of the LEDs, you will see a
chip taken off of one corner. like this:

on the main gauge cluster, the current flow is conviently marked.
unfortunately, no other boards in the car are. remember that in
the symbol for a diode, the current flows the direction of the
arrow, so the arrow is pointing at the negative side. in this
picture, the chip indicates the NEGATIVE terminal of the LED. i
cant remember if this is call the anode or cathode, i don't
remember which is neg or pos. but on the LEDs that i linked to,
the chip on corner indicates the POSITVE terminal of the LED. this
is vital b/c LEDs only work with one direction of current flow,
because they are diodes.

after you get setup with the iron warmed up, ciruit board infront
of you, mountain dew sitting to your side, and hours of free time,
it's time to desolder the LEDs. i started with the door switches.
the driver side has 3 LEDs on the board. i desoldered one,
soldered on the new one and took it back outside to check it. (be
prepared to run out to the car to test stuff about 40+ times in all).
after i got those 3 LEDs finished i put it back together, checked to
see they all lit up, all the switches worked. then moved on to the
passenger side. i did the door switches, then the ac controls,
then the triple gauge pod, gauge pod, then finished up with the
stereo.
when you are actually ready to desolder, get the braid and lay it
over one terminal of the led. press the solder iron to it until you
see the solder melt and soak into the braid. remember to always
do BOTH terminals of each LED. u may still have some resistance,
but take a pair of needle nose and pull off the old LED. now,
when soldering, i found it helpful sometimes to put the iron to the
bare metal terminal on the board, and melt a tiny amount of
solder on it. just enough to make a small bubble. after that, take
the LED in the tweezers and hold it in place on the board where
it is supposed to be, paying attention to the current flow and LED
polarity. hold the LED down, and hold the iron to the terminal on
the board. melt the solder while gently pushing down on the LED.
when the solder melts, the LED should go down into place. take
the iron off and hold the LED in place. in a second or so, the
solder will harden, and then you can finish off the other side with
solder. do this to each LED.

i really cant think of anything else, so if yall have more questions,
feel free to ask.

GQ 350z

iTrader: (13)

I agree on time consuming..this is not for the faint of heart.

His descripition is very good.

LaidbackRacr

iTrader: (4)

Alright I guess I will be the first to ask, would you be interested in perhaps doing these for someone (me me!) and if so how much would you charge taking into account we would just ship our clusters to you and timeframe involved.

Thanks

Chris

(I know its a long shot, but I had to ask)

Wicked_Limitz

iTrader: (2)

hey i emailed them about G35 guages and they said if i can get about 50 heads to buy them, they'll make them.

t32gzz

iTrader: (1)

Andrew, I may get you to help me do some LED work in my car. It looks like you have become the master at this. I must say that I am very impressed and looking forward to seeing this stuff in person.

Acree

iTrader: (29)

@Laidback - i'm sorry to say man, but i think i'm going to have to pass on doing something like that, especially long distance. there's all sorts of thing that would go wrong. i would also charge upwards of around 600 bucks for me to convert someone else's interior lighting. aside from the shipping of radio, cluster, triple pod, switches, ac controls etc, this is a project that you really need the vehicle itself present. aside from all that, there's always the possibility of me messing something up and then being liable for it. i mean, overall the project went without any real snags but i came very close. if i do mess up say the cluster or something, i do not have the funds to replace something like that for an individual. i am only a kid in highschool, not a company. so with the potential of liabilty, complexity, and time consumed with this project, i don't think i will be able to offer my services to anyone that is not local. even then, if i do for some here in the dfw area, they will need to be without the car for 2-3 days. this is a very involved and intense conversion. it's now friday and i'm still tired from the project. it physically exhausts you. but if you have the skills, i encourage you to try it out yourself. that's one of the benefits of owning your own car, you can do stuff to it.

tim - thanks man. that means alot coming from someone with as awesome of a car as you have. i remember when i came out to the frisco meet in my truck and you being cool enough to humor a lil annoying 17 year old kid. i'd be more than happy to do some work for you. when do u get ur car back?


one more thing to just anyone with the stock stereo, at night, when you dim or brighten the interior lights, does the stereo dim and brighten accordingly? i might of just never noticed it before, but last night, i dimmed the cluster and the stereo but stayed bright red. anyone mind checking it out on your own car? thanks.

jcr847

iTrader: (1)

the stock stereo does not dim with the lights

Santacruzslick

iTrader: (12)

How involved was the stereo? I replaced mine so I wouldn't have to do that. What was the most involved/time counsuming part(not counting the stereo) and how long did that part take you?

Also, what was the final cost of everything you needed to purchase?

And, last question...where in the hell did you learn how to do this and where did you get the ***** to try this with no instruction? LOL

Acree

iTrader: (29)

thanks jrc. GOOD to know!

santa - stereo actually was the least difficult except for the door switches. most time comsuming was easily the gauge cluster. the part where you get done, then have to put the needles back on is a pain in the @ss. especially when 3 of the LEDs go out b/c u didnt put enough solder on, then have to open it back up, solder more on, then re-redo the needle.s

if you already have all the tools, the LEDs were about 50 bucks. if you dont have the solder, braid, or iron, that would run you about 20 bucks at radio shack.

i didnt really ever "learn" how to do stuff with LEDs. more like taught myself and just talked with people who've already messed with LED's before. accordfreak, the g35 with the blue interior answered many questions for me, as well as Ares. as for the no instruction, there's really no way to make a set of instructions for a mod like this. it's more of a do as you go kind of thing. there were plenty of things that came up that i didnt expect like some of the LED mounting points on the board had 4 LEDs. i had to figure those out as i go. a voltmeter was a pretty useful tool also. more than anything, you need patience. and a LOT of caffine.

ZISBAK

WOW!!! I must say that is an awesome job!!
Is it possible to change all the led in Blue?

Santacruzslick

iTrader: (12)

Maybe I'll try this out this summer. That way I don't have to worry about school and all that crap. I'll start with the door switches first and see if I think I'll be able to do it. I've done some soldering before so I think I'll be able to do this. Someone needs to put together a kit that we can all buy that includes everything you need. That would make it soo much easier.

Acree

iTrader: (29)

it is possible to change to blue, and actually that was my original plan. the problem is that as of right now, there is no one who makes gauge faces that are clear or blue tinted. blue LEDs + our stock gauges = really really ugly torquiose color.

DIGItonium

iTrader: (1)

OMG you beat me to the LED interior lighting. I have the perfect soldering tool too! I use it at my workplace, and it's made for soldering small surface mount components.

I can do the mods, but I'm very weary about the needle. Did you have to remember the position of the needle prior to putting it back? To me, it doesn't look necessary as long as the needle lands on the stopper when off. How did you remove it without ruining the shaft and assembly?

I'm going to get custom blackout gauge faces and change the LEDs as well. I just wondered what kind of LEDs were used before taking the thing apart.

Acree

iTrader: (29)

as far as remembering needle position, i took a pick of the temp, oil psi, and voltage needles and just put thoughs back where they were. mph needle, just go off the digital till u get it right. for the tach, set the shift light to 2000 and do it till u get it right. fill up ur tank with gas to do the gas needle. that's about it. i got the needles off with the tool that came with my gauges. they popped right off. i didnt have to cut the housing. and as far as the LEDs that you need, look in the first post. there are links to both kinds of LEDs.

TX-Ruben

iTrader: (1)

Very cool.

Do detailed instructions come with that nrauto white gauge kit?

BigMoeTaki42

Holy hell man, I'm definitely jealous at your skill/cojones to pull off a DIY mod like that!