Early car with LED dash lights

trailpimp33 · 02-12-2009, 02:11 PM

I am almost done with my 83' interior and thought that I would post up these pics. I replaced my guages with some 924 ones I had, then got rid of those dome lenses and replaced them with flat ones, finally I pulled all the guage lights (except the battery one of course) and replaced the bulbs with white leds. They look almost more blue than white compared with the old bulbs, but the clarity is great and it has less power draw. What do you think?

krystar · 02-12-2009, 02:20 PM

looks nice.

would be hotter if it was see thru backlit LED's hehe but that'd be like 100x the work

mattdavis11 · 02-12-2009, 03:14 PM

I wonder how it'd look with the kick ass yellow? That appears to be a lighting improvement.

trailpimp33 · 02-12-2009, 03:38 PM

Looks good with the yellow too, I'm just not a fan of the yellow. These pics are not nearly showing how much better they are than the stock lighting.

krystar · 02-12-2009, 05:07 PM

best color is RED

phil823 · 02-12-2009, 07:28 PM

i pm'ed you id like more pictures please this sounds cool

Griffinroydonal · Griffinroydonal's Garage

I just installed LED's in the dash of my 928 I am restoring. I changed the lower, large bulbs to blue and installed a 9'' strip on blue LED's behind the lower light deflector at the bottom of the panel.
The blue looks great, Does not shine in your eyes and the numbers and other lights remain white. I will post pictures when I can as this was very easy and I only had to drill one pin sized hole in the bottom left of the panel to run a lead.
I am waiting on the chrome face to arrive.

phoenix_iii · 02-13-2009, 04:29 AM

From the pictures it looks like spot lighting, with significant dark spots ?

Is that how it looks in 'real life', or what's up with the pictures?

Also, LEDs do not work with the dimmer, correct? Basically 'on or off'? Thinking of doing something similar, but would use more lights to get even diffusion.

924RACR · 02-13-2009, 04:59 AM

Nice job!

I have the same setup in my 931 (same dash) except I haven't done the combo gauge yet.

The LED's do work with the dimmer. Don't go as dim as the stock lights, but don't need 'em that dim, and they are much brighter when I need it!

trailpimp33 · 02-13-2009, 09:29 AM

They dont look as spotty live, the camera plays some tricks since it is a cheap point n' shot that has to expose without a flash. The early gauges are not front lit the same as the later ones either. They have ports on the back of the gauge that bulb fit into then the light illuminates the edge and is reflected back via a ring that holds the lens down. Essentially it is a back light/front-side lit system. It sounds weird but is effective, not quite as much as the modern back lit systems found in almost every car, but works 100x better than it did with the stock bulbs.

ernie9944 · ernie9944's Garage

Trialpimp33 could you let me know were you got those flat lens and the led lights I want those badly man thanks in advance .*******

p-talk · p-talk's Garage

Looks great! I wonder how it'd look with white gauge faces?

pdx944 · 02-22-2009, 08:09 PM

Can you post up a parts list with links? I dont know what sockets or how many bulbs to get.

trailpimp33 · 02-23-2009, 10:20 AM

I got the LEDs from www.superbrightleds.com . The bulbs are #74 bulbs, of which you will need 4 for the speedo and tach (unless you are using the taped off port in which case you will need 5), then 4 more for the center console (1 for the oil pressure, 1 for the clock, 1 for the climate control, and 1 for the ash tray light). Then you will need at least 2 of the B8 socket lights (1 for the water temp, 1 for the fuel guage) or you can order more of the B8 sockets to do the idiot lights, bright indicator, and turn signal.